Leprechauns count cost
INNISFAIL Brothers players and staff will again seek to pick up the pieces of an opportunity lost in the CDRL A-grade grand final.
Leprechauns coach Leon Hallie couldn’t quite put his finger on what went wrong, but felt his side was starved of the ball and made some poor decisions, particularly in response to contentious referee calls.
“It was a funny game. Yarrabah just had one of those nights where their kick and chase worked and I think we just got a bit frustrated with calls, as usual, and we just couldn’t really get momentum back in that second half,” he said.
“It’s great for their community as well. In saying that too, it’s hard for the boys.”
Innisfail centre Anthony Perkins said the basics let them down on Saturday night.
“I think it’s a little bit of nightmare deja vu again. We did all the hard work through the season, so it doesn’t really count for nothing until you win the grand final,” he said.
“Taking nothing away from Yarrabah, they’re just such a hard team to defend against, the chip and chases, the flick passes, everything seemed to stick tonight and good luck to them. They had a lot of support, a lot of people behind them and they were just too good on the day.
“We had our opportunities at the end of the day. You know, we didn’t find touch, passes didn’t go where they needed to, knock-ons, things like that, the little one-percenters that if you don’t do them on the day, they cost you a grand final, and they cost us.
“We’ll work on it again, revisit it in the preseason and try to fix the mistakes.”