THERE was always a concern it was going to happen.
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Port Macquarie Dolphins' coach Mark Champion's pre-game belief that his team weren't quite "there" proved to be the case during a 62-53 loss to Springwood on Saturday night.
Playing in their first game since a drought-breaking win a fortnight ago, the Dolphins had "good spurts" during the match, but weren't good enough when it counted.
"It felt like the monkey was off the back and they felt they could relax, but state league isn't like that; there are no easy games," Champion said.
"It was almost like care, pride and attention to detail wasn't there."
While the coach knows part of having a youthful side is that there will be inconsistent performances, their effort at home simply wasn't good enough.
"I had a chat to the assistant coach before the game and there is always a concern that after a win there is a sense of relief and they had relaxed too much," he said.
"They weren't ready to play; it was a lack of preparedness that they didn't execute as well as they could have."
The Dolphins lead-up to the game was hindered by absences from training and sickness, but Champion said those were just excuses.
Port Macquarie didn't earn the right to use those excuses as a reason for the defeat.
"We had a few players hurt and sick leading up to the game, but they're just excuses," he said.
"If we played as well as we could have and still lost, then we could use those as excuses, but we didn't."
Over the next four weeks the Dolphins could look back on the nine-point defeat as a win that got away.
"It is part of having a young team where you learn what it's like to win because everyone plays well every week," he said.
"It's disappointing to have a result like Saturday."
They face a challenging period over the next month with matches against defending champions St George, followed by Newcastle, Hills and Tamworth.
Only the clash with Newcastle will be at home.
"Our next four games are against the top four teams in the competition and three are on the road," Champion said.
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