On the result:

“It’s frustrating – I think that’s the word. Sometimes it spills over to more extreme emotions, but when you get beaten, I like to give the opposition credit where it’s due.

“There’s a lot going on that seemed to be in our favour – (we created) enough opportunities but didn’t capitalise on them.

“We had them sort of under control or on the mat at different times...they just got scores too easily.

“It’s a frustrating afternoon but credit to Fremantle who won the game.”

On the second-quarter blitz:

“We talked about what happened in that second quarter at halftime – you often try and discover the ‘why’ and ‘why did that happen?’. The scoreboard was pretty even at quarter time, but the bang for buck that Fremantle got from their entries was just too easy.

“They kicked 4.2 from about 10 entries. It’s just way too much – they were also end-to-end transitions at times too, where we lost too many 1v1s or had a free kick against us which went the whole way.

“We couldn’t recover and couldn’t get any delay on how quick the Sherrin came out of our forward line.

“In the second quarter, there was a patch of that again which was just uncharacteristic – broken tackles, the contest looked different, and they just played through us way too easily. That will play on our minds.

“We felt like we were coming (late) but just couldn’t finish the play or score from so many entries. It was just a shame.”

On the last quarter approach:

“We tried a few things. We thought with Luke Jackson coming off, we’d have a definite advantage in that so we actually got some clearance through what we were doing to make the most of that, but we just didn’t score from it.

“I don’t necessarily think we let them play they wanted to play, but they got some cheapies. They kicked a lot of goals from however many entries they had.

“It was a combination of us not getting it done, but symptomatic of how we use the footy. They were really able to trampoline out of different situations because we blatantly gave it back to them or missed our chances.”

On Sam Darcy’s output:

“He was a real winner for us again. I thought we got a bit too Sam-conscious in the last quarter, and probably kicked it to him a bit too much.

“We had different options – and why wouldn’t you (kick it to him) at times – but it becomes too predictable. We’ve got enough threats and I thought James O’Donnell and Aaron Naughton fought their way through it.

“Sam was just really strong and solid again for us.”

On Laith Vandermeer:

“He had a clicking in his knee which started to affect his game. He couldn’t reach his sort of top-end speed.

“We had to pull the trigger on the sub quite early. We’ll get back to you on what that actually is once we know more about it this week.”

On Rory Lobb:

“He’s a really important and pivotal player in our backline. He’s become that pretty quickly in the new position.

“Now, even in times where you’re thinking of who to swing forward, you’re reluctant to send him forward because he’s such an important interceptor and provides security to our back end.

“It’s a credit to him for how he’s been able to work through that, and to establish himself as a pretty influential key defender.”