Weather adds to Cougars trials

The Webbers Retravision Cougars played their final “trial” match before facing three tough games in a week at the end of the month and coach Brad Smith came away from the outing less than inspired.

The “match” had been set down for Elizabeth Park, but again was transferred at the last minute owing to the condition of the playing surface, which was still too wet after the recent rain.

This time the game against Berserker went ahead at CQUniversity on the Cougars new training pitch, which still has the rugby posts in position.

Smith said he was disappointed with the manner in which his team achieved its 5-1 win.

“It was uninspiring,” he admitted.

“There were a combination of reasons as it was our third night on the trot training.

“Also the previous night had been a very poor session.”

Added to those problems, Smith said, his players were unable to focus on the game as they didn’t know until the last minute that they would be in a match and not just taking part in a training session.

Smith said that was not an acceptable excuse as some of the problems were similar to what the players must face during the Hyundai QSL season.

“These things happen when you travel, but you still have to switch on,” he said.

“In the end we had two reasonable and one poor third (to the match).”

Gladstone midfielder Matt Smillie led by example, scoring the Cougars’ opening goal and committing himself to doing the simple things well.

“He did his (selection) chances the world of good,” Smith acknowledged.

Most of the problems the Cougars faced resulted from players trying too hard to impress.

“There were too many players trying to do too much,” he said.

Berserker’s equaliser came from a rebound off the head of Cougars defender Ben McMaster following a good save by keeper Tim English.

From that point the Cougars added to their tally with Michael Cay again scoring twice, and Jesse Thompson and Tristan Fraser finding the net.

There were others who did not let themselves down.

Cay did what was expected of him when he played in the centre of midfield, but let himself down when he was asked to play in one of the wide positions.

Joe Burke impressed Smith with his play at fullback while Dai Thomas looked solid in the heart of the defence. However, when he was rested, Smith felt the Cougars looked vulnerable.

“Both Ben’s (McMaster and Radstaak) looked shy on composure,” he said.

One good thing for Smith was the fact he could report no injuries from the game.

“I told them after the game the performance was not good enough,” he said.

“Training will start to get tougher from here on as the players are now strong enough to move up to the next step.”