Hornby to ruin Lockyer's night
15/9/2011 10:22 PM
Liam Daly
Sportal
St George Illawarra skipper Ben Hornby says his side will have no problem playing the bad guys by ending Darren Lockyer's NRL career in front of 50,000 at Suncorp Stadium.
The Saturday night blockbuster puts Wayne Bennett and the Dragons in a sudden death playoff against retiring Kangaroos, Maroons and Broncos captain Lockyer.
With a place in a major semi-final up for grabs, Hornby promised his men would have no reservations about ending the career of the NRL's most capped player and a Queensland icon.
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"We want to make it Locky's last game. We want to win the game so we're going out there with our own motivations as well and looking forward to it," he said.
"Darren's had a great career and we'd love it to finish now."
"We're just going to play our best footy and we believe that will win us games."
The Dragons' recent form hasn't looked good enough to trouble an on-song Brisbane side, who handed the Warriors a 30-point thumping last week, but Hornby said the do-or-die stakes had the defending premiers zeroed in on perfect execution.
Described by Broncos coach Anthony Griffin as the NRL's benchmark for the past three years, St George Illawarra have looked a shadow of their former self in the back end of 2011.
A second-half fade saw them lose by nine points to the Wests Tigers last weekend, but with the nucleus of their premiership-winning side intact and determined, Hornby says the Dragons could recapture their best form at any time.
"Individually, each of us has got to go out there and play our best game, and that's what's going to be required to win the game," he said.
"There's no reason why we can't do it. We've done it in the past and we've done it for periods in the past, so it's about going out there on Saturday night and putting it on the field."
"We're not really worried about (momentum) too much. You'd like to be coming off wins, but at the end of the day, we're in the same position. Both teams have to win, so it's more about how you perform on the night."
"They're playing great footy. They're controlling the ball really well and holding field position on sides well, so we've got to do our best to get the ball up their end and put them under some pressure."
