Hunters upbeat

By PARKER TAMBUA
THE PNG Hunters are in Rockhampton looking to spring their first away win of the season when they take on the Central Queensland Capras in their Hostplus Cup round 2 clash tomorrow night.
Confidence in coach Paul Aiton’s squad is high after an opening round victory over Wynnum-Manly and despite some concern over discipline and set completions the 38-year-old mentor already has a preseason win over the Capras on his ledger and will look to add a regular season win.
The Hunters have named another three debutants in the 17 forced in part by injury and suspension with Junior Talin starting in the back-row and Manisa Kai and Finley Glare coming off the bench.
Aiton said the squad had gone through video sessions of Capras games and had planned and expected a tough encounter at Browne Park.
“I am comfortable with everything we have, the players, the talent we have, obviously we can score points from anywhere in the field, but it all comes down to discipline and completion.
“We have a good relationship with the Capras and we are expecting a tough game.”
Aiton also highlighted his side’s defence and communication as areas they needed to improve.
Statistics from previous seasons shows a penchant for the side to be vulnerable when they focused on their offence; they tend to leak points when chasing points.
The season opener showed signs of this with Aiton’s side having led Wynnum-Manly 30-10 with under 10 minutes to go before the visitors clawed back to finally lose 22-36.
“In the game against Wynnum, I think you have to give credit to them because they had better completion rate so they were able to score tries,” Aiton said of their round one performance.
“But penalties and errors also hurt us in that game.
“I think this is something to do with rule changes and they (QRL and NRL) want to speed up the game and it killed us last week. So for the first half of this season, I’m focusing on discipline – giving away fewer penalties and also completions.”
Meanwhile, centre Clent Lama, who starred in last week’s win with hat-trick of tries, said he was looking forward to facing off with his former Mendi Muruks teammate Bob Tenza.