The Fiji Airways Kaiviti Silktails was points short of making the semi-finals of the Ron Massey Cup this season, a fate greatly influenced by the results of their away games.
This is something the club wants to change next season now that they’re officially part of the New South Wales Jersey Flegg Cup which is a level up from the Ron Massey Cup.
The Silktails won eight of their nine matches at home but lost all seven of their away games.
Head coach Wes Naiqama said this was something greatly discussed with the wider squad.
“That was the turning factor with us not making the semi-finals because our away-record wasn’t great, we did not win a game on the road but we won almost 90 percent of our games at home and missing out just by four points means that this year is definitely going to be more focus on us changing things and being able to take that challenge on when on the road.
“We’ve had that discussion as a playing group and how we can do better than that because if we want to feature in the semi-final of this competition then that’s a part, we must be better at. The record speaks for itself when we play at home so it’s about getting our head around that mentality and how we take that on when we travel,” the former professional rugby league footballer expressed.
The brother of former Fiji Bati captain Kevin Naiqama stated that they’ve looked at external factors to help address this area.
“We’ve been talking about this at length, and we’ve got our S&C coach Vanavasa Niuqila who was an intern at the Drua last year and I’ve been picking his brain as to how they handled that part as they faced the same challenge when they happen to be on the road so there’s a few ideas around that.
“One way is to maybe spend less time overseas where we have the hit and run mentality, we get there the night before the game, play the next day, come back whereas previously we spent about three to four days there at a time but when we do that we probably lose focus as a young player especially being in a foreign country for the first time so we’ll change things in and around that.”
The Silktails would break camp after five weeks this weekend before resuming on January 3rd.
The Jersey Flegg competition was scheduled to start on March 9 with the Silktails are poised to play the Wests Tigers at Lidcombe Oval in Sydney.
