What did you make of that Justin? They seemed to get on top early but you kept coming and coming?
I think the basics let us down again which stopped us from scoring and really hurt our efficiency. The inside 50’s were pretty even, especially that first quarter and parts of the second quarter, it was a bit of an arm wrestle. But their efficiency going forward off the back of some of our turnovers was way better than ours. It was like we didn’t really have an avenue to goal. We played too straight and I felt like we flipped it on its head a little bit in the third quarter and that came through in the last quarter as well. We just changed angles a little bit more which gave our forwards room to move. I felt like we were in the game but gave ourselves too much work to do.

Was the switch of the venue a distraction?
No. Not a distraction at all. We had a good week. We got up here nice and early to train well and prepare well. We just didn’t handle their pressure early and they scored way too easily on the back of turnovers.

Is it important that you finished well?
It’s important that we build. We came here today really wanting to be a connected group and one that just keeps playing our way and we didn’t do that early but I was happy with the way the players stayed connected and kept coming. Once it got to 40-plus points it’s easy to put the white flag up and start fighting your own battles internally and trying to go outside your role to impact the game and I didn’t think we did that. I thought we stuck to the task pretty well.

Was it a case of what could have been if you were tidier early?
The last two weeks we’ve just gifted the opposition too many easy goals. I just thought we were a bit safe as well. The message to them at half time was keep going for the kicks but don’t be safe. You’ve got to back yourself in and we were able to do that. It didn’t always look perfect but I’d rather us play that way than the first half.

What do you think let you down?
We tried to play an extra up at stoppage and I’m not sure that gave them an extra but once the ball went in they got back harder than us and I thought their smalls got back, got that first receive and couldn’t sustain any pressure on the back of our ball movement or stoppages. We tidied that up a little bit in the second half, we denied them exits and played the game in our front half a little bit longer and that led to few repeat entries and inside 50s and a bit of sustained pressure, whereas we just let them off the hook to easily in the first half.

I’m sure you get asked this every week, but how do you balance Nat Fyfe between the midfield and forward. He looked really dangerous when he went forward?
He looked good on the ball as well once the game started turning a little bit. He was a driver in that. It’s a battle we always fight. We felt like once Michael Frederick went out and Connor Blakely came in, we had an extra midfielder in the team. That allowed us the luxury of playing Fyfey forward. He always takes a good defender and he was able to generate some scoring shots tonight. He was dangerous all over the ground.

Did Frederick just roll that ankle?
No, it looks like a syndesmosis. We’ll get it scanned and we’ll get a result out. It doesn’t look great.

You’re a third of the way through the season. How do you view it at the moment. You’re 4-4 with a big game next weekend. How do you think you’re going?
We haven’t measured up against the best teams and we haven’t been able to play consistently enough against the better teams. That’s our challenge, to be able to play our brand of footy, be strong in the contest and execute the basics well against the better teams. We saw that in the first half, we weren’t able to do it. In the second half against West Coast, we weren’t able to do it. That’s our challenge.