The Swans lost to the Brisbane Lions by 33 points at a rainswept Gabba in round three as Michael Voss’s men thoroughly outpointed them at the stoppages.
“I think everyone knew that and if you didn’t know it after the game, you would have known it after the review,” Kirk said before training on Tuesday.
“We all knew it was a softly, softly approach from the Swans outfit, which is not what we set out to do.
“On the weekend [against Carlton], we probably started a bit slower in the first quarter, but we were able to address that in the following three quarters.”
Kirk, who will play his 200th game this weekend, said the players hadn’t specifically spoken about their loss-win-loss-win record in the lead-up to Saturday’s game in Perth.
“I don’t think it’s a pattern. In the first four weeks, we’ve come up against four quality sides. In a season, there are lots of momentum shifts, as there are in a game of footy.” he said.
“You want to start to develop some confidence and some momentum and if you can string two or three games together early in the season, it’s going to hold you in good stead come the back end.”
Fremantle is yet to win a game this year and its last outing was an uncompetitive 83-point loss to St Kilda.
But Kirk said the Swans wouldn’t take their opponents lightly this weekend, citing Freo’s hard-fought loss to Adelaide in which Mark Harvey’s men led early in the final term.
“There’s going to be a lot of heat from the media on Fremantle after the weekend’s performance but I think they’re going to look to bounce back,” he said.
“What you find with bringing a lot of young players into your team is that there’s going to be inconsistent periods and they’re just looking to get some experience into those younger players.”
“They’ve been in winnable positions over at Subi and they’ve got a young side, so we’ll be ready for them to come out firing.”
