Port City always looked to have Taree City's measure, but it still took them 72 minutes before they would have felt comfortable.
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The Breakers extended their winning streak to two matches to start the 2023 Group 3 rugby league season with a 36-18 victory in Port Macquarie on May 7 over a plucky Bulls outfit.
It will be a simple message from both coaches during training this week though - complete your sets.
If not for Port City centre Dylan Adams' hat-trick, the defending premiers might well have had a different team talk in the sheds with assistant coach Tim Donovan after full-time.
"It wasn't what we trained for and prepared for this week... unfortunately I think we went down to their (Taree's) standards," Donovan admitted.
"It definitely wasn't our standard of footy today, but there's always positives we can take out of it. We've just got to do better with our discipline.
"We know it as a playing group and we're taking steps forward to do it. We know what we need to fix."
Port City led 10-8 at the break after they jumped out to an early 10-0 after 18 minutes before they started to push passes which led to errors.
At one stage in the opening 40 minutes they didn't complete for five sets in a row.
Ultimately, tries to Adams, fullback Billy Sprague and interchange hooker Cody Fisher in the final 12 minutes saw the final scoreline blow out.
Donovan acknowledged the Breakers, however, continued to be a work in progress.
"I'm very nervous still because I know we're on everyone's hit list and we've got a big target on our back, but we've got a lot of work to do," he said.
"The standard of footy we're trying to build in the club... we're not hitting it just yet, but hopefully in the next few weeks we will."
To the Bulls credit, they closed to within two points at oranges after hooker Toby Destefano dived over from dummy half in the 22nd minute.
Whatever message captain-coach Christian Hazard delivered in the sheds at the break went out the window when the kick-off sailed out on the full.
When Adams crossed for his second try of the afternoon after a clever Tristian Scott chip kick in the 43rd minute it appeared the Breakers would win in a canter.
Then errors crept back into their game and when Taree City winger Todd Northam raced 30 metres after he latched onto a Jarrod Robbins dropped ball, it was game on again.
It would turn out to be the first of two occasions in the second half where the visitors closed to within four points, but unforced errors ultimately cost them.
Hazard lamented a case of deja vu after they let an opportunity slip against Macleay Valley last weekend.
"It's the same sort of story as last week; self discipline and errors coming out of yardage put us on the back foot," he said.
"It's those simple individual errors you can't really train or coach out, it's just the boys have got to have a bit more self control about playing the ball and their own individual jobs.
"If you can defend it it's alright, but if you're piling on error after error you're bound to let points in so it is a bit frustrating.
"Coming up against Breakers, they're a pretty classy side all over so you can't give them too much of a head start."
The Breakers won all four grades with their ladies league tag (36-4), under-18s (20-16) and reserve grade (22-12) also claiming the competition points.
Port City Breakers 36 (tries: Dylan Adams 3, Billy Sprague, Jake Hazard, Cody Fisher, Jeremy Smith; goals: Cuban Quinlan-Piper 4/7) defeated Taree City Bulls 18 (tries: Toby Destefano, Todd Northam, Christian Hazard; goals: Navren Willett 3/5)
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