How do you analyse that one?
It was one of the more disappointing games I’ve been involved in to be honest. Our execution was horrific, our ball handling skills… we couldn’t execute the basics of the game. When you can’t do that, it makes it hard to execute other parts of your game.

Why do you think that was when you’ve worked so hard on skills?
I’m not sure, I’ll have to have a bit of a deep dive into that and have a look at our week. I thought we had a decent week on the track, maybe we felt their pressure a little bit. We’re going to have to have a deeper look at that. Moments of the game last week we didn’t execute the basics of the game and it was the same this week for the first three quarters and then the last quarter we got a lot right, but it was too late.

The connection going forward particularly, how disappointing was it to see that it just didn’t connect there?
We panicked a bit with the ball and we were chasing the scoreboard and sometimes when that happens you just look for the one option and that’s long to the top of the goal square and that wasn’t working for us. I thought it worked early with ‘Lobby’ (Rory Lobb) taking a few good marks and our talls looked dangerous but when a team’s trying to save the game and got numbers back, you need to lower your eyes and look a bit shorter and we just didn’t get that right under pressure.

Sean Darcy – how bad is his injury?
He’s rolled his ankle. We’ll have to wait for a scan but it was bad enough for us to sub him out. So we’ll get it scanned and give you an update but it’s not worth me commenting on it at the moment other than to say it’s a rolled ankle.

The fact he was able to go on for a tiny bit,  is that a good sign?
It’s a good sign but it doesn’t really tell much of the story. We’ll need to get it scanned.

Matt Taberner was listed as one to three weeks away… is he a chance for next week?
He is a chance absolutely, he’s progressed really well and ticked all the boxes so far. He’s got a few more to tick before he’s allowed to fully main train. But if he does that he will put his hand up for selection.

With Darcy and the centre square in general. You lost the centre clearances 14-4, what did you need to do to clean that up?
It wasn’t just centre clearance; we were 0-5 in that third quarter with 28 stoppages as well. I thought we were pretty passive with our bodywork, unpredictable to each other, didn’t quite get the structure right enough when we got our hands on the ball, we coughed it up. That put enormous field position in the Saint's favour, our backs held up pretty well in the second quarter, but in the third quarter the dam wall broke and we just had no answers. I thought in the last quarter we got our balance around stoppage a lot better, we got our physicality a lot better, and we got a bit more of a result out of it. It’s been a bit of an issue, our consistency around stoppage, so we need to get that right.

What’s the challenge like for the young guys without Nat Fyfe and David Mundy in there to work it out on the run when things aren’t going well?
Clearly, we didn’t do it well enough today. We weren’t able to stop the momentum of stoppages in general, not just at centre bounces but around the ground. It’s a unique situation we find ourselves in because in my time we’ve always had one of them there. Not only are you losing the leadership, you’re losing really good players, so we’ll have to review that, the leadership stuff, but we didn’t get it right and we weren’t able to turn the tide quick enough. It’s mainly to do with our bodywork and our balance, and we can’t always wait until the quarter time breaks for those things to fix. It’s another thing we’ll have to work on.

The guys in COVID protocols, are they looking like they’ll be just the seven days at the moment?
Yes, at this stage we expect them to get out late next week so that’s good. It’s not really my place to comment on players' health. We don’t know the effects of COVID and how it’s going to affect people, so we need to get them back at the Club and make sure they haven’t got long-lasting effects. We’ll cross that bridge when it comes.

How nervous are you about the Blake Acres bump on Max King?
I have to admit I didn’t see it.