ORANGE Emus coach Andrew Logan has thrown down the gauntlet to his side ahead of Saturday’s clash with Forbes, branding the greens’ recent near enough performances as no longer good enough in 2014.
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After a wooden spoon season, defined by five losses by a converted try or less, Emus went down to Dubbo by four points after leading 16-13 nearing the end of the Victoria Park contest last week.
Noticing a trend, Logan had this for the greens ahead of the “must win” clash with the Platypi tomorrow.
“There’s no place for valiant seconds here,” Logan fired.
“I’m not happy with just competing. I’ve got no solace at all out of competing with Dubbo. The fact is we didn’t win. We’re starting to build an uncomfortable history of competing but not winning, and I’m not happy about it.”
Young winger Tom Green echoed the sentiment of his head coach.
With Emus two wins and two losses over the opening month of the 2014 season, the 20-year-old said simply competing with Blowes Clothing Cup big guns the likes of Dubbo Roos and Orange City wasn’t good enough any more.
“We really need to improve and capitalise and finish off games like we should,” Green said.
“There’s too many games where we’ve lost in the last couple of minutes where we’ve had the game at the start and fall away at the end.”
And Emus have the perfect chance to practise what they preach tomorrow against Forbes.
Green believes the key to Emus turning around the close results is maintaining intensity for the entire 80 minutes.
“Forbes are usually really strong at home so it’ll be a bit more of an advantage for us them coming across,” he said.
“It’ll be an interesting day.”
A brilliant runner of the ball, Green’s bandaged up long locks and bushy beard has lent itself to the dynamic wing man turning into a cult figure among the Endeavour Oval faithful.
The tag, however, has come at a cost.
“I do cop a bit of grief,” Green said, a smile emerging from beneath the beard.
“But most of it’s coming from Emus supporters which is all good and fun. I try to enjoy it, it makes playing the game more enjoyable. I like it.”
Kick-off on Saturday is from 3.15pm at Endeavour Oval.
ORANGE EMUS: 1 Nas Havealeta, 2 Keith Howarth, 3 Brent Braithwaite, 4 Nick Hughes-Clapp, 5 Sam McLean, 6 Alo Finau, 7 Andrew Cosgrove, 8 Rob Thorburn, 9 TJ Cunynghame, 10 Adam Perri, 11 Tom Green, 12 Tim Alison, 13 Nigel Staniforth, 14 Carter Hirini, 15 Sam Ryan.
