'We're not taking the challenge lightly:' De La Salle ready to down Collegians

Collies coach Peter Hooper though is adamant the Dogs will have to better that performance to have any chance of downing competition leaders De La Salle at Collegians Sports complex on Saturday.

The Caringbah-based De La Salle have won four of the five games they've played to date and head into the Collegians clash on a high after downing Western Suburbs Devils 24-14 last week.

De La Salle coach Trent Anderson has been particularly impressed with his team's showing considering they have been playing away from home for about eight weeks.

"We just dropped the one game where we dropped our intensity and gave a few guys an opportunity to prove themselves that probably weren't up to it on the day," he said of his team's loss to Dapto.

"But we've learned from that. As they say you learn more from your losses than wins.

"it's been quite a good time for us and we've enjoyed a good run so far but we're not getting too carried away."

Anderson is expecting a tough contest against a Collegians side boasting "a very good forward pack".

"We'll go down tomorrow and get the job done but it's going to be tough," he said.

"They've got a good forward pack which includes the two Dowel brothers and [Blake] Phillips in the middle. They seem to punch up big minutes between the three of them.

"They're an experienced team who also have a very good halfback in Damon New, who I played at Thirlmere, so I know a bit about him.

"They are a good side and they had a good win last week against Thirroul, which I watched.

"We're definitely not taking the challenge lightly."

It's been a tough schedule for De La Salle whose home fixture last week was moved to Noel Mulligan Oval on the morning of their scheduled clash against Wests.

De La Salle will have to play away from home again this weekend and next before they finally return to play at Captain Cook Oval.

"I think it's going to end up being two months between home games," Anderson said.

"We don't play our next home game until next week against Thirroul, which makes it eight weeks between home games.

"It's been a big effort from our team to travel down an hour and a half every week to play footy and not get a home game.

"I'm pretty proud of the guy's attitude to keep doing that.

"And last week, finding out in the morning that instead of having a home game, we were going to have to go down to Kembla was another thing we had to overcome mentally, which we did. We pulled ourselves together and got the result.

"It was good.

"We've still got some unfinished business to take care of but I know our players are looking forward to playing in front of our fans.

"We have great support on the sidelines, similar to what you see at Thirroul. It will be great to get back home and play in front of our supporters."

Meantime, elsewhere on Saturday the Corrimal Cougars pl Western Suburbs Devils at Ziems Park and the Thirroul Butchers take on the Dapto Canaries at Thomas Gibson Park.