They might have romped home by 76 points but Cairns Saitns coach Nick Braybon was left somewhat dissatisfied with his side's win over North Cairns on Saturday.
While happy with the 13.19 (97) to 2.9 (21) result at Griffiths Park, he said the Saints' ability to handle pressure in possession needs serious work if they are to stand up in th finals.
The scoreboard might not indicate it but the Tigers did turn up the heat in the first half, which made for some uncomfortable moments for Braybon as he starts to prepare his side for the business end of the year.
"We could have controlled the game better and handled their pressure better," he said.
"They put us under a lot of pressure in that first half and we didn't respond as well as we could have.
"I'm hoping with training and that, we can handle that high-intensity footy a little bit better.
"We played well - we still weren't happy with the output, but it was a solid effort."
Perhaps Braybon is just a hard taskmaster - the Saints outpointed North Cairns in most departments, keeping the Tigers to just two goals for the entire contest, and holding them scoreless in the second quarter when they began to kick away.
Key to that defensive effort was Rohan Couch, who was best on ground for the fourth time this year.
Floating across the half-back line, Couch not only cut off numerous North Cairns attacks but used his cool head to set up the Saints in the opposite direction.
"He had the ball on a string and makes the right decisions,' Braybon said.
"He's been playing really well across the last month or so. He'd be going pretty will in our best and fairest - I'm not sure about the league, but I'd like to think he'd be going pretty well in that too.
"You can feel pretty confident when the ball goes down there that it'll come back fairly quickly.
"Our back six has been a strength all year and they controlled the ball and swept it away, pretty convincingly."
North Cairns weren't helped by injuries to star pair Kane Richter (concussion) and Adam Mueller (ankle) that put the strain on an already undermanned line-up.
Richter spent a couple of hours in hospital after the match while Mueller was unable to continue past half-time.
"Saints had a few injuries as well but our depth is not quite as good as theirs, so it hurt us a bit more," coach Dave Arnfield said.
"That's just basically where we're at - we don't go down as deep as the top sides do.
"They played pretty well - they were harder at the ball than we were, they beat us in clearances and hard ball gets."
Last Modified on 06/11/2014 14:19