The Kurri Kurri Bulldogs have vowed to lift their defence after being put on the back foot by a red-hot Maitland on Saturday.
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Maitland dominated the ruck and repeatedly had the Bulldogs retreating as they played the ball.
“It was a very tough day, they were certainly hurting afterwards,” Kurri coach Ron Griffiths said.
“Our defensive effort was a bit off the mark. There were some key indicators for us where we weren’t up to standard.
“Things that we’ve been really good at all year we let fall by the wayside. We just didn’t quite stick to our process.
“Full credit to Maitland they did well, they played really well.”
Griffiths said the result reflected the closeness of the competition and the fluctuating form of each team.
“On any given day anyone can beat any other side,” he said.
“We’ve got Souths at Souths on Sunday. We’ve got a team which has probably hit some form.
“We need to make sure our preparation is spot on and the players have the right mindset every time we take the field.
“That’s something up until last weekend and periods against Wests and Central we have have managed to get that right.
In every other game we’ve done it and it takes a fair bit of talent to do each week to get yourself in the mindset and understand what your role is and do it to the best of your ability.
“Even though we haven’t been spot on with it all the time more often than not we have been.
“That game on the weekend was the first time as a whole that we haven’t been.
“We spoke about that after the game and making sure we change that so it doesn’t happen again moving forward.
“They were hurting a lot. We will see an improved performance no doubt.”
Griffiths conceded having two weekends off, because of the Queen’s Birthday long-weekend and a rescheduled game against Wests, had a big impact on the team.
“It killed us. It’s not the only reason we lost but it absolutely impacted us,” he said.
“Even though we had lost that game against Wests we finished it reasonably strong and we still had good rhythm about our season and to not be able to play footy over that period hurts your cohesion.
“We’re not making excuses we weren’t in the right head space and we’ve got to make amends.
“I think we were beat at the ruck. We’ve got to make sure that we really control the ruck speed and the tempo and everything flows off that defensively..
It helps with our edges, they don’t have to feel like they’ve got to panic because they’re supported from the inside defensively, which is something we weren’t able to do.
“We were ending up with two guys on the ground while they were playing footy at us.
“Our first-up contact needs to be better, make sure we get numbers in and around the ball and that we’re not retreating when they’re playing the ball.
“Our retreat speed needs to be better to ensure our line speed is where it needs to be.”
Griffiths said the downturn in defence had impacted on the Bulldogs attack.
“What happens is that if you’re defence is frantic your attack becomes frantic,” he said.
“The composure in defence buys you time in attack to get it right.”
Griffiths said after scoring first the Bulldogs had an opportunity to exert pressure on the Pickers and change the complexion of the game.
He said they missed the experience of halfback Jade Porter in exploiting key moments such as that.
