The Yass Magpies had their losing streak extended on Saturday by a steadily improving Queanbeyan Kangaroos outfit.
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Played at the Seears Workwear Oval in Queanbeyan, the match began with a tussle for momentum.
“We sucked up a lot of pressure early on in the first 15 minutes, it just took everything out of our gas,” Yass coach Jarrad Teka said.
“We looked to play footy and we didn’t consolidate our good effort there and get back down the other end. Once they cracked us, they just cracked us right open.”
Towards the latter end of the first half, the tries began to flow for Queanbeyan, and Yass’s efforts to stem the onslaught amounted to little.
It didn’t help the Magpies’ cause that they were significantly outsized by the Kangaroos, which made it difficult for the visitors to stem the steady flow of metres conceded once fatigue had begun to set in and errors started appearing.
The second half was much the same, and some conciliatory tries did little to appease a visibly disappointed Teka, particularly now that Yass are most likely to miss out on finals.
“Not good,” was Teka’s summation of the Magpies’ last three rounds.
“That’s the most disappointing thing about it. [We had] everything to play for the last three weeks.
“It is shattering.”
Despite the strong 46-12 result, Kangaroos coach Aaron Gorrell said that his side still have areas in which they need to improve ahead of finals, which they are likely to make following a jump into second place on the ladder.
“I still don’t think we’re playing to our best,” Gorrell said. “We were really good in patches, but they were too short periods. To win a competition we’re gonna have to play like that for longer periods of time, we’re just in and out of games at the moment.”
“No matter where either of us are on the table, it’s semi-finals atmosphere and intensity every time we play,” Gorrell said. “It’ll be a good gauge to see where we’re at and where we need to improve to be competitive.”
There are only four rounds left in the regular season. The Magpies have this weekend off with a bye and the Kangaroos take on the Blues at Seears Workwear Oval from 3pm on Saturday, July 21.