Where did it go wrong?

The start wasn’t great, beaten up around the ball, around the contest, and they were really efficient in the front half, in particular the first quarter. Then the second quarter, we got some supply, which we haven’t had for a fair few weeks, and our inability to keep it in the front half was not good enough. I think for the night they would’ve kicked probably at least eight goals from our forward half, which is a reflection of how you defend behind your ball movement. So the second quarter in particular, they must have kicked six goals from our front half. So that’s a new problem, but we settled a bit after half time, went back and gave a bit more effort in the second half, and I think we won the second half, but our first and second quarters were not good enough.

The Giants came in with a depleted side, does this make the loss harder to take?

We’re working on what we need to work on, obviously they’ve got a new coach, players coming in and out as well, so we’re dealing with our own issues which we’re working through with our availability. But that doesn’t excuse these parts in the game where we’re not competitive. For the past month we’ve had little wins here and there. Strangely enough, we had probably more wins today in the second half than the last few weeks. But the opposition was a bit different than Melbourne, all due respect to the Giants. We were unable to put four quarters together, and when we don’t, we’re getting really punished.

What’s the update with Luke Shuey?

It’s not a hamstring, I think it was back related. The message that came through was that his back’s getting really tight, I think long flight, all that sort of stuff, it’s nothing to do with a hamstring, put it that way.

How hard is it to maintain resolve?

It’s different, it’s a challenge, but it’s one that we’re up for, and it’s not going to be a quick fix. So, we’ve tried to introduce and stabilize some things off field and around the club, and how we really want to develop and improve all of our players. We’re not healthy at the moment, we’ve got 23 players available, but that doesn’t excuse effort. So, what we’re looking for is four quarters of effort, we didn’t get that today, but it’s a slow burn. So, we’re not going to turn the corner tomorrow, we’ve got to get healthy, we’ve got to get fit, and then we’ve got to get more consistent.

You’ve got two spots available in the midseason draft, do you have any idea where you’ll go with those?

No, I don’t, we’re meeting in the next week or so to go through that, it’s coming up pretty quick, but we’ve had a few list management meetings regarding what’s in front of us, so that’ll be probably the first thing we need to address.

What do you put down to the lack of pressure?

Probably a bit of all, I think we just couldn’t get the ball back from the Giants in the second quarter, the first 10 minutes, that just wasn’t good enough, so on the back foot, and knowing the Giants if they start on the front foot, they’re hard to stop. So, we need to look at it, we’re not hiding away from it, so got to be honest whether it’s a senior player, or a second or third gamer. We want to be more consistent and that’s our challenge, until you’re consistent in that area, you’re going to struggle. So, we’re pretty clear about what we need to do, now it’s just getting on with it.

Few positives with Callum Jamieson in the ruck and Isiah Winder up forward?

Take some little wins out of today, and ‘Issy’ kicking three, really good for him, probably played four or five games, a couple as a sub. And Jamieson, must be his third game, was good. He was exciting, pleasantly impressed with his ability to adapt to the contest. And he’s still probably got some kilos to put on, but he competes and that’s what we admire, that’s what we like, so we’ll keep growing that.

Were there any other positives?

We challenged the guys at half time, and the trend is you’re out of the game at half time and that’s tough to stay resilient with, so we’re finding out a lot about all of us at the moment. I thought they responded, they hung in there with the contest stuff, they worked a little bit harder, looked like it anyway, and the ball movement was a little bit better. At the moment, the last thing we’re looking at is our ball movement, because we want to get the other things right. But it’s definitely part of us getting better as well. So, more supply this week, probably kicked our highest score of the year, so they’re little wins we’ll take. But when we’re off, we’re way off, and we’ve got to close that down.

Was Luke Shuey more of a precaution when he came off?

I don’t know, I didn’t get the details, but the message came out and said we need to sub ‘Boots’ out, he’s got a sore back. And I said, ‘has it got anything to do with a hamstring?’ And they said, ‘no, we think it’s just back related.’ But I thought he’s missed a bit of footy, I thought you really noticed him when he was around the ball, so he’ll only get better. We probably don’t have too many soldiers coming back next week, but if (Elliot) Yeo, (Dom) Sheed and (Nic) Naitanui come into that midfield, then it might look a little bit different. Our front half is missing Willie (Rioli) and Liam (Ryan), so we’ll continue to work with this group, there’s parts of today that just weren’t good enough, but there’s parts we’ll keep growing, and we’ll be pretty pragmatic on Monday with it.

What does it say about Luke Shuey’s resilience?

He’s bloody resilient, I’ll give you that. But, I think we walk away from today taking it as a positive. What he gave us, what he got out of the game, part of his build, he didn’t play every minute before that either. To be honest, he’s probably still two, three weeks away of getting those minutes in before he gets the flow of the game. And unfortunately that’s just the way it is with a lot of our senior players coming back, so he wasn’t our biggest issue today, at all. We were quite happy with what he gave us.