Dale Finucane has embraced his new role as Melbourne Storm co-vice captain alongside Jesse Bromwich and is eager to lead on the field in his first 2019 trial game this Saturday night.
He fronted the media yesterday ahead of the match against the Cowboys which will feature two near full-strength squads at Mackay’s BB Print Stadium.
“I’m really excited to start playing – in Geelong last week I was getting itchy feet sitting on the sideline,” he said.
“I’m keen to jump into it.
“Our handling errors (against the Warriors) were quite poor, that’s something the coaching staff addressed this morning.
“The pleasing sign was that our defence was good for us – but we can’t win games with poor attack.”
Finucane said he believed the format of the trial game had contributed to Storm’s poor completion rate on Friday night.
“A lot of our errors were in contact but you’re probably going to get that through the trial games because you can’t emulate a full contact game at training,” he said.
“It was a mix of youth and experience on Friday night and it was almost a new team on the field every quarter which makes it harder to develop those combinations.
“It’s really about grinding (the handling errors) out before the season starts.
“(Last season) we stayed in games with grit but if we improve our completion rate we will be a much better side.”
He said depth in the squad was creating stronger competition for the top grade side.
“That competition will only make individuals better, which is ultimately making our team better,” he said.
“We had a few senior guys move on – quite a chunk of our leadership group – so I am embracing the (co-vice captain) role and taking on a little bit more responsibility both on and off the field.
“The biggest thing for us this year will be helping Smithy out a lot.
“That’s something Jesse and I will pick up the reigns with in preparation for the transition when Cam moves on eventually.”
