We all understand the difficulties you’re working with but what’s your perspective on it?

“Obviously nowhere near at the standard at the moment. Inability to sustain effort, intensity and workrate’s not there at the moment, and supply is our biggest issue. The first quarter we might have broken even, looked like they were really up for the fight, the pressure was there and it was a pretty tight game but we just can’t sustain it. We’ve got to get better. That’s collectively.”

There’s no quick fix, is there?

No.

How do you work through finding those answers and trying to speed up that?

“It’s hard to but we’ve got to be consistent with what we do during the week. We can’t deviate, whether that’s selection, method, training, standards – we’ll continue to set them high until they can play four quarters.”

How do you keep their spirit up when it’s as hard as it is at the moment?

“The spirit’s been pretty good. The energy during the week and the understanding of what they need to do is there, but we’re not getting any return. The effort at stages looked great and at stages looked really poor, so we need to address that.”

Are there individuals who are gaining from it because of the opportunity?

“There are always positives in every negative. As much as it’s hard to do at the moment, we’re exposing some young players to AFL experience, but to be honest our backs have been dealing with 60-plus inside 50s for three or four weeks in a row, and we’ve had under 40 inside 50s for probably the same amount of time. As much as that experience is good to give them opportunity, we don’t want them dealing with that down back and dealing with that up forward, so we’ve got to get it right in the midfield.”

You were able to hold onto Port Adelaide in a pretty tight tussle for 30 minutes, which changed more the way you couldn’t keep up with them or the way they stepped it up in the second quarter?

“Probably a bit of both. Elevation in pressure, inability to execute the fundamentals and then we couldn’t get it out of our back half. A lot of the issues were around stoppages and then not keeping it in our front half was a challenge as well. We were trying to do a few things in the box, you change players, you change your plus-ones but we couldn’t do a lot to stop it. I thought we showed a bit more fight in the second half. The third quarter we didn’t score. We had a few shots. It felt like we were really hanging in there but it was just matching them. Last quarter it was the same thing until we got broken open in the last 10 minutes.”

You mentioned that you’re having trouble sustaining it, is there a way you can actually quantify where you are physically at the moment compared to where the rest of the competition is?

“Not really. Just by eye you can tell. We just need to select the fittest team we can get. There’s some guys that you’ve got no choice but to get them fit through playing footy. It’s not an excuse though. We can’t live on it. We’ve moved on from that. There’ll be some residual from what we went through but we can’t get here every week and say ‘oh, we’ve had a tough run’, so we’ve got to own it.”

Were there any positives? Tim Kelly was better this week, flew the flag through midfield?

“Those guys are good players, they’re going to work it out. Tim, he’s had a small hamstring, he’s had COVID protocols. He just needs continuity. The same with Luke (Shuey). Unfortunately Elliot (Yeo) start of the second got a bit of a knock, so unfortunate for him because he was starting to find his way too I thought. Exposing young rucks, that’s been good for them, albeit I thought we lowered our colours around that area of the ground. Some of the kids who are playing and getting a good look that’s good experience but that’s not ideal.”

What was the knock Elliot got?

“He got subbed out. I haven’t seen it, don’t know what it was but think it was more around the concussion protocols.”

Can you forecast a point where you’re largely free of the COVID situation, ie. when most of the guys have had it?

“I’m not really thinking about that. We’re still missing six of our starting 22, but it’s not really COVID related, it’s injuries and return to play. That’s not an excuse. What we’ve got and what we had tonight we thought was good enough to win. Trying to balance ourselves between what’s happened and where we’re at – and I’m more worried about that than what’s happened. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got Richmond next Friday night and the season is well and truly slipping away, so we’ve got to find a way.”

Do you get any back?

“Maybe (Jeremy) McGovern, maybe (Andrew) Gaff. (Oscar) Allen is still a few weeks away. (Tom) Cole’s long-term, (Dom) Sheed is mid-term. (Campbell) Chesser is long-term. There’s a few there but probably not straight away.”

It’s a big picture question but when you go through this does it make it easier or more difficult to deal with list management decisions?

“Obviously we’re transitioning as a side. We’ve got an eye on that. We’re trying to implement a different style of play. That’s been a challenge. And we’re trying to get as fit as we can as quick as we can. All that with an eye on the future is something we’re trying to find a balance with. We want to play to win every week but we’ve also got an eye on development and exposure of our younger players. They’ve all been exposed, it’s not like we’re holding any kids back too much. There’s a lot of youth playing in the last five weeks. It’s probably not that, it’s about the experienced, mid-to-older-age players playing their best footy – that’s our goal.”