Vodafone Warriors centre-turner second rower Euan Aitken has a minimum goal for 2022 – playing finals football again.
Like the Vodafone Warriors in recent years, post-season competition is an experience he’s had little of throughout his NRL career.
In fact, the 26-year-old has just one finals match to his credit in his seven first-grade campaigns so far. That came in the rookie year of his 121-game stint with the Dragons when they lost 10-11 to Canterbury Bankstown in week one of the play-offs.
And it’s a similar story for the Vodafone Warriors with only one finals appearance (in 2018) since the 2011 grand final.
“Preseason has been good. We've had a lot of people improve on their game and hopefully that shows in round one,” said Aitken.
“I want to play finals - that's my main goal. I want this team to play finals. I think we deserve it.
“Coming off last year we had a couple of unlucky games so I think it's really achievable. Anything less will be a disappointment.”
As he did in his last six outings in 2021, Aitken was in the second row for the Vodafone Warriors’ 30-18 trial win over Melbourne on February 19.
The same assignment was in store for tonight’s rescheduled hit-out against Gold Coast only for South-East Queensland’s flooding emergency to force its total cancellation early this afternoon.
It means next up for Aitken will be a date with his old St George Illawarra side in the first round of the season proper at Sunshine Coast Stadium on Saturday, March 12 (4.30pm kick-off local time; 7.30pm NZT).
He's buoyed by a second preseason with the Vodafone Warriors which has been far more rewarding than the first.
“It has been crazy. We've moved around a lot in the last year or so but we're here now hoping Redcliffe's going to be good to us,” he said.
“There are some great people in the community and we've got some great facilities here so we've got all we need to be successful and hopefully we can get back to Auckland later in the year.
“It's the best thing for our families to have a bit of stability. Last year we didn't know what we were doing or only a couple of months in advance. Although we wanted to be Auckland, having a base here in Redcliffe is the best thing we can do in the meantime.”
Aitken starts the season needing 15 appearances to achieve the 150-game career milestone and four tries to reach the 50-try mark.
