Justin, we’ll start with the emotions for you and the team. How are you feeling to finish the year like that?
It was disappointing. It was there for everyone to see that we didn’t have the same intensity as St Kilda. We left too much to too few and I think that’s been a bit of our issue this year. I think everyone would know we’ve had our fair share of injuries and we were probably hardest hit today. We didn’t have enough players take up the slack and stand up. It’s a very disappointing way to finish the season.

Did the occasion and what you were playing for play a role in the performance?
That’s hard to quantify, but history would say that when we’ve been in these positions with finals on the line or we’re in the eight that we haven’t handled them. We haven’t handled coming off the back of good wins, we haven’t handled playing at new grounds. There’s a lot of things that we haven’t handled this year and a lot of situations that we need to dig a bit deeper into. It’s a really hard thing to put a finger on, the things you can’t see are hard to judge. What I do know is that we need to learn from the experience that we have been through this year, with being borderline eight. We need to learn from it and become more consistent as a footy Club on and off the field. There’s a lot of work to do but we knew that before today.

Is maturity an issue Justin? The maturity to be able to handle the occasion and handle moving around a lot, is that the problem in the group?
Absolutely. It’s the maturity as a football Club to be really consistent week in and week out. The intensity around the ball just wasn’t the same as it was last week, and it wasn’t the same as it was against Richmond. That’s on us, and I thought they played a good brand of footy and took the game on and got through us way too easy. When it comes to our contest and our pressure, we are leaving too much to too few and we’re so inconsistent, not only week to week but contest to contest at times. We need to be better.

Only two years under your coaching but six years out of the finals for the Club, does it need to speed up from your perspective? Do you need to reach finals next year for your fans to have something to look forward to?
We need to be really consistent as a footy Club and we need to keep building for sustained success. The last four weeks we have been the youngest team in the competition and our performances have shown that. We have been up and down from quarter to quarter, not just from game to game. We need to keep building for sustained success, our members want to see us in the finals, but we need to make sure that we have a longer-term end view. Individuals need to know where they are at and have really strong pre-seasons. We need to continue to build a really deep list that will take us to sustained success not just one year of finals. We have invested in our younger group, and I think a lot of people would say that they have improved over the last 12 months, so we just need to continue to grow and be really process-orientated.

Can you talk us through those injuries today? Both Switkowski, Darcy and was Alex Pearce off late as well?
'Switta' (Sam Switkowski), we’ll have to get it scanned. He’s done something to his hip. We’re a little bit unsure on what it is but it looked pretty painful. Once he stood up from that tackle, he couldn’t go again. We’ll just need to get him home, get it scanned. It could be a range of different injuries. We think he’s escaped bone injury in his hip, which is good news, but it could be a number of different things. Sean had a hip flexor strain, so he would have missed the next couple of weeks if we were still playing. Alex Pearce, he just has a sore heel, which came up during the week. He was sore leading into the game, it just got to a point in the last quarter where we didn’t need to risk him anymore, so that’s why he was taken off.

How were the emotions in the changerooms after the game?
Our players are really disappointed, they wanted to finish off the year on a high. They wanted to execute our brand to the best of their ability and they didn’t do that, so they’re really disappointed. This should burn, it should burn for a while.

What was the message to them?
Too many inconsistencies, too much left to too few today. Last week and in the good win against Richmond we had 22 contributors, and today we were left to just a handful. St Kilda had a much more even contribution. We need to have a look at why, each individual needs to have a look at their preparation and have a look at their week and make sure we become more consistent.

Do you think you have the pieces in place on your list to be able to take the next step or are there holes that you need to fill?
We will do a deep dive into all things. Lists are constantly changing, and our list will change again. I think it’s been well documented that we need some outside run. Our wing positions since Bradley Hill and Ed Langdon left the Club have been an issue and we will continue to add depth in certain areas.

When do you need to hear from Adam Cerra about his future Justin? Will you be having a conversation with him at the end of season review?
Before the Trade Period. We have a conversation with every player at the end of the year. I’ll sit down with every player and talk through their season and I’m sure it will come up.

How confident are you today?
As confident as I have been for the past month, or the past year to be honest. Nothing’s changed.

What happened to him today?
He had a ‘corky’ out of the Derby, which he’s been sore with all week. We thought he was 50-50 so we brought him over here, but he didn’t manage to get up. There’s nothing sinister in it, he legitimately had an injury that he couldn’t play with.