Take a look at some of the key quotes from coach John Longmire's press conference on Monday afternoon ahead of our clash against Collingwood.

Franklin injury

"It probably didn't help him – obviously if he'd missed that game he would have been feeling a bit better the week after, but you don't really know that at the time. We were confident going in (to the Adelaide game) that he'd be feeling OK, and he kicked three goals and played quite well for us. It's not until afterwards when you're looking in the rear vision mirror that you understand that he was a bit sore during that game. It certainly impacted on his ability to play last week."

Mike Pyke’s recovery from injury

"Pykey's first six to eight weeks of the season were really good, and then his knee started to grumble along a bit and influence his performances a bit too much. We've tried to manage that by having a game off here and there, but this time we've actually taken the load off him for a couple of weeks and we're hoping he responds really well from that. He feels really good today, but it's a training issue and then whether we're prepared to take him into the game and play him."

Lack of consistent work rate

"It's always about work rather than relying upon talent, we've been able to get some really good results both as individuals and as a team through work-rate. The week before they were outstanding against Adelaide, so it's just about consistency. Our aim is to get better this week, it's about a consistency of effort across the board from all of our players. We haven't played the way we want to play - you can't shy away from that. We've spoken about it but now it's about making sure we put it into actions. We haven't come up to scratch over the last month, it's time to get going."

Troubles scoring recently

“We haven’t really been able to put together the Gary Rohan, Ben McGlynn and Lance Franklin setup at any particular point in time. It’s always a combination of supply – how we’re getting the ball into our forward line – as well as what’s happening in our front half. It’s never one or the other.”

Moving on from Geelong loss

“We were 13 points up at quarter time and we only kicked one goal in the second half. We have reviewed the game, addressed it and now we have moved onto Collingwood. This week is a really important game as we play Collingwood on Friday night at the SCG so it is a great opportunity to make sure we have been a lot more consistent than what we have been.”

Poor form in last month

“We haven’t played the way we want to play. You can’t shy away from that, we need to plya a lot better with a lot more consistency. We have spoken about it but now we need to make sure we put it into actions. It starts against Collingwood this week and what better way to test ourselves. We haven’t come up to scratch over the last month so we need to get going.”