Defeat to spur on ambition
Sam Nichols and Joseph Loughnan made their debuts, while George Swarbrick, Pat Carroll and Brandon Efthimiou have had limited exposure at senior level.
“Ten players of our 22 have played in the reserves this year, so we have turned a few over,” McMahon said.
“They are all getting a taste of it. There are a lot of youngsters getting a go and although they are not always doing the right thing, they are trying their hardest.
“We are making a lot of mistakes, but we are getting better at fixing those mistakes up.” THE forlorn figures inside the St Albans change rooms showed how much Saturday’s loss to Newtown & Chilwell hurt.
And the tone in Supersaints co-coach Paul Nigro’s voice rammed it home.
St Albans led for most of the day before being overrun in the 18-point loss.
Matthew Sondergeld and Matthew McKenzie dropped to the ground on the final siren. They were exhausted, but also shattered to be so close to pulling off an upset.
“We are hurting,” Nigro said. “We are bitterly disappointed.
“The effort out there today was first rate, but we don’t like coming second.”
The Supersaints jumped out of the blocks and raced to a nine-point lead by quartertime and managed to extend that out to 15 at halftime.
Newtown & Chilwell rallied in the third quarter, dragging the margin back to five points before getting its nose in front during a tense final term.
“We worked hard to get it inside 50 and didn’t take our opportunities,” Nigro said.
“As the game wore on that took its toll. We didn’t get total reward for effort.
“I probably felt we should have been a couple more goals up (at halftime).
“At three-quarter time the game was up for grabs. We started well but it was just that situation where the young kids hadn’t been in it a lot.”
Luke Williams put in another solid performance for the Supersaints despite the attention of Jacob Sharp.
George Fallaw also stood out off half-back in his first game this season, while Patrick Barber toiled hard and was judged his side’s best player.
“We have improved dramatically over the past two weeks. We ran Leopold to four goals and Newtown three goals today, so certainly since the bye there has been a significant shift,” Nigro said.
“We have put in place some revised structures and committed to youth for the rest of the year. We have five to go and hopefully we can get two or three wins from that last five.”