Queanbeyan Blues coach Simon Woolford has called on the Canberra Raiders Cup to overhaul its finals format, but said his team's stuttered approach to Sunday's grand final would not be an excuse.
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The decider against the Goulburn Bulldogs will be Queanbeyan's second game in a month because the four-team finals system is spread over four weeks.
The Blues easily won the minor premiership last year and were first into the grand final, but faltered in the decider to lose the title to the Queanbeyan Kangaroos.
The Blues face the same test this year and have adjusted their preparation, but Woolford said it was time to condense the finals to three weeks. As it stands, the top two teams get the first week of the finals off, then play for a grand-final spot in the second week.
"I know there are reasons why they have to stretch it out, but I've spoken to the league about it and I think that first weekend needs to be one versus two and three versus four, and then we go from there," Woolford said.
"It's not ideal ... we had a week off and played then had another weekend off going into a grand final. That's why our preparation is vital and the way we do things on our weeks off.
"I think the time has come where they need to restructure it and get rid of that extra week in the semi-final period."
Woolford said the Blues would be better prepared for this year's grand final, given that it was much tougher for them to win the minor premiership this season. The former Canberra Raiders skipper has also scheduled extra sessions on bye weekends in the finals to keep his team ticking.
"We throw a bit more physical components into our sessions," Woolford said. "We trained last weekend during the day [to simulate the 3pm grand-final kick-off] ... You can only do so much; you're never going to substitute an 80-minute game. Hopefully the weeks off won't be a factor.
"I think last year we won quite a lot of games easily by big scores, so this year we've had to work a lot harder. We haven't had so many blowouts ... across the board it's a lot tighter group and I think we're a lot better prepared for the grand final."
Goulburn is contesting its first grand final since 2009. The team's captain-coach Mick Picker agreed that the finals format was not ideal for the first team through to the grand final, but the Blues have won both matches between the teams this year and Picker expected them to be ready.
"They did it last year so they'll know how to handle it a lot better too," Picker said. "I think the structure is a bit hard for that team that finished in the top two and got a win [into the grand final]; there's not much footy there for them in the last month … but they'll be switched on."
