I’m proud of the effort against Jets

Hello everyone, welcome to the seventh ‘Churchie’s Comment’ for the year in your favourite rugby league newspaper — The National.
After the encouraging performance against the Wynnum Manly Seagulls in round one, the SP Hunters rebounded in round two with a lot of energy.
I put this down to playing at our new ‘home’ in round one, having encouraging support and a vocal crowd behind us.
The players also feel more comfortable in the new surroundings and feel accepted by their new community.
This energy really brought a few of our boys out of their shells and it’s great to see the new personalities grow into the team environment.
I know as a coach, I get judged on the wins and losses throughout the season.
But I must say, I get a lot of satisfaction from helping players feel more comfortable and supported in our programme.
The first half of the game against Ipswich was a good period of football.
The Hunters completed at 78 per cent, we just failed to apply enough pressure with our kicking game.
Against the best sides, you have to put the ball in the places where it is hard for the opposition to get out of.
We aren’t doing that yet, it was only our second game in 2021 and our opposition have now played five matches.
We will work hard on this part of our game as we will need to be able to apply pressure on the best teams.
To Ipswich’s credit, they play a unique brand of football and we have a number of players adjusting to that style for the first time.
I did feel we could have been better in the first half but a two-point difference was a fair indication of the game at that stage.
The message at halftime was simple — just a little reminder to play the Hunters’ style of football. We are at our best when we play with a lot of intent.
We have a strong middle third of the field with robust forward Epel Kapinias and Wartovo Puara Jr playing the whole first half at front-row and hooker respectively.
We decided to inject Edwin Ipape straight after halftime.
Edwin brings our big forwards onto the ball and makes defending them hard to handle by putting them in one-on-one situations.
Epel kept charging forward, Samuel Yegip, Sylvester Namo and Emmanuel Waine provided fast hit-ups, quick play the balls and Edwin drove them forward on repeat.
It was a great second half where we kicked better, maintained pressure and really upped the tempo in the middle of the field.
Ipswich couldn’t contain this sustained pressure and we started to score some points.
I was so happy for the players and staff who had chosen to relocate — a great reward for their efforts so far.
We now enter a week off over Easter. To be honest, after going through 31 days isolation, you never know how that will affect performance or mental resilience.
I’m so proud of the whole group for the way they have handled themselves and just focused on what we can control.
The most encouraging sign of our programme is there is so much growth and understanding of our roles ahead of us.
This should mean we will continue to improve across the season.
To our families, relatives and everyone back home in Papua New Guinea, a blessed Easter to you all.
Until next week, stay safe, play safe and let’s all respect and be kind to each other.

Cheers,
Matt