As a part of St George Illawarra's unceremonious straight-sets finals exit in 2009, now-Bulldogs fullback Brett Morris is hoping to inflict an identical pain on 2015 minor premiers the Roosters.
In his first year in blue and white, one-time Dragons favourite son Morris had no mixed feelings about dumping his former mates out of the 2015 finals race on Saturday night at ANZ Stadium with a heart-stopping golden point victory.
"It was tough [in 2009], we got bounced out in straight sets. Hopefully that's the plan this year!" Morris said.
"When you finish on top you think it's just going to happen for you but finals footy is a different beast. You've got to be ready to go.
"I know what it's like to finish minor premiers and lose first week of the finals. It's never a good thing. "
Having broken the hearts of Red V fans everywhere with a powerful performance including an outstanding try, Morris was "just glad it wasn't us" going out in the first week of the finals.
"My arms went up in the air – I was very happy with the win. Obviously someone had to lose, I'm just glad it wasn't us. I've got a lot of close mates there and they would be pretty devastated with the loss," he said, adding he did have some sympathy for how they would be feeling.
"They had a great year. A lot of people were tipping them to get the spoon at the start of the year. For them to make the finals under 'Mary' [Paul McGregor] they've done a great job and they pushed us all the way to the end [on Saturday]. They should be proud of themselves."
Morris was just relieved to have won a finals game for the first time since winning the 2010 premiership with the Dragons.
"It's nice to win a finals game. It's been a while since I've played finals footy and coming against the old side it was a sweet victory," he said.
But with the minor premiers waiting next Friday, Morris knows the blue and whites will have to lift their game if they are to progress past the second week after a scrappy 11-10 win over the Dragons.
"We struggled a bit when we had the ball. I thought our defence was outstanding, that's what probably won us the game. There are areas of our game where we need to improve, that's what we certainly have to look at moving to next week," Morris said.
"It's a bit of a concern [the lack of execution] but in saying that we are still winning games of footy. While we're not doing it pretty and probably the way we should, we are winning off the back of our defence and grinding sides out of it and staying in the game.
"There are certain aspects of our game that we do need to improve. But if you're looking at it we have a string of wins behind our back. Some against quality oppositions, some where we didn't play too good. Every week is different and you take your wins when you can."
This article first appeared on NRL.com
