PORT Macquarie Dolphins coach Mark Champion came out swinging after they suffered an 81-74 loss to North Sydney on Sunday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The seven-point defeat was another match that got away where the final deficit was a single figure margin.
In a niggly, dour, stop-start encounter the Dolphins were dragged down to the level of their Sydney opponents.
Unfortunately for Champion and his side, they couldn’t get themselves out of trouble when the wheels started to fall off in the second half.
“They’re one of the teams I don’t really like because they’re just out there to win at all costs and they use this niggly rubbish,” he said.
“We all want to win, but we got dragged down to their level and that was really disappointing.”
Champion challenged his players to be better despite seeing their season slip away over the last three weeks by a combined margin of 10 points.
“I asked them how committed they were to being a good team,” he said.
They’re one of the teams I don’t really like because they’re just out there to win at all costs with niggly rubbish.
- Port Macquarie Dolphins coach Mark Champion
“We can’t whinge and whine about things; we have to work together to achieve the potential that is there.
“And that’s the thing, there is a lot of potential there, but they need to realise it.”
The one-point loss to Coffs Harbour three weeks ago continues to haunt Champion and the Dolphins.
“They’ve lost a bit of confidence over the last couple of weeks – especially since the Coffs Harbour game,” he said.
“I think since that game we’ve regressed a bit in our consistency – we weren’t consistent at all against Norths.”
Champion admitted his players lost their composure.
“We can’t let things like that get to us and we did,” he said.
We can’t whinge and whine about things, we have to work together to achieve the potential that is there.
- Mark Champion
“We needed to have better discipline on Sunday and when we got frustrated we lost the plot a bit because we concentrated on the wrong things.
“Then we became frustrated and gave away too many fouls.”
The coach said the Dolphins were still trying to find their identity.
“It’s a clash of cultures for us this year,” he said.
“We had eight guys who were 21 or younger and then we had a 28-year-old and then a 35-year-old so we’re still trying to find a way of meshing that all together.”
Champion said they missed Beau Montgomery’s “style of doggedness, there’s no doubt about it.”
The North Sydney players were fortunate to not be on the receiving end of technical fouls after constantly voicing their disapproval at some of the refereeing decisions.
Josh Minihan topscored for the Dolphins with 14 points while Jake Wallis (11), Ryan Adams (10) and Brad Barnett (10) were the other players to score double figures.
