Dons coach Brad Scott spoke to the media post game.
I imagine losses don’t get much more devastating than that. What were the emotions after what was quite a roller-coaster game for you?
Emotions are almost irrelevant. It is what you do with the emotion and channel it into action which is what it would need to do. I mean, we... It was an interesting game. 28 scoring shots to 30. Ball bounced around a fair bit, which it... I don’t think it was either team’s intention. Players from both teams gave great effort and great bounce. It was a very good contest which we lost. We had momentum, lost momentum, got momentum. It’s just a game of momentum in the end and it is a fight game that clearly could have gone either way but the Crows executed better late than we did.
Harrison Jones of the Bombers marks the ball.Credit: Getty Images
What was more disappointing, the second quarter complete defensive meltdown or inability late to hold on to what was a three-goal lead or are they the same level of disappointment?
Neither matters that much. My opinion on those doesn’t matter much. They were both disappointing.
Where did things go wrong at the end?
We practice those situations all the time. You can practice as much as you want but it comes down to execution in the end and the Crows kicked some good goals under pressure. It wasn’t a structural issue. We’ll do a deeper analysis than we’ve already done, but it was poor execution rather than system or structure.
What was the message to the guys when you spoke to them?
That it’s a tight competition and it will come down to teams that can absorb the disappointments and whether that translates into loss or disappointment in a contest and channel it into the next contest or the next game. That’s where the season is. I mean, it’s teams... Every team in the competition’s had periods where they have been playing well and periods where they haven’t played so well. The positive for us is... And we’re not the team we want to be but even when we’re not playing our best we’re still generating or playing a style of football that gives us a good chance of winning the game. We did a lot right tonight, but we’re not where we want to be because we’re not executing for 125 minutes, we’re doing it in patches. So, that’s why we’re just... We are where we are. We’re showing good improvements, good signs, foundation of our game is solid but we’re not executing consistently enough for long enough.
It was alarming so many defensive mistakes that led to goals, almost uncharacteristic for some of the more reliable defenders. How did you see it?
It’s hard to coach skill errors. If it was a common theme it would be a real concern, but it was uncharacteristic tonight.
You say you’re not the finished article as a team but should you be further advanced from the side that gives up eight goals in a row in the second quarter and then gives up a three-goal lead with four minutes left? Should you be further down the track?
Compared to what?
Just for the experience of the side. Because, I mean, tonight there were only a couple of players under 50 games.
I think that’s being resultest. I mean, we should be better and we have put ourselves in a position where our best footy is very solid but that’s the difference between where we want to be and where we are now. So, you’re right about those things, we should be better than that and we’ve got to keep working till we are.
