The Maitland Pickers blew a golden chance to secure two valuable away points against reigning minor premiers Macquarie Scorpions.
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The Pickers let a four-point lead slip with a converted try by the Scorpions after surrendering prime field position through an error.
Despite three-sets attacking Maquarie’s line, Maitland was unable to score and became the 13th victim in a row at the Scorpions’ Peacock Oval fortress.
“We are making leaps and bounds going forward, but a little bit of heartache today they’ll learn from that and go again,” a disappointed Pickers coach Trevor Ott said after the game.
“We came close, five tries a piece. We probably had the game in hand and cost ourselves a bit there, they ended with a two point lead off one of our errors.
“We need to work on our execution at the end of the game.
“The effort was pretty good. We didn’t play great football but here we are up against the minor premiers from last season and in front. It was a different pressure situation that we were in and I thought we could have handled it better.”
Macquarie coach Adam Bettridge admitted the Scorpions got out of jail after fullback Mitch Manson scored a converted try late to snatch the 28-26 win.
“We didn’t deserve to win,” Bettridge said. “They were the better side and it was good to get out of jail.
“After Mitch scored, they had three sets on our line and we managed to hold them out, which was the positive from it.
“Anyone who takes Maitland lightly will get their pants pulled down. They are a good side. It was a gutsy win and a win we needed leading into the state cup.”
Ott said fullback Luke Dorn had another good game and left wing Liam Faughlin was very strong.
“Dorny had some real nice touches again. I thought Liam Faughlin was very strong on the left wing. Jarren Costelloe was very good in the centres.
“Jarren had some really strong carries today and he is only going to get better and better with time.”
The Pickers lost Costelloe’s centre partner George O’Brien through injury in the second half and had to move Pat Robards from the back row to cover.
“I thought George was going really well. Pat had been going well and we had to move him to the centres,” Ott said.
“Unfortunately, he got split open again on the same eye from last week.”.
In his first grade debut Newcastle Knights under-20s player Jayden Butterfield covered for Robards in the forwards.
“Young Jaden Butterfield on debut was very strong for us. It was a great for the club, he punched out some big minutes in the second half and was pretty strong,” Ott said.
