The Lions fell to their sixth straight loss of 2011 and were forced to watch on as their new cross-town rivals enjoyed the spoils of victory on the Club’s own home ground in the first ever QClash.
Lions full-back Daniel Merrett said the entire team was feeling the pain.
“It definitely hurt,” Merrett said at the team’s recovery session on Sunday.
“I didn’t get much sleep after the game. I just laid there running the game through my head about a million times.”
“We were all very flat after the game.”
“But I think it’s a good thing that the boys are hurting so much. When it comes down to it, it’s just not acceptable to keep putting up those sorts of performances.”
“We’re here to win games and we haven’t been able to do that yet this season.”
In a surprise move, Merrett started the match up forward but was forced back to his regular position at full-back after the Lions were under siege early.
“I was put up forward to make a contest, but the ball never really came down in that first quarter so it’s a bit hard to judge (whether it was a successful move),” Merrett said.
“They started really well and smashed us in the contested footy and in the clearances.”
“I always felt we were going to come back late in the game, but I think we gave up too much ground too early.”
While the hurt still runs deep among Lions fans, Merrett said the team must now move on and put last weekend’s disappointment behind them.
“A week’s a long time in football, and we have got Essendon at home this weekend,” he said.
“We have just got to all group together now. We’re seven rounds into the season and it’s such a long year.”
“There’s no point in us just giving up now. We have to dig in and fight our way out of this because there’s no other way.”
Merrett says the responsibility for the team’s poor start to the season should rest solely on the players and not Senior Coach Michael Voss.
“Vossy has the players’ 100% support,” Merrett said.
“The problem is coming from us players not executing the game plan.”
