Guts, grit and determination earned the Maitland Pickers a spot in the 2020 President's Cup grand final with a memorable 16-14 win against Hills District at Maitland Sportsground on Saturday.
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But to beat Glebe Burwood Wolves in Sunday's decider, Maitland coach Matt Lantry says they will need to a be a whole lot more clinical in the key areas of defence and ball retention.
"We gave up the ball 15 times on Saturday and we came away with 29 missed tackles as well," Lantry said this week.
"It was a performance full of desire but it wasn't that clinical performance you'd like to see in a semi-final.
"We really need to halve our errors and missed tackle count. If we can come away with no more than 15 missed tackles and maximum of seven errors we will really give ourselves a good chance.
"But if we are going to turn over that much ball and miss that many tackles, there is too much footy is these guys and they can make you pay."
Lantry said the intensity and pressure went up a notch in Saturday's qualifying elimination final and it would go up even further against Glebe, who were the only team to beat the Pickers in the home and away season.
"We didn't play well enough in our last game against Glebe," he said.
"We were very lethargic, went through the motions a bit, didn't execute overly well and didn't play with a lot of energy. I'd like those things to be a lot better.
"They're a really big team and we're reasonably accustomed to that now, but it will pose problems in the middle third.
"For the last month we keep talking up the challenge of the middle third, but it's where the danger really lies in regards to Glebe.
"While they have some potency in their outside backs in ex-NRL players Addison Demetriou at left centre and John Olive at right centre, it is in the middle third that we've got to make sure that we do our best to control and minimise their ability to generate play the ball speed.
"If we don't do that it allows their halves to play on the front foot and give their outside backs the opportunity to play some footy at us."
While there are areas to work on, Lantry is confident the Pickers will triumph on Sunday.
"We spoke at half-time (on Saturday) about a few things we needed to address but in the end what we spoke about was what it was going to come down to and that was guts, grit and determination," he said.
"We showed plenty of that and it's what we are going to need on Sunday.
"There is a belief in the team, we've prided ourselves on our defence and generally if you get the defence right the attack flows."
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