Burleigh Bears rugby league coach Jimmy Lenihan expects the Papua New Guinea Hunters to be back among the Queensland Cup front-runners in the near future - he just hopes the revival doesn't start this weekend.
The Hunters are on a three match losing streak and are yet to win away from home this season.
It doesn't get any easier for the Port Moresby club with a match away to league leaders Burleigh on Sunday.
The PNG Hunters beat Burleigh home and away in 2017 but are well behind the league leaders so far this season. Photo: RNZI / Melvin Levongo
The Bears won the 2016 title but missed the playoffs altogether last season and coach Jimmy Lenihan said he can appreciate the position the Hunters find themselves in.
"You certainly grow a target on your back and no matter how you're performing at the time everyone's got to get up because everyone still thinks of you as you were last year. PNG - no matter how you want to pull it apart - they're the 2017 Intrust (Super Cup) champions so you've got to play well."
"They're on of those teams that they're a very physical team with their running or tackling and they might be in a little bit of a low at the moment, after everything that happened to them last year and the success of the World Cup that they had, but they're a side that they're going to click into form at some point and you just hope it's not going to be against us this week," he said.
Jimmy Lenihan admits he's surprised to see the Hunters languishing in 11th place but doesn't expect them to be there for long.
"Last year, 2017, was a very long football year for a lot of those boys playing in the Hunters colours so they probably didn't get a lot of time off at the end of the year and then they had to sort of get back into training."
"There was always a danger of them having a slow start but I don't anticipate them having a slow year. I think they will pick up momentum and keep getting better and better as the year goes on."
The Burleigh Bears and the PNG Hunters play for the Kokoda Cup Photo: EMTV