Weekend Sport Preview | September 6, 2024 | Illawarra Mercury
WATCH: Illawarra Mercury sports reporters Jordan Warren and Agron Latifi go through this weekend's Illawarra Rugby and Illawarra Rugby League grand finals, as well as the local football finals series.
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00:00Hello everyone out there supporting Illawarra sport. It's a massive weekend
00:03of grand final action. Yes we're finally here. Semifinals and grand finals are in full swing.
00:08We've got the Illawarra Rugby Union grand final and the Illawarra Rugby League grand final
00:12happening this weekend. I'm Jordan Warren from the Illawarra Mercury Sport Team with my colleague
00:16Agron Latifi. Now Agron let's start with the grand finals mate. Illawarra Rugby to start with.
00:20Yeah big game on Saturday. Shelhaven's going for three in a row. They're all-mighty Shelhaven.
00:24They won 39 on a trot but they're up against the Kiama team who are desperate to break a 21 year
00:30drought. I spoke to James Asquith from Kiama. Him and his brother Mark are playing and the other
00:36brother Paul's on the sidelines as an assistant coach. So you know Asquith's desperate to break
00:41that 21 year hootie but it's going to be a tough game. It's going to be a great game. Kiama's
00:45probably the best placed team to beat Shelhaven but yeah Shelhaven are just breaking records
00:49galore so they'll definitely be favourites in this one but we'll move on to the Illawarra
00:52Rugby League grand final on Sunday at Wynn Stadium. Plenty of storylines in that one Gronning.
00:56West against Thiril. Who's your pick? Tough question. It's a very tough question. They've
01:01both got reasons for wanting to win it. Thiril, as you've written numerous times as I have as well,
01:08they're chasing their first team in the club history to win back-to-back titles.
01:13Jarrod Ball's going to retire at the end of the year so they want to send him out as a winner
01:19but West don't want to send him out. Obviously West want to you know he's
01:22pulled their party many times as you've mentioned so it's going to be a tough one.
01:26Look it's a flick of the coin. I'm not going to pick a team but I'll go West. I think West
01:33might win it. There you go. There's the big call. I'll go Thiril. Make it one all. I reckon Thiril
01:36are going to go back-to-back this year. Obviously the Illawarra Premier League and the District
01:41League final series start this weekend in the Prem. An elimination final on Saturday. A massive
01:45game between Wollongong United and Cringilla and then on the Sunday we've got Coniston against
01:49Abbeyham Park. The winner of that will face my league champions Wollongong Olympic the following
01:55week. So a couple of massive games there. Gronny, we've got to mention the Dragons as well. Obviously
01:58last week was very disappointing against Parramatta but they are still a mathematical chance
02:02on Saturday against the Raiders to make in the eight. They are. They need a Hail Mary and I just
02:06spoke to Shane Flanagan now and he says he doesn't believe in miracles in football. He just wants his
02:11team to win. He said it's been a frustrating season but an improved season for the Dragons.
02:17Look, anything can happen, you know, but they need a lot to go their way. I think they just
02:23want to win and just hope for a draw only. I think there's only been 18, 160-odd games
02:29that have finished a draw after extra point, you know, after extra time. So
02:33it's going to be tough for the Dragons. Very tough but for all the stories across the weekend,
02:37head to the Illawarra Mercury website. Across the socials as well, we'll be putting our stories on
02:42there and also the app as well. You can download the app for all the latest updates but we'll be
02:45across everything over the weekend.