It would have been enough to outlast Coffs Harbour in a high-quality, low-scoring encounter at Wayne Richards Park on Saturday.

The Magpies had as many shots at goal as the Breakers, but were unable to kick a single goal in a hard-fought 1.5 (11) to 0.6 (6) defeat that saw Coffs return to the top of the table.

Port Macquarie trailed by five points at the main break and they were unable to chew into that margin despite dominating the rest of the match.

Coach Mel Hunt said the absence of Anishah Burnes was costly for her side as was their inaccurate kicking.

"We were missing one of our key forwards, but the girls had a really good game," she said.

"It was a physical match and either team could have won, Coffs were just lucky.

"We dominated from the second quarter through to the end, but we just couldn't kick a goal which was what we needed ... one goal."

Port Macquarie kept the Breakers to just two behinds in the second half.

"We pretty much held them scoreless and we kicked, but we kicked behinds," Hunt said.

"It's been the story of our life this season, but we're working on it.

"We've been doing a lot of work on winning the midfield so that's been coming along really nicely and that worked well, we just couldn't convert."

Cambridge McCormick was judged as best on ground for the Pies while Christine Kirby and Fiona Bagley provided strong support.

Port Macquarie were beaten in the contest and Hunt said they would continue to work hard on improving that for coming weeks.

"Coffs were really good at bumping us off the ball and that's where they got away with (the win)," she said.

"If we can do some work on improving our physicality on the ball and making sure that we're bumping them off as much as they're bumping us off, I expect that result will turn around."

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