Ag College coach Will Mitchell has implored his team to find some consistency if they are going to become a serious contender this season.
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Aggies dropped to one win and two losses to start the season after falling to Albury 33-29 at Murrayfield on Saturday.
Mitchell was very disappointed with the team’s attitude.
“We didn’t rock up,” MItchell said.
“We were arrogant and played a very poor first half of footy.
“We actually came back and hit back in the second half when we checked ourselves a bit, but we didn’t have the maturity to finish off that game.
“We put ourselves in a stupid situation, which we should not have been in, and we couldn’t get over the line when we had every opportunity to win it.”
The two teams went try-for-try for most of the game, but Aggies couldn’t find the winning play despite having all of the ball in the last five minutes off the game.
Coming off a good win over Griffith away from home, Mitchell was far from impressed by how his team handled another tough road trip.
“We are really disappointed with it and know we are a much better side and have the potential to be a good side,” he said.
“We just seem to gain confidence one week they throw half of it in the bin the next.
“That is a maturity thing and we need to grow up quickly to be any threat to the competition and start getting some results.
“Inconsistency has never won any side a SIRU premiership.”
Mitchell thought the team was flat during the warm-up and it flowed onto the field.
It helped the Steamers pick up their first win of the season.
“We shouldn’t have been in the tussle that we were,” he said.
“We should have been 15 to 20 points up and momentum builds momentum and we didn’t.
“We would go good for 10 minutes then drop off for five and Albury are a good enough side with the guys that they have to score extremely quickly.
“Every time we took the foot off the throat we were kicking off again so it is disappointing.”
Ag College trailed Albury 19-12 at half-time but soon levelled things up and seemed to go to another level when down a man.
Ben Brooke was given his marching orders for a tackle on Richard Manion, but it was Aggies who scored when Brooke was off the field.
Mike van Diggelen continued his fine form to start the season while Gerard McTaggart and Matt Harris were also strong.
Mitchell is looking for an improved attitude heading into the clash with Tumut at Beres Ellwood Oval on Saturday.