PICKERS coach Matt Lantry lamented an "un-Maitland like" performance against Wests on Saturday despite scoring a 24-6 win on the back of winger James Bradley's hat-trick.
The Pickers notched their second win after scoring four tries to Wests' one at Maitland No.1 Sportsground and while Lantry was happy to secure two points, he was less than impressed with his side's 80 minutes.
"It was a very flat, un-Maitland-like performance that we've become accustomed to over the last couple of years," he said.
"It was well below what we expect of our playing group and I'm sure the boys would agree.
"We were just off the pace.
"Very off with our attack; a lot of passes going behind recipients, we only completed at 58 per cent and just watching our body language and talking to the boys ... a lot of our guys felt very flat."
Lantry, who put the performance down to limited training and pulling up lame after a hard hit out on a boggy ground in round one, said Wests "gave us nothing" and "for a long time in the first half, were completing at 100 per cent and hadn't made an error".
"They'll trouble some teams this year," he said.
Winger Bradley had a field day scoring two tries in attack and then making an intercept to run 80 metres to add his third.
The Singleton product has been outstanding since joining Maitland in 2020, memorably scoring in the President's Cup grand final that year and leading the Newcastle Rugby League's try-scorers list in 2021.
"He has just got this knack of being able to sniff out a try," Lantry said.
Cessnock also had their second win, defeating Lakes United 44-16 at home. Coach Harry Siejka said similar to their first match, the Goannas started slow but powered home.
Jayden Young scored a double in another impressive performance, prompting Siejka to label him the "best back-rower in the competition at the moment".
Siejka said his side were missing multiple players but should be full-strength against Macquarie next week.
The three other round-two games were postponed due to wet weather.
