Following their 42-28 triumph over the Central Queensland Capras on Sunday, July 14th, at Santos National Football Stadium, during the Hostplus Cup round 18 fixture, the SP PNG Hunters secured their spot in the top eight, sitting sixth on the ladder.
The Hunters have shown a promising sign in the 2024 season, winning away games and showcasing strong performances at home to contend for the premiership trophy.
Their last final’s appearance was in 2019. Since then, it has been an uphill battle for the SP Brewery-sponsored side, who struggled to make the top 8.
However, the Paul Aiton-coached outfit are on the cusp of playing finals this year. With the season nearing its regular rounds, the Hunters are upbeat to break the six-year hoodoo.
With a strong win over the Capras on the weekend, it has kept their final’s hopes alive but they still have five more games to prove themselves, if they are worthy of playing finals.
Rookie coach, Paul Aiton, has emphasized more on defence and ball handling errors this year. He admitted that there was a lot of work to be done to prepare the team for the finals.
“Though the result was really good, I think we made it hard on ourselves, especially in the first half with the amount of errors that we had,” Aiton said of the Hunters' first half performance against the Capras.
“We made it hard for ourselves but the boys kept hanging in there, as they always do, and played for each other to get the job done.
“We don’t want to do that every week. I think there were ten errors in the first half. Our completion rate was very bad and we gave away seven penalties.
“We have things to work on, which is good at this time of the year. We have a few things to sharpen and improve on.”
Aiton added that they needed to cut down on making errors and discipline themselves to stay in the fight and compete for 80 minutes.
“We need to focus more on ball security and improve our completion rate. We must give ourselves a chance to compete,” he said.
“I know we won’t get a perfect result every game, but I think we need to put in a decent performance and be better.”
The SP PNG Hunters will have a bye in round 19 and travel to Redcliffe the following weekend to face the Dolphins in round 20 on August 3rd at Kayo Stadium.
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