Michael what did you make of today’s game?

Really disappointing, I though our first half was really poor. We gave up a 43-point margin at halftime which is way too much, we need to look our first quarters in particular. After that the ball lived in our front end during the third quarter we just couldn’t capitalise. We need a bit of composure going forward and then we need to hit our set shots. Our starts are definitely a concern.

Getting into the game in the first quarter was also a problem last year is it the same habits coming through as that team you couldn’t iron out in the off-season?

No I don’t think you can say it has anything to do with our off-season, I think more than anything it’s more a mental issue. We need to get on top of that and players need to look at how they prepare for the game and if it’s not working makes some changes and try something new. We will do the same as coaches, we will adjust our pre-game routine and what that looks like including warmup etc. We can’t just keep rolling on and doing the same thing so we will make some changes in that regard.

Was the slow start to the game down to intensity or structure?

You got the pay credit to Essendon, I thought they were fantastic early and I thought they dominated the ball. We slowly started to turn it around, we got back in the fight at least. It took us a while to get that happening but when we won the hard ball and got our hands on it at clearance the game started to change a little bit in our favour. But the damage was already done at that point.

When you did get the ball back on your terms Ella Roberts was fantastic alongside Emma Swanson as well.

Roberts was outstanding today, from a coaching point of view I wanted her forward, I wanted her in the midfield but there is only one of her, so we had to deal with that. Our captain led by example today, she was outstanding. She really led the way with courageous marks in our defensive 50 early in the game and set the tone for how to attack the footy and win the contested ball, so others need to jump on board and follow her lead.

To lose to an expansion club, a club you’ve got a three year head start on, what does that say about the development of the group?

Essendon have done really well with their recruiting and a lot of them played together in the VFL. When you look at us, we turned our list over massively by 15 which is the most in the competition’s history. It’s going to take us a little bit of time, but we believe we are on the right path, we believe in our players and believe what we are doing off the field and it will turn at some point for us.

Your skipper copped a knock on what it looked like was her ankle, is she alright?

Yeah, she came off briefly with a cork and was pretty keen to get back on so yeah she is fine.