PORT Macquarie Dolphins need to find a solution to their travel bugs before the season slips away.
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They only picked up two wins throughout all of 2016 and 2017 has started in similar fashion.
After the Dolphins started the season with a solid performance at home, they slumped to their third-straight defeat following a lacklustre 85-61 defeat at the hands of the Central Coast Crusaders on Saturday.
Disappointed coach Mark Champion refused to use injuries suffered by Lance Guild (shoulder) and Sam Petrie (dislocated finger) during the match as an excuse, while Brad Barnett is still recovering from a bout of glandular fever.
“Saturday’s game was a step back for us,” he said.
“We went down there expecting to do well, but that didn’t happen for whatever reason.”
We had good patches, but we didn’t stick to what we do for any longer than about five minutes.
- Mark Champion
The 24-point defeat was in stark contrast to their opening two matches of the season.
While they both also resulted in losses, Champion’s side were in the matches for long periods of the game.
“We had good patches, but we didn’t stick to what we do for any longer than about five minutes on Saturday,” he said.
“When we did that, we didn’t have too many problems.
“It’s just a mental battle; it might have been a hangover from the good performance in Tamworth last week where we thought we’d just turn up and the result would be better.”
The coach believes the Dolphins needed to be mentally tougher when on the road and that was the case again at the Scholastic Sports Stadium.
Central Coast were a bigger team while the Dolphins were more agile although they rarely
“They sucked us in, but we need to be better than that,” he said.
Port Macquarie were out-muscled and trailed 21-12 at quarter-time, 45-29 at half-time and 67-41 at three-quarter time.
“You can’t have excuses; we had them last year but we don’t have them this year,” Champion said.
“For whatever reason we don’t perform as well away from home as we do at home.
“Whether that is because of the travel we’re not sure, but we took at 12-seater bus so we wouldn’t all be arriving tired. That didn’t work either.
“We have to look inside, because we’ve got the talent to do it.”
A shining light for Port Macquarie was the return of Josh Kelly who was a standout performer for his side and top scored with 18 points.
Beau Montgomery was next best with 11.
“Josh Kelly was really good for us in his first game for the year,” Champion said.
“That was a bonus because we weren’t expecting to get him this season.”
