Miners dig in but go down, again

By Gavin Staindl
THE saying used by coaches worldwide and adopted from renowned gridiron coach Paul Bryant Jr is “offence wins matches but defence wins championships”.
But at Sydney Pargeter Reserve where the Berwick Miners were beaten 12-0, the phrase is a bit of a catch-22.
The Miners have a solid and reliable defence but they won’t begin to think of championships until their offensive counterparts can begin to win games.
Berwick on the weekend were again unable to score for the second time in as many games this season.
The shutout to the Warriors featured some remarkable stops on behalf of the defensive lines but also featured a passing team that found its target on only 12 occasions.
The 40 per cent completion rate also meant the Miners could only scrounge six first downs for the match. “It is a problem,” Miners coach Mel Martin said. “But I’ll have a look at the tapes tonight and we just have to keep working at it,” Martin said.
Quarterback Andrew Nixon did manage to accumulate 200 yards in the air, but 150 of those yards came from three plays with wide-receiver Sam Walker making two of them.
Walker managed to haul in two hotly-contested catches to take his total past 100 receiving yards on the day. Both catches took Berwick down to within the 20-yard line but on all three occasions the Miners entered the red-zone they were unable to score.
On the other side of the field the Miners defence, led by Anthony Pollard and interior linemen Peter Freker and Ryan Afoa, “stood out like a shining beacon”.
The trio stemmed the Warriors run and also generated six sacks and four tackles for a loss of yards.
“From last week, where we were all at sea, it is a great improvement,” Martin said.
But there is still much more to do if the Miners plan to get on the winners’ list.
As Martin rightly put it “doing well and winning are two different things.”