The Batemans Bay Boars' season is over after a 42-10 loss to the Jindabyne Bushpigs in Saturday's elimination final.
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The Boars were forced into the long road trip after last weekend's horror against Braidwood, and the trip proved too much, as the Pigs scored six tries to two in a dominant victory.
Boars' coach, Matt Ryan, pinpointed the loss on last weekend's performance.
"What went wrong was last weekend," he said. "We were low on numbers again this week, but the guys that were there put in a really good effort.
"You can't have poor numbers two weeks in a row and expect to win though."
Ryan said it was a disappointing end to an otherwise positive season.
"We were on top of the world two weeks ago, and the guys should have been hungry after that," he said. "Unfortunately, some blokes didn't fully commit from that point, and the last two weeks have been really disappointing.
"The guys who have fronted up each week tried hard, but we didn't have the numbers on the ground.
"We'll have to figure out where we can find some blokes that will put in for a full season next year. We'll probably need a 30-man squad to do that."
Ryan said Jindabyne had every chance to win the premiership this season.
"It was always going to be tough down there, they're a really good rugby side," he said. "They're similar to us in a lot of ways; they've got a good set piece, and some great attacking players our wide, but they've peaked at the right time.
"We'll keep track of the rest of the season, and hopefully we can get a few guys out to the grand final in Crookwell."
Ryan said it was a "what if" kind of season for the Boars.
"The last two weeks have obviously been disappointing, but if we'd cemented second spot and travelled to Taralga, we would have been taking on a team that has stumbled the past fortnight," he said.
"We could potentially be taking about a home grand final in two weeks, that's how close we were this season.
"In saying that, there's a lot of hard work you need to do to get to that point, and we didn't do that as a collective."