WALYALUP'S goalkicking woes may have been escalated by a "contagious" effect, but coach Justin Longmuir is confident the Dockers can kick their way clear as quickly as they've slipped into the slump.
The Dockers were comfortably the better side in the second half of their 17-point victory over Euro-Yroke, but a week after scoring 4.15, produced a 9.18 effort.
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"It's frustrating for the players at times when that happens, but I thought they stuck to their guns and stuck to their task, didn't let frustration get to them, they just played the next phase and created another opportunity for ourselves," Longmuir said.
"We'll just get to work on our execution, it's all you can do, and make sure it's not our full focus, because our full focus needs to be on other areas of the game. Sometimes, it's harder to get the shots than finish them off.
"Sixteen marks inside forward 50 against a really good backline, so we're doing a lot right. The finish will come, we just need to keep working at it and chipping away.
"We need to have shots in better areas, there were times we blazed away, especially the back end of that third quarter, we could have looked lateral and low to get shots from better areas. That's one thing. At times, the pressure of missed shots builds on every individual having a shot. We need to get better at handling that.
"Sometimes you just go through these little patches where it becomes contagious. We can get out of it just as quickly as we got into it, because I don't think our goalkicking was an issue – creating opportunities was more of an issue at times throughout the year."
Longmuir said regardless of the final finishing touches, he was pleased with how his side responded in the second half, after the Saints arguably had the edge in the first.
"I thought the second half we were pretty dominant, lots of territory and created lots of opportunities, defended our front half really well," he said.
"I thought our contest lifted, especially post-clearance (possession). They gave us a bit of a touch-up in that area of the game in the first half, we were minus 18, which led to field position – both in front of the ball and behind the ball – losing contests.
"We were able to tidy that up, which gave us field position. We were able to then defend that field position and the obvious thing is, we didn't finish our work."
Ross Lyon said Euro-Yroke "walked away bitterly disappointed" with the result, after scores were level at three-quarter time.
"Obviously, we're disappointed. Two contrasting halves, first half we were actually quite pleased, 28 entries to 21, felt like in a lot of ways we left a bit on the table. A few of the things we came in to do – we controlled (Caleb) Serong, we were always worried about their midfield and their potential dominance, we were doing some things that were working for us," Lyon said.
"I wouldn't say we were buoyant (at half-time), but we thought we left a little bit on the table. We wanted more of it. They got well on top in round-the-ground stoppages, got ground position and we just couldn't really wrestle it back.
"We were trying to do lots of things to stem the bleeding. We got a little bit of entries later in the fourth, but it was only their inaccuracy that kept us anywhere near it, to be honest. We're really disappointed, we made a lot of changes – six – we'll keep turning things over, keep educating. We thought some of our … patterns were at the lower end, our ability to cover the colour and find the people isn't the standard I'm used to."
Lyon rested three experienced players in Tim Membrey, Seb Ross and Liam Stocker, and dropped another three for the clash – and said he would continue to rotate through his squad.
"We've got to try and reward form, we rewarded a bit, we’ll look at who delivered," he said.
"We're trying to stay positive – Serong really is a star, and (Marcus) Windhager (in a tagging role) would have learnt a bit, (Luke) Jackson and (Rowan) Marshall had a battle, Roey's been pretty good. I thought the defenders tried to hang on, but [the ball] got there pretty quick.
"Some of our mid patterns and high-forward patterns, we didn't enjoy, they opened us up a bit. I thought Max King was pretty positive, looked a lot better tonight, attacked the ball really well. We've got a lot of work to do.
"Mattaes (Phillipou) got an opportunity, didn't grab it today. Bit frustrated. I know he's better than what we're seeing. He was happy to stay in the twos and play midfield again, but we thought we'd give him a midfield opportunity in the seniors because he's part of the future of the club. He didn't deliver today, but I'm sure he will in time."
