ALAN Richardson has refused to blame inexperience for St Kilda's capitulation against Carlton on Sunday and instead says the players didn't work hard enough.
He also flagged changes for next Saturday's clash with North Melbourne in Hobart after being deeply disappointed with a number of efforts.
The Saints' leadership group went behind closed doors after the 85-point loss on Sunday at Etihad Stadium following the usual post-match meeting.
Richardson said while it wasn't unusual for the leaders to immediately discuss how to deal with the fallout from a game, Sunday's gathering was "a real questioning review of the performance".
He said Leigh Montagna – kept to no possessions in the first quarter and 13 for the game by Ed Curnow and Andrejs Everitt – wasn't injured and was simply 'outworked'.
And he believed the key message to come out of the post-match assessments was that the Saints wouldn't fix things "by feeling sorry for ourselves".
"This is not completely foreign in terms of the space that we knew we were going to be in, but the effort is disappointing and we're going to work our butts off on the training track to make sure that we turn it around," Richardson said.
"We got what we deserved. AFL footy is a hard caper – to win or to be competitive is always tough and we just had way too many blokes that weren't prepared to fight.
"There's a real spirit that's required, a competitive spirit to play at this level, and we just didn't have enough guys that were prepared to work hard enough for long enough to give us a chance to be competitive.
"There will be changes made to that team - we can't dish up that sort of performance and still have the same guys have the honour and the opportunity to represent the club."
Captain Nick Riewoldt struggled to hide his frustration at the ball delivery he received at times.
The Saints made a charge in the second quarter and got within 15 points but their horrible foot skills from the first term returned after half-time.
While Richardson acknowledged how difficult it would be for Riewoldt to be receiving such inconsistent delivery, he was more disappointed with their lack of defensive pressure.
"The reality is, [Carlton] kicked 16 goals from our turnovers," he said.
"We butchered the footy, but more importantly and significantly given the conversations we're having and the space we're in, we did nothing about it to be able to defend that, so that was really disappointing.
"When you turn up and do it in the second quarter it only illustrates to a greater level that we're choosing when it's time to have a crack or we're choosing that I couldn't be stuffed.
"Our kicking was poor, our use of the ball was poor, but there are a lot of teams that at times don't make the most of their opportunities with the footy but can defend it – and we need to be there."
The Saints have averaged only six goalkickers a game this season and didn't better that on Sunday with six again.
While Lenny Hayes is a chance to return from groin soreness and Sam Fisher got through the VFL on Saturday unscathed, options to support Riewoldt in the immediate future are few.
Tom Lee will have season-ending shoulder surgery this week and Beau Maister and Arryn Siposs also hurt their shoulders on Saturday.
Richardson believes the next era of St Kilda forwards will come from a combination of players already at the club and from the draft with Rhys Stanley, Josh Bruce – who played forward as a junior – and ruckmen Billy Longer and Tom Hickey possibilities to fill a longer-term role.
He also said Spencer White could get a senior opportunity "sooner than perhaps he normally might" given their situation.
