RUGBY LEAGUE
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SCOTT Sattler is a man who holds a place in NRL grand final folklore for his brilliant covering tackle in the 2003 decider, but this Saturday when he arrives at Carrington Park it is other players he hopes will step up in defence.
Sattler is now in his third year at the helm of the Northern Rivers Rugby League representative team and his outfit will be in Bathurst to compete in the second round of the 2015 Senior Country Championships.
Northern Rivers will take on Riverina before local hopes Western Division tackle the Northern Tigers later in the afternoon.
Sattler began his NRL career with the Gold Coast Seagulls in 1992 and went on to play for Easts, the Crushers, Panthers, Chargers and Wests Tigers.
The talented lock earned a State of Origin cap when part of the Maroons’ squad in 2003, but his tackle on Roosters winger Todd Byrne in that year’s grand final is no doubt what he is best remembered for. It helped Panthers to an 18-6 victory.
Since retiring at the end of the 2004 season with 203 NRL appearances to his credit, Sattler has continued his association with rugby league.
He spent time as the football manager for Gold Coast, but it was taking a coaching role with the Byron Bay Red Devils in 2012 that led him to the Northern Rivers representative role.
He took on the job with a plan to turn Northern Rivers into a force and he has certainly seen them develop.
Last year they fell agonisingly short of the Country Championships Tier 2 final, going down 38-36 to eventual winners the Southern Stars in golden point.
Just prior to full-time they had a conversion attempt strike the uprights and ricochet away, but with the pain of that defeat came some rewarding news for Sattler when six members of his squad earned NSW Country selection.
“I love coaching this rep side, it works in well with my very busy schedule. I really love working with a rep side as it is five or six weeks and you get together a really good core group of guys to work with,” he said.
“I really enjoy working with the guys who have been part of the representative program for a few years and are used to the representative system, but what I get even more excited about is working with the guys who have developed into representative players.
“I try to attack coaching with the same philosophies I had as a player.
“Last year to have six players chosen in the Country team was great. As a coach it is great to win, winning is everything, but it is great to players acknowledged for their efforts.”
Sattler’s squad has changed from last season with five new faces in his team and he is expecting Riverina to field a stronger line-up than the one his men beat 50-24 in the opening round of the 2014 competition.
While ex-St George Illawarra Dragon and now Temora player Michael Henderson has had to rule himself out of the Riverina side due to injury, they will have former NRL players David Milne and Arana Taumata in their line-up.
“We played Riverina in round one last year and had a pretty convincing victory over them, but they’ve had a pretty big turn over of players as well,” Sattler said. “I’d say it is going to be a cracker of a game.”
Sattler has previously played and trained at Carrington Park, having done so during his time as a Penrith Panther, and is looking forward to returning to Bathurst.
“I had six years at Panthers, so I spent a lot of time at Bathurst for training purposes and I think we played a trial game there in ’99,” he said.
“I have seen it [Carrington Park] on television and it’s changed a lot, it looks like a really good facility, and I am looking forward to getting up there and having a look.”
Northern Rivers will take on Riverina at 11am at Carrington Park with Western to face the Tigers from 2pm on Saturday.