RUGBY LEAGUE: Wallumbilla-Surat Red Bulls coach Justin Washington is convinced that his team has got what it takes to be one of the best teams in the competition.

The A-grade coach has called on his boys to be “mentally focused” after a difficult weekend match against Miles Devils.

Despite success in the Under-16s and a close match in the Reserves, the Red Bulls were soundly beaten by the Devils 42-18 in A-grade.

“There’s no excuses for the team; it was just a day where things didn’t work out for us, and Miles capitalised on that. The boys just weren’t at their standard for the game,” he said.

“We’ve got a group of men that are as good, if not better than many others, but [we] just perform inconsistently.”

Washington claimed it was the attitude of the players on the day that helped them see results, with a number of games and attitudes being “inconsistent” over the past few weeks.

But despite the setback, he said the team was still successful with numbers, and the boys were able to maintain good consistency with some of their matches.

“We’ve got a good number of guys wanting to play A-grade, and in terms of numbers we’ve had no issues,” he said.

“The issue is getting the team to perform at their best as a group.”

He hopes to draw on some of that potential with their upcoming match against Mitchell Magpies this Sunday.

“Hopefully it will be better than last weekend; it would be good to get a win up,” Washington said.

The Reserve Grade Red Bulls have been touted as one of the potential finalists for the 2016 season.

Sunday’s game kicks off at midday in Surat.