No slacking off as Bears win seventh
BURLEIGH workhorse Sam Coster has credited the squad’s critical self-analysis for their ruthless run in the Intrust Super Cup.
The Bears claimed their seventh straight win when they beat Central Queensland Capras 34-12 at Pizzey Park on Saturday night.
It wasn’t always pretty – particularly a 20-minute period after halftime littered with errors and penalties – but it was enough to keep hold of second place ahead of a showdown with ladder leaders Sunshine Coast on Saturday.
Unwilling to take their foot off the gas, players showed clear frustration at their inability to put away the lowly Capras.
Coster said after the game they were disappointed with their second half and had plenty more room for improvement, despite believing they are a better outfit than the Bears side that reached the 2018 preliminary final.
“Even though we’re winning, we’re still looking for areas to improve every week,” the 26-year-old said.
“The last couple of weeks we thought our marker (defence) was getting pretty ordinary so we looked at that through the week and tried to improve that.”
Asked what would be in focus now, Coster said: “Playing 80 minutes for a start, and completions because we are coming up against a red-hot side.
“We need to go up there and play our best game of the year.”
Coach Jimmy Lenihan said the team was “still learning to evolve to be a really ruthless side” like the Sunshine Coast side, but noted high expectations should not take away from the Bears’ successes.
“Everyone starts reading that we’re going really well and it almost feels like a 34-12 game is not a satisfactory thing,” Lenihan said.
“It’s a really great thing. “It would have been a problem if we lost 34-12 but winning is winning and we can hopefully learn from what we did and evolve into next week and see where we are after that.”
Tweed, meanwhile, propelled themselves into the top four with their fourth successive victory, this time over the Northern Pride at Vico Oval in Cairns.
Fullback Talor Walters and debutant winger Xavier Coates each scored two tries in the 30-14 win on Saturday.
EVEN THOUGH WE’RE WINNING, WE’RE STILL LOOKING FOR AREAS TO IMPROVE EVERY WEEK SAM COSTER