WAGGA City Wanderers coach Dave Leonard will put further scrutiny on his team's start to games as their winless start to the NPL Two season continued on Saturday.
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In a grand final replay of last year's epic decider, Yoogali SC claimed Riverina football bragging rights with an emphatic 5-0 win in the local derby at Gissing Oval.
The Wanderers again found themselves immediately on the back foot as the Griffith visitors piled on three early goals and went into half-time 4-0 ahead.
From there, the Wanderers were able to hold their ground for the best part but the damage was done as they crashed to their third straight loss to start the season.
"Just again we found ourselves three or four down in the first 20," Leonard explained.
"We just keep putting ourselves behind the eight ball and then it's an even contest for the rest of the game.
"We're just not starting well and it's starting to hurt us big time. Our start wasn't up to scratch and they caught us napping. It wasn't so much errors, they just caught us napping."
Leonard believes there is no simple solution for the Wanderers' starts. But they will explore ways of getting better.
"It's a tricky one. We've all spoken about it as a group. Even after full-time, the whole squad sat in the changerooms and we had a little d and m and it was really positive," he said.
"We've got to address the issues and you've got to take the positives out of it as well. Our warm ups are really good, we switched that up a little bit, the boys weren't completely happy with the warm up sessions earlier on in the season, even through the FFA Cup, but we're in a stage where the boys are really happy with the warm up, they feel like they're switched on but the starts still, they're just too slow.
"It's a tough one. Because it's really hurting us."
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Leonard confirmed he will also look at making changes to the line-up after the disappointing start to the season.
Logan Flanigan continues to close in on a full-time return to the first grade team after an injury-interrupted start. Jake Ploenges suffered a calf strain on Saturday and will be in some doubt for next week.
Ben Mavor impressed in his first game back from injury, while Ploenges, Samson Lucas and Kyle Yeates were solid in defeat.
"You look at the game overall and there's so much positive stuff out of it but the thing is, these teams they seem to be a little bit more polished than what we are," Leonard said.
"Technically they're no better than us...but they seem to be a little bit more polished than us. There is glimpses there, there's no doubt about that."
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