Senior coach John Longmire took time to reflect on today's loss to the Cats, as well as what has been a season like no other.
Going down by just a straight kick after holding the lead for the majority of the match, Longmire stressed that his side's next step is to learn to secure those tough wins.
"I thought we did a lot right...I thought our players played with a real energy and passion and we’re playing against a team with a lot on the line," Longmire said.
"Our blokes jumped out of the blocks and head a real crack. We missed some opportunities in that 2nd quarter that would've been good to get when you’ve momentum, we just mucked up some basic skill errors forward of centre. But there was a lot to like, unfortunately we just didn’t get there in the end."
After losing in similar circumstances to Carlton last week, Longmire quickly put to bed speculation that his side are comfortable with the loss, despite taking the positives from these tough contests.
"There’s never such thing as a good loss. It’s has been a challenging year for everyone in the industry - some of the challenges the players have had have been extraordinary. But the AFL have done a really good job to get the season and it’s been an interesting experience for a young team to be traveling all over Australia and we’ve got a lot out of it. Our players have had a terrific attitude the whole way through." Longmire said.
"We’re a young team and we’ve been getting games into young blokes, but games won’t be enough to make the jump. That next step doesn’t automatically happen, we need to make it happen - and that’s our next step. We’ll take some of the positives out of this year, but know we need to make the next step. As we saw in the last quarter you’ve got to grab it with both hands, you can’t sit back and wait. That’s our challenge as a team."
Reflecting on the season as a whole, Longmire believes his boys can walk away with their heads held high in what has been a challenging year, as they look to build in 2021.
"We’re taking steps forward, and hopefully people can see that - both the way we play and who we play. We won’t accept near enough is good enough," Longmire said.
"We want to win every game we’re in - I tell the players not to be patient, be impatient - there’s nothing wrong with that if that’s what drives you as an individual and as a team - that’s okay. We’re driving the standards of the group and that’s our next step."
When asked about whether the challenges of this season will hold his young side in good stead heading into next season, Longmire noted you simply have to wait and see, and continue to improve.
"The proof will be in the pudding. We had a very young group, we feel like that young group has joined together and enjoyed their time. Once again I want to thank the AFL and their staff for the effort because it’s been remarkable. It’s hard to say it’s hard to give an indication of what will happen next year. We had 7 debutants this year and we thought we got a bit out of that, but we still need to get better. We think we’ve improved our young midfielders. That was an area we needed to regenerate, and we feel like with Rowbottom, Blakey, Florent - we’ve got guys that are giving us something in the middle, it’s certainly something that’s starting to come together well," Longmire said.
