You had some bad injuries and a five-day break but some commentators have called that an insipid performance – is that a fair description or not?

I think half-way through the second we thought we were in the game and they made some skill errors towards the back end and put ourselves in doubt with the ball in hand.

We have got the statistics, 35-10 for clearances Richmond’s way and 37-11 first possessions and that made us defend and they had territory honours.

We cannot pick and choose when we want to jump in and play. For a quarter and a bit we were good and last week we were good for the whole game and that is something we have to address.

That was a trend and it was a poor game and we did not handle their pressure and their pressure was very good and we had the ability to kick the ball and take some ground off them and we took a handball and we spoke about taking some territory and we were 6-12 in the first three minutes of the last quarter. There were aspects of the game where we lost confidence and around the ball we were poor.

Was the message at three-quarter time that you wanted them to toughen up or were you disappointed in that aspect of the game?

No doubt about it and when you have a quarter like that, you expect that but we had the advantage that we could have taken in the centre and we were losing centre bounce clearances as much as anything else and it is going the other way and so that was very disappointing.

We missed Marshall tonight, no doubt, and we must wait. But he will be back and Paddy Ryder might be 1-2 weeks away so we have to do something about it.

You have had similar issues over recent weeks, what might that come down to?

We move forward three steps and go back five. That is a bit that we cannot pick and choose in this space and the game has gone back to a lot of contested ball, disputed ball, and it is an area of the game that was highlighted when we started playing and it is more than ever now and the games are longer and last year was a shortened form of the game but you have to be good in the space.

Do you think you might have to make a statement at the selection table to drive the message home?

Yes and no. We have given players the opportunity to bounce back and that was something that happened this week and Nick Coffield has not been in super form but it was pleasing tonight and he has started to mark the ball and on a night when we played poorly in the second half, we have had some players that have got their form going and I suppose the ball was down there so much that he had to join in.

We have given players the chance to bounce back and we have still got a fair few on the injury list and I think there are a few returning this week that are playing their first game so we can’t touch them yet.

There were about four missed shots in the first half, they might not have changed the result, but momentum is a big deal

I think that is something that we were very good at last year with the efficiency going forward and the scoring and the accuracy was through the roof but the game has thrown as different challenges and there are crowds and there were no crowds for the first half of last year and they come into play.

We will keep working on. You have talked about the forwards. I think that King will be a good player for the club and he is working through that and getting into a routine and we also have Tim [Membrey] who is a very good player so no one is wanting to miss goals. It would be nice to put them under some scoreboard pressure early and that might help the momentum and confidence levels and things like that because they do sway in games.