Attitude too much to Bear
DEFENDING premiers Burleigh simply must be better, according to coach Stuart Wilkins.
The Bears were outclassed by Tweed Heads, 26-12, yesterday, with Wilkins saying the energy and attitude of his players was not quite up to scratch.
He called on the young group to take a leaf out of the books of NRL-experienced forwards Matt Robinson and captain Lorenzo Ma’afu, who were standouts.
“Robbo was probably our best on the paddock. He kept turning up and that’s a quality that I want to try to get everyone else to play to,” Wilkins said.
“The place that (Tweed) beat us hands down was their enthusiasm.
“There wasn’t a lot of structure to their play but they just kept coming through the middle. We need to be better.
“It’s not the end of the world.
“There’s a bit of an attitude adjustment that we need to have here as well but that’s about teaching young fellas that to play A-grade at Burleigh, you have got to be a professional footballer. You can’t not prepare for a game properly and there was a couple of
them that didn’t prepare properly for (yesterday’s) game.”
Wilkins conceded forced late changes to his side hadn’t helped their attacking flow,
saying: “We have had such a disrupted start the last couple of weeks with different players and a new halfback and a new fullback.
“It just showed, and I’m not making excuses because Tweed were actually quite good.”
In other results, Bilambil put on a show for their home fans by downing Ormeau 46-12.
Runaway Bay lived up to pre-season hype in the last game of the afternoon, accounting for Tugun, 30-16, to give new coach Nick Gleeson a win on debut.
THE PLACE THAT (TWEED) BEAT US HANDS DOWN WAS THEIR ENTHUSIASM ... WE NEED TO BE BETTER BURLEIGH’S STUART WILKINS