''I'm stilling coming to terms with where the wheels fell off,'' he said.

The Miners' head coach was upbeat before heading overseas as the Australian coach for the world men's under-17 championship.

Although the MIners lost a close one to Brisbane on the road, Molloy had every reason to be confident about the run to the play-offs.

''There were times in that game we looked like we could beat anyone,'' he said.

The Wes Davidson Real Estate Miners have won just once in six games since, and with two games remaining are out of contention for the play-offs.

Ballarat heads to Tasmania today with nothing more than pride at stake against Hobart in Hobart tonight and North West Tasmania at Ulverstone tomorrow night.

This double is always tough _ no matter what time of the season.

Without import Drake Reed, who has returned to the United States for a family wedding, and with little to play for, Dan Joyce, Jamal Brown, Tariq Naqqash, Jared Scoines and Adam McSwain are really going to have to dig

deep to achieve their aim of at least one win.

As far as Molloy is concerned, the Miners have not been anywhere near competitive enough in losses to Hobart and Bendigo in the past few weeks.

He said it was disappointing not to have delivered on their finals aspirations.

With Reed gone, the Miners will take Josh Wilcher as their eighth player.