Sydney midfielder Isaac Heeney spoke to the media on Monday. Find out what he had to say about the loss to Collingwood, the upcoming clash against Port Adelaide, and his time stepping in as Captain. 

On the loss to Collingwood

"It was a bit of a disappointing one to be honest, we fought pretty well for the start of the year and we just felt like our contest wasn't there on the day and they're a good quality, experienced side and in the end they beat us in a lot of aspects, a lot of key aspects. We're disappointed, but we do have a young squad, like you said, and we'll be back on the park and we'll get onto Port, who are obviously flying at the moment with their last performance."

On reviewing the match

"He's awesome, Coxy's great at being direct, figuring out what went wrong but also getting around the fellas and diving into the emotional and the mental side of things as well and it was really good. It was tough to go and see some of the efforts we put up as a team which was so different to what we put into the first month of footy so that was disappointing but he's really good and then you get out there and move on from it and now we focus on Port and focus on us."

On what needs to be worked on

"You obviously see the balance of players contributing and I think it starts with our defence. Our defence was poor on the weekend and we know when we get that right, our attack flows so the boys can play off instinct and we're going to need a step up from a lot of boys seeing that we're missing a lot of key players that do kick our goals so whether it comes from the midfield or these new fellas coming through that are putting pressure on in the forward line, I'm sure we've got the team that we can do it but we just need to do it as a team."

On Port Adelaide

"I don't watch much footy but I did watch that one and their first half was pretty scary to be honest, the way they put the scores on the board and I think it started in the midfield, they got to work in there and we know it's going to be a massive battle. It always is kind of a battle of the midfield when it comes to Port Adelaide with us and they tore it up in the weekend and hopefully we can stop some of their halfbackers especially coming through and kicking goals and really setting up in attack so if we nullify a few of those hopefully we can go close to getting the job done."

On results against Port last year

"We'll touch on them a little bit yeah but also we're slightly different in the way we go about things this year as well and we'll focus on ourselves as well. But we'll definitely go into their game style and I'm sure it hasn't changed too much from last year but there'll be some key personnel that we'll need to get after as well."

On being patient with the youth in the side

"It was a bit of both, I think you've got to be patient but at the same time I think the gap between our younger players and our VFL side, the gap between those players and our senior side is really tightening so it's good to see these young fellas come in and play specific roles and actually play really well. Even though we didn't play well on the weekend, we had some real key contributors in the younger fellas that are inexperienced against such a quality side and an experienced side so patience is key but at the same time we want to bring everyone along as fast as we can and be competitive every week."

On stepping in as Captain

"It's been fun, it doesn't necessarily change too much other than game day. I think we've got such a good, strong core leadership group that we can share it and on game day throughout the week it kind of ease the load on Millsy to do everything, especially when he needs to be focusing on himself with his injuries and what not so it doesn't change too much. You've just got that pre-game speech in the huddle which I said it again, I'm not great with so I'll let the other boys that generally have some energy spark the boys up, but no it's been a good learning curve to dive into the leadership sort of aspect of things."

On McInerney returning from suspension

"He's one of those who just cracks in and does everything for the team, he'll be the hardest I guess running player defensively in the game and you know that he's going to crack in and have your back as a player, similar to Rowey in that aspect that he's a real team player so he's going to be massive this week."