Warilla have continued their perfect start to the season after claiming a hard-fought 26-14 win over the Stingrays on Sunday.
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The win at Flinders Field made it three from three to kick off their Group Seven campaign, following 44-10 and 34-22 victories over the Eagles and Bulldogs respectively, in the opening fortnight. While happy to notch up another victory, Gorillas coach Troy Grant believes his team still have plenty of room for improvement.
"It was a solid hit out and another gritty win by us. We were a bit down on troops, but the boys out there stood up really well,'' Grant said. ''None of those 50/50 calls went our way, but we just battled through it and got the two points. It's definitely an old cliche, but it was a team effort. I could give you 10 to 12 names [of players who shone].
"It's only early on in the year, but we're quite happy with the three wins we've had so far. We've been low on troops already, we lost three players within the first 25 minutes for four-to-six weeks. Once we get them back, I think we'll have some good headaches, hopefully. So I'm quite happy with where we're at."
Conversely, the Stingrays are now aiming to snap a two-game losing streak. After proving too strong for Shellharbour in their season opener, Shellharbour lost to Jamberoo in a thriller then fell to the Gorillas.
Stingrays coach Brad Reh said his side was right into the contest at the break on Sunday, but the game slipped away in the second half.
"I think we were down 10-8 at halftime but, after that, we had a few lapses and it cost us and we couldn't pull them back at the back-end of the game," he said.
"One positive is that the score didn't blow out. And we're obviously going to learn things out of that [loss], but we were our own worst enemy. We know we can be better, and the potential we've got, but we're just missing things and the rub of the green isn't going our way at the moment. Hopefully luck will change our way."
Elsewhere, Nowra-Bomaderry drew 20-20 with the Magpies; Lions beat Sharks 32-20; Superoos prevailed 26-8 over the Eagles and Bulldogs drew 18-18 with Knights.