PRIDE coach David Maiden has heaped praise on his players for making the adjustments necessary to turn around their Queensland Cup season.

The Pride notched a fifth consecutive win on Saturday night, beating the Comets 42-22 in Rockhampton to put themselves squarely in the finals frame with just four rounds remaining.

Maiden has repeated his "defence is an attitude" mantra several times this season.

Earlier in the year though, the Pride’s defensive attitude was askew, with Maiden branding as "unacceptable" several below-par efforts which pushed the club to an unfamiliar position towards the foot of the ladder.

But that has turned around over the past month, with the Pride sitting in eighth place on the ladder.

Maiden said the turnaround was down to the players, who have dug in for each other over the past month.

"To their credit, they’ve done it themselves," Maiden said.

"They’ve got a sense of professional pride and it’s paying off."

While the Pride’s defence has improved – they forced several Comets errors in the second half on Saturday night to help themselves overcome a 16-12 halftime deficit – they have also fixed their error rate and completion percentage.

"We’ve eliminated our unforced errors which were killing us and we’re (now) controlling the football," Maiden said.

Maiden said the Pride had a goal of completing four of their first five sets in each half.

While completing their first seven sets against the Comets ensured a solid start, the back end of the half was poor, with Central surging back to take halftime lead.

"We let them back into the game, they scored two tries in the back end of that period," Maiden said.

"But the start of the second half we completed 10-out-of-10 sets and scored three times in that period.

"It showed if we hang on to the football and control the football, we’re in charge and we can score tries."

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