He said his side played with enthusiasm.
"That's something that grows with the culture, everybody sort of played their own part.
"If we want to progress any further we have to get better at the small things.
"Whakatane were well drilled and had a little bit of x-factor in them, their lineout just cleaned us out and they showed a tonne of guts to come back in the second half.
"They've been playing premier level teams all year and they're well coached so you expect that type of performance."
Waikite play Arataki at home next weekend.
"That'll probably be our hardest game of the year.
"They're the top-ranked team that came down from the premier level and they're undefeated in this round.
"We'll need a better performance if we're going to be competitive against them."
Meanwhile, Marist St Michael's have climbed off the bottom of the table with their first win in Premier 2.
Sitting in eighth place at the start of the weekend, they beat seventh-placed Opotiki 17-14 to leapfrog them on the table.
St Michael's coach Mike Lewis said it was "really good" to get the result in tough conditions.
"[In wet conditions] you just have to stick to your guns really.
"There were quite a few mistakes from both teams ... we just played as a team, stuck to our structures and used the moves we worked on Tuesday and Thursday at training.
"It's good to see we're improving - the belief from the boys has been really good this year and it's good for them to get a result and prove all the hard work pays off," Lewis said.
With three weeks left in the competition there weren't many major changes or improvements that could be made to the way the team plays, he said.
"It's just trying to recover well from the hit-out yesterday and preparing for next week - tweaking the little things and making sure we're on point."
For Ngongotaha it was honours even as they drew 17-all with Paroa.
