They weren’t in the physical shape required to compete in a top-level football season opener.
And Port Saints will hope seven days is a long enough time to fix a few of those issues when they aim to bounce back from last Sunday’s horrendous 5-1 defeat at the hands of Bellingen.
Coach Oliver King is adamant his side won’t be that bad again this season.
“Horrendous would be the word I’d use, absolutely and that’s putting it nicely,” he said.
“We were physically not up for it and came with a strategy which didn’t work out so it’s back to the drawing board a bit and hopefully we’ll bounce back this weekend.
“Nothing happened for us; we were terrible in everything we did.
“We did very few things well for the whole day and that compounded with our fitness and intensity levels which were low.
“From the kick off it didn’t work for us.”
Rather than be motivated by the poor performance to ensure it didn’t happen again, Saints are just focused on wiping it from the memory banks altogether.
“Our season starts this weekend – not last weekend because we’re not going to go back to that level and the boys know what we’re capable of.
“We won’t go back to that at any stage this season that’s for sure.”
This weekend’s revamped Coastal Premier League Men’s Super Round has had to be revamped with wet weather forcing all fixtures back onto the synthetic surface alongside the C.Ex Coffs International Stadium.
“We’re getting used to playing on the synthetics, that’s for sure,” King said.
“It is nice of a night-time because it’s just too hard and hot on your knees during the day. It’s a bit like playing on bitumen.”
Saints clash with Macleay Valley Rangers will kick-off at 6.30pm on Saturday evening.
Coastal Football Leagues 