It’s hard to put your finger on it, but we can’t win games defending like that. Thirty-eight points and 30 in the first half isn’t good enough.
- Josh Cale
ALBURY Thunder coach Josh Cale labelled his side’s performance “embarrassing” after it went down to Tumut 38-18 at Greenfield Park on Sunday.
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In an insipid opening to the match, Thunder leaked 32 points in the opening 29 minutes to blow any chance it had of regaining its spot in the top-five.
While the home team showed huge improvement to comfortably win the second-half, it did little to console Cale.
“It’s embarrassing really,” Cale said.
“It’s embarrassing for the club, the fans and the players themselves.
“We had a really good week at training, our warm up was great and it’s hard to swallow what happened in the first half.
“It’s pretty embarrassing.”
After winning reserve grade comfortably and Tumut being without star playmaker Raymond Luke, Thunder had every reason to be optimistic.
But it soon turned to despair with Jacob Toppin slicing through some poor defence at the five-minute-mark.
It started a procession with Esera Mose, Dean Bristow, Masivesi Dakuwaqa, Ben Roddy and Toppin crossing before half-time to lead 32-0 at the break.
Thunder looked a different side after play resumed with Jye Thompson, Levi Freeman and Lachie Hampton scoring within nine minutes to cut the deficit to 32-14.
Any faint hope of a comeback was snuffed out when Tumut scored a penalty goal with 18 minutes left on the clock.
Etu Uaisele scored to edge closer before the Blues’ Tamati Ioane iced the match in the dying minutes.
Cale was at a loss to explain their wildly fluctuating form.
“It’s hard to put your finger on it, but we can’t win games defending like that,” he said.
“Thirty-eight points and 30 in the first half isn’t good enough.
“We showed in patches what we can do, but it wasn’t good enough.
“Our defence was non-existent and we have been working overtime on it at training.
“We didn’t number up on our edges.”
Thunder went into the clash without former coach Tuki Jackson and Joe Veramu with their playing futures unclear at Greenfield Park.
Andrew Smith worked hard for the home team, along with Freeman, David Cowhan and Trenten King.
Thunder’s loss was compounded by fellow finals aspirants Brothers defeating Cootamundra 52-14 and Kangaroos rolling Tumbarumba 32-20.
Young defeated Temora 42-30 and an injury-hit Southcity conquered Junee 34-16.
