"The opposition were far better than we were on Saturday. They played with better energy and it was a bit of a grand final for them with their last game at home, Old Boys day and wanting to secure a top three spot," Lantry said.

"They played with plenty of energy and plenty of desire and unfortunately we were out enthused, which is a bit uncharacteristic for our guys.

"It's one we want to move on from fairly quickly.

"It's also a nice shot across our bow, a real reality check that if you are in this competition and you are slightly off you will be beat.

"We are at the pointy end of the competition and we don't want to be in a position where we are performing below our best."

The Pickers managed to salvage a draw with a last-minute penalty converted by Brock Lamb.

Maitland's three tries were scored by James Bradley, Matt Soper-Lawler and Chad O'Donnell, with Lamb kicking one out of three conversions and a penalty.

Lantry said it was inevitable that teams would have "speed bumps along the way".

"They minimised the effectiveness of what we do and what we do well," he said.

"Whether that's a comedown after last week maybe

"We put a real price tag on the Central game because there was the club championship to play for, there was the minor premiership to play for and we relaxed too much physically and mentally this week.

"It might be that, but we need to get back on the horse quickly and respond with a better performance against Wests on the weekend."

There should be plenty of motivation on Saturday against Western Suburbs with the Pickers celebrating Old Boys Day and John Newcombe Memorial Day.

The last time the two teams met on May 8, the Pickers smashed the Rosellas 40-6 at Harker Oval.

"It's Old Boys Day, John Newcombe Memorial Day and we anticipate we will have plenty of our Old Boys there and we want to put a good performance on before those guys," Lantry said.

Lantry said Maitland was best served on Saturday by Faitotoa Faitotoa, Cooper Jenkins and Dan Ticehurst.

On the injury front Brenton Horwood returned through reserve grade where he played a solid 50 minutes. Skipper Alex Langbridge will be tested this week but is rated a 50/50 proposition for this weekend's match.