Reserve grade nib Newcastle Knights veteran Anthony Tupou believes they were their biggest enemies after their third loss for the 2017 season on Saturday.
The ISP squad succumbed to a scoreless first half before recording only one try via Pat Mata’utia for the last 40, to go down 30-6 against the North Sydney Bears.
“Definitely the first half, our ball control was pretty bad despite speaking about it before the game,” explained Tupou.
“We didn’t get our fair share of the ball in that first half and I reckon we lost it there.
“We can’t go blaming the weather, we had a game plan for that and we let ourselves down.”
Tupou admits the side beat itself.
“It’s hard because I feel like it’s a game we could have won,” Tupou said.
“I don’t think the game plan is the problem, it is just the little things like ball control, the things we learn when we are young.
“We need to go back to basics and practice them and get the little things right... discipline, penalties and dropped balls, they’re the only things I think that are killing us at the moment.
“We’ve had the team to probably beat the last three teams that we’ve played, we had the potential to beat them but we let ourselves down.”
The Knights veteran said he was happy with his almost 70 minutes out on the field and is slowly regaining his match fitness.
“It is an easy thing to fix, hold the ball, more discipline the potential is there to win,” said Tupou.
The Reserve Grade Knights play the Wentworthville Magpies at the Lyall Peacock Field on Saturday.
