Latu was struggling with a knee injury before last week’s bye, but Black’s co-coach Nick Gleeson said the ACT representative was on track to make a return.

“He’s a quality player,” Gleeson said of Latu.

“We’d definitely be happy to have him back on the field. He makes a big difference.”

The Blacks haven’t won a match since the competition split four weeks ago and will start underdogs against title favourites the Steamers.

Griffith only lost by six points last time the teams met in round nine, and Gleeson is confident the Blacks will prove competitive in the return match.

“Albury in Albury is probably the hardest match you can do,” he said.

“But we want to test them like we did last time because we’re hoping to come up against them sometime in the finals.

“When we played them last time, we ran away in the first 20 minutes but then started to get a bit cute and do too much with the ball.

“We’d do a stupid pass or something and they’d capitalise. They’ve got some blokes who are lightning quick.

“We need to make sure we control the ball. If we do that, we give ourselves every chance.”

The Blacks are fourth on the ladder and are guaranteed a spot in the finals even if they lose their last two matches against Albury and Ag College.

But Gleeson said Griffith still had serious designs on winning back-to-back premierships and didn’t want to limp into the play-offs.

“We want to go into the finals with our tails up,” he said.

“Up until now, it’s been about resting the boys who are carrying some niggles and getting them right to go again.

“But in the next week or two we need to get our best team on the paddock to get some cohesion coming into finals.”