BENALLA All Blacks coach Ben Wapling is confident the Panthers will bring their A game to North Wangaratta tomorrow after a disappointing performance against Moyhu last week.
Having won four straight matches heading in, the Panthers dropped the ball against the Hoppers, going down by seven goals after capitulating during the second and third quarters.
Wapling said the let down was primarily mental an example of the difference between playing a side at the bottom of the ladder to taking on one of the competition heavyweights.
"It sounds bad, but I just think that playing Swanpool the week before didn't really prepare us for Moyhu," Wapling said.
"Coming off a 218-point win I think the boys just thought it was going to happen, and it didn't.
"The other thing was that Moyhu had been beaten the week before, and good sides are always a lot tougher when they are coming off a loss like that.
"That's something that North Wang will have to deal with this week."
But it wasn't all mental Wapling said there were structural issues that affected the Panthers' ability to put goals on the board.
"Our forward line was just getting too flooded," he said.
"Spoons (Brendan Smith) was coming too far up the ground because he wanted to get involved.
"We just got taken out of our structures.
"Moyhu was very direct when they went forward, but we weren't moving the ball quickly enough, and as a result we had to push it out wide.
"It's just a matter of getting back to those basic structures this week for us."
While he only has second hand information to go on, Wapling said he had done some homework on the Hawks.
"I have been told that they like to chip the ball around a lot, and move it down the ground like that," he said.
"Obviously their forwards have been fantastic so far, so restricting the delivery to them is going to be important.
"That will come down to pressure from our backs, as well as all around the ground from our midfielders.
"On any given day I would rate our midfielders as good, if not better, than our opponents' mids.
"But last week Moyhu just wanted it more.
"We're going to have to work on the way we get the ball forward and really open it up, and just make sure we have the crumbers down there so that we can make the most of every opportunity we get."
By - SCOTT ANDERSON.
ORDERS: Ben Wapling addresses his charges during last week's match.
PHOTO: Scott Anderson
Last Modified on 18/05/2012 16:07