"We got smacked in the clearances and I guess that's what we weren't happy about, the hardness at the footy. We started well, like we did last week, then in the second quarter we were fairly relaxed and dropped off and were blown out of the water."

"We've just got to be switched on for four quarters of football. We can't play a half of footy here or there and expect to win against a good team. The third quarter was better and I think we just won the last quarter, but we switched off and it's just not good enough. It's been a theme for us throughout the year."

"We had more scoring shots than the Bulldogs but they ended up 18.4 and we ended up with 14.10. You aren't going to win too many games with that."

"If you keep missing goals, you end up losing games and that's what happened today. It's a problem and the players have got to address it and the players have got to fix it. Clearly today it cost us the game. We won a lot of ball, tackled really well, played some really good footy. But at the end of the day they were cleaner with their skills and more accurate."

"It is a bit frustrating to be a forward when guys are streaming through the middle of the ground and kicking it to the opposition or kicking it along the ground or kicking into the man on the mark."

"Some of our better ball-users aren't playing, and unfortunately some of the guys who don't use the ball well are getting a game at the moment, which makes it frustrating for the coaches and for some of the players as well. And it's also some are our better players not using it as well."

"It's a concern short-term, but eventually the players will weed themselves out in order to get back to become a premiership team. That's the natural evolution of a footy team. So at the moment we've got to try and pick guys that can kick the footy."

"They are really improving significantly. Cooney was number one in the draft and Griffen was pick three. You expect those players to become good and that is what is making the difference for them now. That is the challenge for this footy club, when you don't have early draft picks."

"I'm not an emotional person where it's like we've got to beat the old side. I think it's more about being able to play well against them up here because it's such a fortress for them."

"We were against a team that plays very good contested footy, and we were able to match them in that area, and that was pleasing. The guys have a fairly strong resolve to be able to play football that way."

"I'm not one to say you needed to show the footy world, or these people are saying this about us and we've got to prove these people wrong, because that's false motivation. It was more about proving to ourselves rather than the football world. What people say about you shouldn't affect the way you go about things."

"That doesn't worry us at all. We'll just keep playing the same footy we do and people will eventually take notice. Our contested footy has been up there with the best of them this year. Things have been really positive and there's a lot of belief in the group. We are playing good footy at the moment and we just need to keep that up."

"We hadn't beaten them for a while, so that was one positive. We started the game a bit scratchy and they got a few goals up, but our second quarter, we got things going and were able to play the way we wanted to. We got a lead, which we were able to hold."