That was the frank assessment from Western Bulldogs' assistant coach Leon Cameron after the club's first intra-club hit-out on Wednesday morning at Whitten Oval.
The Dogs played four 15-minute quarters under sunny skies at the Kennel, just over a week before they will pack their bags and fly north for their first NAB Cup assignment against Essendon in Darwin.
The majority of the list took part in the scratch match and all but two escaped unscathed, with young gun Jarrad Grant (ankle) and forward Stephen Tiller (corked calf) sustaining minor ailments.
"Grant copped a little knock on his ankle in the third quarter, and whether or not that's going to hold him back, we don't know, but we think he'll be fine," Cameron told afl.com.au after the game.
"Tiller got a corked calf in the second. He's another who improved last year and he's had a good pre-season and hopefully his body stays right.
"He should be right for next week. It was just a minor knock.
"Like all practice matches, you just want 36 to start and 36 to finish the game, but you'll probably lose two or three with corkies and things like that.
"You just don't want any major injuries, and we got through well."
Cameron said the coaches were satisfied overall with the match that saw the club's new young talent, including Grant, Ayce Cordy, Jordan Roughead, Jamason Daniels and Liam Picken, on show.
"It was good. It was pretty scrappy but their body work and their hardness was fantastic," Cameron said.
"The work ethic around the contests was good. Like all practice matches, they're not going to whiz around with perfect kicks and handballs, and there was a fair bit of fumbling.
"They've got seven weeks to get that right. In terms of the work rate though, it was great, and the young guys stood up. It was a good stepping stone for all of them.
"[Shaun] Higgins got a fair bit of the footy playing in the midfield. He's still got a bit of work to do and he's working on his fitness to push in to the midfield.
"[Daniel] Cross, [Matthew] Boyd and [Daniel] Giansiracusa were all up and running too, so that was good.
"It was also good to see Tom Williams out there, finally. Hopefully he can get a bit of luck this year."
Brad Johnson and Nathan Eagleton played the majority of the match despite already being ruled out of travelling to Darwin, while Mitch Hahn and Scott Welsh played three quarters and Andrejs Everitt (glandular fever) had a light run.
Fullback Brian Lake, who is recovering from hip surgery, played out the match and spent time on Johnson and Will Minson.
Cameron said the 26-year-old is still no certainty to travel to the Top End despite the encouraging hit-out.
"We're still tossing up with Lake. He's still coming off his rehab program and the NAB Cup is early and with a staggered start, he might not be ready to play an AFL game," he said.
"We'll probably toss that up at the start of next week."
He added a decision on whether the injury-prone Williams will be ready to finally return to the field next Friday night will also be made then.
"He'll be like Lake. He's done most of the pre-season but he's coming off his shoulder and if he's right to go, we'll play him," he said.
Absent from Wednesday's game were Adam Cooney (knee), Ryan Griffen (family reasons), Liam Jones (school), Jason Akermanis (calf) and Jarrad Boumann (shoulder/knee).
Robert Murphy, who is also on the comeback trail from knee surgery, was out on the park assisting the coaches.
"He's on schedule and we'll stick to his plan. He's a couple of weeks away from joining in and we don't expect him to take too long to pick up his fitness again."
