Henwood Park coach Scott Elphick said the Hawks weren't hungry enough in Pascoe Cup finals

Henwood Park went through the entire home and away without a loss, on the scoreboard, but then bowed out of finals on the back of consecutive defeats against Leeton (6-0) and then Hanwood (2-0) at Rawlings Park on Sunday.

Elphick was happy enough with how the Hawks played against Hanwood but believes a lack of hunger was the difference between the home and away season and finals football.

"We just weren't hungry," Elphick said.

"Because I've come from NPL and I've come from premier league, you can read your guys and you can read how they're ranging before we even play. We just weren't hungry, it took us a bit to get going and having that three or four weeks off with no football, it killed the momentum."

Elphick conceded Hanwood's press suffocated Henwood Park's style of play on Sunday.

"I wasn't disappointed. We got stuck into playing their compression style of football," he said.

"They know we use the wings to get high and wide and get up into the attacking half and get into that section and they just played a compressed style of football that we had to defend.

"Every time we won it back or go to counter, they were there because we couldn't get the ball out of that compression style of football, which is smart play, but I still tip Leeton to win."

Although disappointed to lose, Elphick believes Henwood Park stuck to the renowned 'team task' and played a much better brand than the week before against Leeton.

"We actually played a good game (on Sunday), which I'm happy with," he said.

"They stuck to the team task and a lot of people in this area won't understand what the team task is, or individual tasks, a lot of coaches in this area don't understand that either but it's about the guys playing football together and not isolating three or four players to win the game.

"It's about playing an apt style of football to develop players in this area because it's needed. That's what we did all season and we came out and actually played a good game."

Elphick is happy with what he achieved in his first season as Henwood Park coach and is keen to return to the job next year.

"I'd like to hang around but I'm not sure whether they'll offer it to me or not. Let's just see what happens," he said.

"People aren't stupid, they've seen what I'm doing. My main goal throughout the season was to show everyone what we can do, what a good coach can do with a squad, an outside coach coming into the area to help develop football. That's what I did.

"My other goal was to upset a few people and I did it. You've got to upset people and make people look. Then they go oh, and it builds the comp. Other coaches have got to start switching on and one day if this whole area starts opening up to other harder teams, if you're in Wagga you've got to know your stuff.

"It wasn't the whole aim, but because I've had so many doubters coming from where I've come and doing what I've done, and had a few knives being thrown in the back, I showed what I can do with the guys and what the guys can do on the pitch. It's just a shame that we weren't hungry in those last few games."

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