Henjak shifts pressure onto Dragons

Brisbane coach Ivan Henjak moved to shift the heat onto St George by reminding his
semi-final rivals they could become the first minor premiers to bow out of the
finals without a win since the McIntyre system was introduced a decade ago.
Saturday night's loser can kiss the season goodbye.
Henjak showed he could play the finals game on Tuesday, suggesting there was no
pressure on his players because six weeks ago they'd been widely written off as
grand final winners.
"Everything for us is a bonus at the moment," said Henjak, who's faced with his own
hurdle of turning around Brisbane's 0-6 home finals record since 1995.
"There is a lot of expectation on them because they've been waiting such a long time.
"They're the minor premiers and premiership favourites from what they've done during
the year.
"I think they're the ones with the most pressure on them.
"They're minor premiers. I don't think there's been a minor premier who has gone out
the back door (two successive losses) under this system, so there's a little bit of
pressure involved."
The Dragons have lost four of their last five games but Henjak and his players know
first hand how teams can come back quickly.
"We certainly can't approach it like they're done on confidence and that they're not
going to be at their best," he said.
"We've got no right to take anyone lightly, especially in a semi-final."
Henjak, who has the experience of being part of the club's coaching staff for
Brisbane's last three premierships, admitted to feelings of deja vu about 2006 when
the Broncos upset Melbourne in the grand final.
"There's certainly similarities," he said.
"We won 14 games in the competition rounds as we did in 2006; we had a bad run as we
did in 2006; we're injury free nearly as we were in 2006, so there are similarities.
"We probably haven't got the experience in certain positions in the forwards (Shane
Webcke and Brad Thorn) as we had in 2006 which is a little different and we've
probably got a tougher run than 2006 to get there."
If Brisbane win this weekend they have to play Melbourne in Melbourne to make it
through to the grand final in Sydney on October 4.
"If we get there, we'll know we deserve to be there," said Henjak.