Gunnedah needs to improve their discipline and start beating leading sides or they can say bye bye to the finals, says Red Devils coach Dan Martin.
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Martin flagged a lack of discipline as the most disappointing aspect of Gunnedah's 31-12 away loss to Narrabri last round.
He expects to see a marked improvement in the area when his fifth-placed side hosts last-placed Inverell on Saturday.
Martin said ill-discipline had "crept into our game the last two games".
"We gave away 20-plus penalties [against Narrabri] - and that really cruelled us," he said.
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For Gunnedah to finish in the top four and make the finals, Martin said it was imperative they lifted against the best sides.
He warned: "Five doesn't fit into four. So if we don't knock off a couple of teams in front of us ... Well, we'll be the fifth-placed side and we don't make the finals."
However, player unavailability has left the mentor feeling "a little sixes and sevens in player selection at the moment".
He cannot recall having the same side "consistently" this year, with him flagging the hole left by the injury loss of No.9 and captain Zac Newcombe as an ongoing concern.
Newcombe broke his ankle in last month's defeat of Scone, and Martin said his ace may be out for the season. Losing Newcombe had changed the side's "dynamics quite significantly", he added.
"There's a whole lot of things" that have not panned out the way he had hoped. On the plus side, he said, Gunnedah's reserve-grade squad was strong. "So we're gonna have to lean on some of those other guys to step up and hopefully perform," he said.
Martin said there were a "fair few other factors" negatively impacting on the side "that I won't go into right now" . "But we just need to get the basics right, and hopefully everything else will fall into place."
