BERRY Magpies coach Nathan Benney said his side needs to learn from their big loss last week, rather than just forget about it.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Magpies recent six-game winning streak has been brought to an abrupt halt in the past two weeks with a 52-4 loss to Warilla-Lake South and a 64-4 drubbing at the hands of their arch-rivals Gerringong.
While Benney wants to be able to put these games behind them, he said they cannot just forget about them.
“Certainly you want to be able to put it behind you, but I think we need to take out of it what we did wrong,” he said.
“In my opinion, we were very poor in defence around the ruck, they played a very quick game and we were out on our feet,” he added.
Benney admitted Gerringong were far too good for them last week and felt they were particularly fired up and keen to get revenge in front of their home crowd.
The last two weeks have put a bit of a dent in the Magpies finals prospects, but they are still in the top five.
However, they will probably slip out if they lose to the Shellharbour City Sharks at Ron Costello Oval on Sunday.
Benney said they simply need to be better if they are going to stand a chance of winning.
“Shellharbour are very strong competition and we’ll have to play great football to beat them,” he said.
“Until the last two weeks, they had put the most points on us when we played them last time.
“So we need to be better than we were then and much better than we’ve been in our last two games.
“I still feel we can beat them, but it’s certainly going to test us.”
If they are going to win, they will have to do it without Benney, who will more than likely be restricted to a sideline role for the rest of the season after breaking his thumb in their recent clash with Milton-Ulladulla.
Two other key forwards in Blaine Rozs and Blake Dryden are also on the injured list, but are expected to be back before the end of the regular season.
Benney however, is unlikely to be back even if they do make the finals and is trying to adjust to an off-field role.
“It’s very disappointing that I can’t be a part of it as a player,” he said.
“I must admit it was very frustrating to see how much they were struggling last week, you just want to be able to get out there and help them.
“It’s definitely going to take some getting used to,” he laughed.
The injury means Benney has basically switched places with assistant coach Trent Burns, who had been handling most of the off-field proceedings, but is now in a much larger playing role since coming out of retirement.
While disappointed about his own fortunes, Benney remains confident about the Magpies chances of playing finals football.
“We’re still in the top five, so we’re definitely not out of it,” he said.
“We’ve just got to make sure we win the majority of our last few games to secure our spot,” he added.