Heading out to Orakei or Okahu Bay, it’s a mystery at times what you are going to get with a club that has had that many amalgamations and takeovers, and it was hardly surprising that amongst all those clubs there was a lot of noise coming from the balcony before the main game was underway.

Maybe they are a good example of how this can work, but I’m not opening a can of worms — it does make you ponder.

For the uninitiated, those clubs were: Grafton (1982), Parnell (1982), and both amalgamated with Cornwall to form Carlton Rugby, who in 1996 combined to form Grammar Carlton, and in 2013 merged with Teachers Eastern to form Grammar Tec.

Teachers College merged with Eastern Suburbs in 1985 to form Teachers Eastern, which, by the way, uses the clubrooms and grounds of the old Eastern Suburbs.

This was a very hard loss to take, especially when we were outplayed and outmuscled throughout the entire 80 minutes.

I don’t think in my 60-odd years of supporting our Seniors (now called Prems) I have seen anything as demoralising as that. Putting my thoughts together four hours after the game, it is hard to comprehend how we got to a loss of 88–0, but worse of all was that we could not put any points on the board. To be frank, with the exception of a couple of close efforts near the tryline in the first half, we were never close. Which begs the question: mentally, are we in the right frame to play?

We started better — no dropped ball at kickoff. In fact, we nearly scored after five minutes, and that was about as close as we got for the entire game.

Look at GT — they were ready to go from the start, and watching their warm-ups, it was easy to see where and how they were going to play this game. They are a big side and, from what I saw today, they are looking like finalists to me, with a very strong and physical forward game and a game plan that implements their midfield strength.

So where do we get some positives today? There is no bigger trier in this team than Ben, our captain. He was physical at the breakdown, strong with ball in hand, and in general play he never let his side down.

The other forwards were there to help and stop the rot, and I thought our loose forwards were in support throughout, but we just could not stop the avalanche of points, particularly in the second half.

Again, I am impressed with Ezra at halfback. Slick and quick from the base with his distribution. When we did have some momentum, Ezra provided it with cool distribution, but therein lies our problem. We just coughed up too much ball when we would manage one or two phases. If we want to compete in this premier grade, one or two phases do not cut the mustard.

Our ball control and handling errors are basic mistakes we are making, and these are areas we must sort out going forward. The Weasel may highlight the positive things, but if you are 28–0 down in 28 minutes, with all tries coming off mistakes, we are all short of Premier Grade material.

Going forward, we have Suburbs next weekend, who are having mixed results like ourselves. They will be our comparison, so we need to step up to the plate and take a win.

GT are a different outfit these days. Their club was full of supporters during and after the game. They were humming well, cheering on the try scorers from the balcony. We need to find that extra voice to get our boys the results.