How do you reflect?

“I think it was pretty obvious to everyone the second quarter was a really disappointing quarter, in particular around the midfield, stoppages and scramble of the game. I thought we got dominated. That’s the game in a nutshell, a quarter like that. It has probably happened a little bit in recent times where we do have a quarter like that. But to have a bit of resilience, the boys look fit, so they’ve worked really hard on that and to start to see the players gel in the second half – we’ll take some positives from that. It is about the journey. Four debutants, probably four players who didn’t play last year and just getting that synergy, we know it’s going to take a bit of time, but we can’t accept that second quarter.”

That second quarter there were some hallmarks of slow ball movement, chipping it around and losing control defensively, do you think it’s going to take a long time for everyone to become a team again?

“You can’t put a finger on how long it’s going to take, but we saw some growth in the second half. What comes first is not ball movement, it’s winning the ball, so the inability to win the footy put us on the back foot and we’re not going to win games from the back half – it just doesn’t happen. It might have looked slow, it might have looked like we were chipping it around a bit, but if we can’t win the ball in the middle we’re going to be on the back foot. Not many teams can rebound from the back half and get the lead. I thought at half-time we did adjust a little bit, did a couple of things, North got a bit tired and we stayed in there a little bit. The better team won on the day, but there is some resilience there.”

You’ve still got some experience in the middle, what’s your message to those experienced heads when those things happen?

“It’s pretty pragmatic. We can’t accept those fadeaways but we liked the effort in the second half. We’ll keep working on it, we’ve been working on it all summer. Our younger rucks are still learning the craft, we’ve got some young players through midfield with (Campbell) Chesser and Reuben (Ginbey). As the game on went on those kids all did something, it was like ‘OK, there’s something there’. I think Reuben had 12 or 13 tackles, so there’s something there to work with. And then our leaders and older players continue to need to stand up for us, that’s what we rely on.”

That second quarter does it set off alarm bells? You said it is things that have popped up in the past. How do you look at it?

“It’s a challenge when you’re getting beaten around the ball. It’s contest and it’s stoppage to stoppage, or contest to contest, it’s hard to rectify that. We did some structural things that stopped the bleeding a little bit, but it took us to half-time to work through things, but that’s the game. Like I said it happened a little bit against Adelaide and it happened against Port (in pre-season), we’ve just got to keep working on getting better there.”

Not having Nic Nat in the middle changes everything for you … how do you fix the gap between what he can do and what your next wave can do?

“We’ve got young ruckmen, so they’re just going to take time. They always take the longest time to develop. Bailey (Williams) is 22, 23. We subbed out young Jamo (Callum Jamieson) just after half-time and brought in some speed, but those two held us up a lot last year with Nic not playing and they’ve learnt a lot. They’ve grown, they’ve got better, but it’s just not consistent, along with some of our mids.”

Does it make you thing we need to get Nic back as soon as possible?

“Nic’s a champion. He’s a legacy player for us. We’d love to get Yeoy (Elliot Yeo) back as well, but we need to see these kids come through and give them opportunity and find that balance between those players playing and younger guys stepping up as we transition our list. It’s all part of it.”

Liam Ryan had a really good second half, he seemed to work into the contest really well?

“Yeah, I thought he was good. That forward line is new, but it’s not as new as you probably think with (Jack) Darling, (Oscar) Allen, Ryan, (Jamie) Cripps, but then you throw in (Jack) Petruccelle and (Noah) Long and (Jamaine) Jones. The challenge for us is to get some footy and some supply. I thought they worked OK. We got better defensively on our entries as the game went as well, but I’m parking the second quarter here, which I can’t. North were really good. Really good method with their shape in terms of handball, got us back through the corridor, we collapsed in on the contest too much, but we adjusted a little bit after half-time.”

There’s been optimism over summer, with players coming back and fitness, does today rock you when it doesn’t turn into the result you wanted?

“It’s about the journey. We thought we could’ve won today, absolutely, but we didn’t. We now need to reflect and review, and get better, but it’s round one. Winning feels better than losing, no doubt about that, but no I’m not rocked by it.”

Is Nic (Naitanui) any chance next week?

“Nic’s week-to-week, so when we get some clarity about how long that will be … he’s more unlikely than likely.”

How important for Oscar Allen to get one under the belt?

“He’s just one of those four guys who didn’t play last year. Tommy Cole, Chesser, Dom Sheed, they didn’t play any football. To get another game under your belt, working with Jack and the rest of the forwards, the same with Dom. Jack missed six weeks, so he was a bit rusty but really happy he was out there. It will just be another step towards where we’re heading today, unfortunately we didn’t win though.”

Alex Witherden with that shoulder knock is he OK?

“I think so. He finished off the game. I haven’t got a report yet but think we’re not too bad.”