Port Macquarie coach James Kelly was left seething after he watched his side fumble their way through a 14-12 defeat at the hands of Wauchope on Saturday (May 21).
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Blues winger Zac Coleman's 65th minute try proved to be the difference after he won the race to a first tackle kick from the scrum by five-eighth Ethan McKenna.
They then held on in torrential rain to claim their first win of the Group 3 rugby league season, but Kelly took aim at his players when asked what went wrong.
"I think we think we're a lot better than what we actually are," he said.
"When we do things right, we do it well and when we do it wrong, we do it bad. If you've got to take any positives out of it, it's a wake-up call."
The Sharks were nearly perfect for the first 10 minutes of play before the wheels started to fall off.
"It's a mental thing," Kelly said.
"We go away from what we're doing right and then start getting a little bit cocky and a little bit confident and go away from what's working."
Forwards Lee Price and Ryan Long were impressive for the Sharks as was interchange utility Joel Anttilla.
Kelly admitted the Sharks were dragged into a style of how the Blues like to play, became frustrated and suffered as a result.
"Wauchope just do the small things right; they play boring footy and it works," he said.
"They let the other teams make the mistakes and that's what happened today."
Blues captain-coach Beau Kettle admitted the conditions favoured the style of footy they like to play with the surface at Regional Stadium making it heavy on the legs.
"[The grind] is Wauchope's game style and it has been for years," he said.
"You try to starve them of the footy; don't make mistakes, kick in behind and make them work it out."
Halfback Tyrell Scott, co-captain Mat Bird and second-rower Sam Watts were impressive.
The effort of some of the Blues younger players including teenage centres Jarren Lester and Mitch Clarke surprised.
Clarke spent some time in the sin-bin early in the game.
Kettle said the win was a strong response to their disappointing first-up effort at Forster-Tuncurry a fortnight ago when they were humbled 46-10.
"We lost a lot of players as everyone knows and everyone's written us off," he said.
"They reckon we're going to be shit through the year and our young fellas really stood up."
But the co-coach knows the season has only just started.
"We're not grand final contenders yet. We'll wait until that time comes."
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark our website
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- You can support us with a subscription
- Follow us on Twitter: @portmacnews
- Follow us on Instagram: @portmacnews
- Follow us on Google News