Senior coach Brendan McCartney McCartney has built a reputation for his level approach to football but he is no stranger to the hard line approach when it is necessary.

“I am generally a pretty optimistic bloke,” McCartney said.

“But at the same time we don’t miss reality here. We don’t live in dream world, if there’s a part of our game that’s not up to scratch, well we show it on this big screen behind me.

“We highlight people and we give them a drill to work on, and then when we get a bit of a change and a fix up, we reinforce it, just the same as most clubs do.”

Consistent in his message since arriving at the Club, McCartney’s focus has been on empowering his young team to handle all phases of the game for longer periods.

“What we believe we are building here is a way of playing that can deal with a mess, can deal with an open game, can create the game the way we want,” he said.

McCartney said that although his team faded out in the last quarter against the Kangaroos, it had positives to draw on, and a full four quarter performance wasn’t far way.

“We did a lot right Sunday, we didn’t do it perfectly - there were things at times during the game which cost us goals that were avoidable.

“That’s where we fit but we might be a bit closer than the scoreboard showed and a bit closer to where we want to go than people think at the moment.”