WESTERN Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney has criticised his senior players for "walking around aimlessly" and setting a poor example during their 72-point loss to Hawthorn on Sunday night.
The "lost" Dogs plummeted to a new low against the Hawks at Etihad Stadium, McCartney lamented.
Watch Brendan McCartney and Matthew Boyd's post match press conference on the media player above.
"To capitulate - and that's a good word, I think - the way we did was as disappointing as we've been," McCartney said post-match.
"We just lost our way. There were a lot of people walking around aimlessly.
"There were people walking around just lost in the moment and not coming back to the team, and that's probably more disappointing than the score because that's a behaviour we've just got to fix up."
View the match report and BulldogsTV highlights from the game.
However, McCartney insisted the breakdown wasn't attitude-based.
"Sometimes in a game when it swirls around you, you just get lost and you end up chasing the ball [rather than being] on your man, or you get so reactive and worried about your opponent getting the ball [that] you don’t go for the ball," he said.
"I saw some experienced players lost in their actions, and I saw some young players seeing those behaviours and getting caught up in it too.
"I'm not camouflaging it - [there] wasn't enough grunt out there today … We want to see a bit more fight.
"That little 10-minute patch in the third quarter is not what we want to be. We want to be able to hang in there.
"We're disappointed - probably more disappointed than I'm conveying now, to be honest."
However, McCartney insisted the breakdown wasn't attitude-based.
"Sometimes in a game when it swirls around you, you just get lost and you end up chasing the ball [rather than being] on your man, or you get so reactive and worried about your opponent getting the ball [that] you don’t go for the ball," he said.
"I saw some experienced players lost in their actions, and I saw some young players seeing those behaviours and getting caught up in it too.
"I'm not camouflaging it - [there] wasn't enough grunt out there today … We want to see a bit more fight.
"That little 10-minute patch in the third quarter is not what we want to be. We want to be able to hang in there.
"We're disappointed - probably more disappointed than I'm conveying now, to be honest."
Bulldogs skipper Matthew Boyd, who had a game-high 37 disposals in his 200th game, admitted the defeat hurt.
"You don't play the game to lose like that," Boyd said. "It's not so much margin or the result, it's some of the behaviours out there that we don’t really accept and stand for ... It snowballed."
In other bad news for the Bulldogs, McCartney was unsure about the extent of the hamstring injury suffered by Lukas Markovic but suggested the defender mightn't play for "a while".
Markovic only recently returned after recovering from a tear in his hamstring tendon - an injury that sidelined him for nine weeks.
"You don't play the game to lose like that," Boyd said. "It's not so much margin or the result, it's some of the behaviours out there that we don’t really accept and stand for ... It snowballed."
In other bad news for the Bulldogs, McCartney was unsure about the extent of the hamstring injury suffered by Lukas Markovic but suggested the defender mightn't play for "a while".
Markovic only recently returned after recovering from a tear in his hamstring tendon - an injury that sidelined him for nine weeks.
