The Cannonballs fired early with points on the board within the first 10 minutes, but the SCU Marlins responded quickly and continued to apply the pressure.

Kempsey Cannonballs coach Jared Fuller said the team's discipline let them down, as Braden Farrawell received a red card during the game, and Jeremy Taylor and Jackson Korn received a yellow card.

"The first 10 minutes... that's as good as it got," he said. "Our lack of discipline cost us, we just keep giving away cheap penalties, and then obviously defending becomes harder if you have less players on the field.

"I also thought we were second best at the rack contest and that hurt us. We have an inexperienced team, so everything is a learning curve at the moment."

"We had about five under 18s step up again, so that was good to see. They're doing a great job, but we're really missing some experience to lead them around. Unfortunately, we don't have that at the moment because they're injured or they're unavailable."

Mr Fuller said next week's game against the Coffs Harbour Snappers is "almost a must-win".

"It's almost a must-win for us if we have any chance of sneaking into the finals," he said. "We really need to work on our discipline this week. It's just something we need to continue to address."

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