Miners lack that winning touch

By Gavin Staindl
THE BERWICK Miners suffered their seventh loss this season, losing to the Buccaneers 32-6, but had it not been for some costly missed catches the Miners may have caused the biggest upset of the season.
The Miners led midway through the second quarter and at half time they were only one converted touchdown behind Victoria’s best gridiron team.
But a costly second half made up of dropped passes and missed tackles reignited the Buccaneers run attack and gave the home team the ascendancy on the scoreboard.
Offensively, the Miners were the most productive they have been all season.
Quarterback Andrew Nixon threw for a season-best 260 yards and Sam Walker was on the end of 160 of them.
After the dismal effort last week against Croydon, Miners coach Mel Martin made it his team’s goal to reach four first downs within the first quarter.
They had four within the first two drives.
For the match, the Miners produced 13 first downs, a significant improvement on the seven reached last week.
The only downturn to the Miners attack was the inability to catch regulation passes.
Martin puts the number at eight missed catches that included a pass to the end zone that Ben Lamb spilt after slipping on the turf that seemingly gave way under his feat.
Despite the poor score line, the Miners faithful still found some humour in the slip up and began chanting “Etihad, Etihad” in reference to the similar poor surface at Etihad Stadium.
But Martin and his squad had to regain focus as the Buccaneers continued to apply offensive pressure.
“It is the same story week after week, we are making elementary mistakes,” Martin said.
“In their first two drives we caused a turnover and a fumble and I said to them at half time all we have to do is raise our game play by five per cent and we’ll win it but we went the other way.
“Our outside containment could not stop their running game. We would bite on a pass and open up a hole or stand still and miss a tackle … we need to get it right or else I will just have to find someone else who can get it right,” Martin said.
The 29-0 last half “frustrated” Martin who can see his outside line becoming a source of concern for the coaching staff.
“Last week Croydon scored both three touchdowns from running the ball and putting outside pressure on our containers, and it happened again this week.”