The Black and Whites premiership defence has started in a rocky fashion with two losses to start the season and will look to bounce back against Leeton on Sunday afternoon at EW Moore Oval.
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While it has been a less than ideal start for the Panthers, coach Andrew Lavaka can see improvements being made.
“We just have to to the basics better,” he said.
“We are dropping too much off the ball, and because of that, we are having to do a lot of defending. Ball security is the biggest part of the game, so we need to be more secure in possession.”
Leeton is coming into the game after a round one loss to Yenda and then the second round bye and Lavaka is expecting a full strength team to challenge them on Sunday.
“It’s not going to be easy for us so we will need to be switched on,” he said.
The Panthers task won’t be made any easier with a season-ending injury to one of their key forwards who snapped their achilles in their opening game against the Waratahs.
Leeton is coming into after a bye last round, and while many would have liked to get a roll on with the season, Leeton coach Clinton Green thought it came at an okay time.
“It wasn’t too bad actually because we had four of our players in the Group 20 representative side, so it was good for them in that they didn’t have to back up the next day and play,” he said.
“Unfortunately James Fisher got a knock to the head in that game … he was actually knocked out, so I’m not sure how he’s looking for this weekend, but he might be out.”
The Greens will now look to play consistent football while registering vital wins at the same time. Towards the end of May, their calendar starts to look a little difficult, with roads trips to Lake Cargelligo, West Wyalong and Hay in three consecutive away games.
“We need to start winning now and make all of our games count,” Green said.