WARRNAMBOOL knows it must learn to force turnovers if it is to arrest its volatile form.
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The Blues slipped to a dreaded two and five record on Saturday, coughing up a 21-point three quarter-time lead to lose to Cobden.
It means Warrnambool - which still holds sixth place - is more than two wins behind fifth-place Camperdown and has coaching staff keen to cut the gap as the half-way point of the Hampden league campaign edges closer.
Blues coach Ben Parkinson said his side was allowing opposition to move the ball too easily.
"That's the major area we need to work on," he told The Standard.
It's been a bit of a theme all year, teams have just been able to get down the ground without us turning the ball over.
- Ben Parkinson
"It's been a bit of a theme all year, teams have just been able to get down the ground without us turning the ball over.
"Our skills haven't been great either, so we're turning the ball over and then not being able to turn it back over again (defensively)."
Parkinson said the Cobden match revealed "damning" statistics which summed up the Blues' current woes.
"They went inside 50 17 times in the last quarter and had 13 scoring shots after we were 21 points up at three quarter-time," he said.
"They're just damning statistics. We were explaining to the boys, nothing seems to be changing for them on the ground.
"As a coaching staff, we can't stop the footy.
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"Our tackle numbers were higher than they've been all season but Cobden tackled us a lot as well. We've definitely got some work to do.
"It was a bit of a reality hit as this is where we're at as a footy club at the moment."
Forward Jason Rowan is the Blues' most high-profile injury while Harry Ryan suffered an AC joint complaint in Warrnambool's reserves win on Saturday.
Parkinson said while injury had hampered his side earlier in the season, it wasn't an excuse for poor performance.
He said Warrnambool was training well but failing to convert its work on the track into gameday.
"We can do it all at training and we can hit skills at training," Parkinson said.
"It's just those two hours on a Saturday we're struggling with.
"Our one-percenters were high (against Cobden) but we were chasing tail for a lot of the game too.
"We've got some very talented players but talent doesn't do it all. You've got to have the determination to turn balls over and Cobden were better in that area.
"They just wanted the ball more than we did, especially in the last quarter."
Warrnambool will play reigning premier Koroit this coming Saturday.
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