A lack of Pre-season training proved telling for the Coolangatta-Tweed Blues as they crashed tp a 76 point loss to Surfers Paradise in their round two Pineapple Hotel Cup Australian Rules match at Kirra on Saturday.
The Blues, still winless after two games, were within reach of Surfers at three quarter time but the demons slammed on 10 goals to one in the final term to to record a decisive 19.14 (128) to 8.4 (52) win.
"We were in the game for three quarters and we just ran out of gas" Blues coach Scott Lawton said.
"We had an interrupted preseason, guys were there some weeks and not others"
Lawton said players were now paying for their failure to put in the hard yards in the preseason.
"We (the coaching staff) will continue to trash them on Tuesday nights until they get their game lags," he said
"We will smash them for the next month, it makes take anotther five weeks (for the team to get their full match fitness). We know we are going to be a side that work hard.
"We were much better this week though. All over the ground we competed better compated to last week when we couldnt man up. This week we were winning more of the 50-50 contests."
With the Blues still awaiting the return of a number of senior players the young guns have had to stand up and on Saturday 16 year-old Ben Davies took centre stage.
"He played reserves last week and did all right." Lawton said
"We played him on their star Simon Fenton in the centres and he just shut him down. After half-time they moved him (fenton) forward away."
Lawton said Davies in certain to retain his spot for next week's matfch with reigning premiers Western Magpies.
One last year's under 18 premiership winning players Matt McLaughlin has also made a succeddful transition into senior ranks with the young onballer standout..
"Look, we were terrific for three quarters," Lawton said
"And everything in pretty positive compared to last week."
Last Modified on 26/04/2007 19:33