Laidley said the main reason for his side's loss was a significant training load, which is why he believed his side looked like it was "running through mud".
Still, he questioned if a defeat by more than eights goals was mental or physical.
“We've been going through a really heavy training phase and we were always a bit concerned coming into our first game," Laidley said.
“But we've put that aside and thought we'll keep going this way and the way we want to go, rather than try and be cherry ripe for the middle of Feb.
"We've still got a couple of weeks of it, before we really lighten off and go into round one, but still, you never want to get beaten by that much.
Laidley also said his side turned the ball over too much out of defence, something he believed "was as worse as it had been".
"[Michael] Firrito had four turnovers and it cost us three goals and there were a couple of others and they kicked 12 goals from our turnovers," Laidley said.
Still, Laidley was able to find several positives from the match, including the debut performance of midfielder/forward Jack Ziebell, who was the ninth player selected in last year's NAB AFL Draft.
"Ziebell, I thought he was outstanding and you see why the coach has got a smile on his face and the supporters will as well," he said.
"He was very good and he's been probably looked after a little bit more because it's his first preparation, but for him to attack the footy like that as a 17-year-old, just [shows] outstanding qualities.
"He's played midfield/forward in the under 18s and we thought let's stick him down there [in attack], so we didn't give him too much game time up in the midfield, because it's going to be a long year for him, but I thought he was good."
Laidley also praised the efforts of Andrew Swallow, Hamish McIntosh, Gavin Urquhart and David Hale. He also said Daniel Wells was "pretty good".
