ST KILDA forward Rhys Stanley says the Saints must be hard on themselves and not accept Sunday's 86-point drubbing by Adelaide as simply part of their rebuild.
After wins over Melbourne and Greater Western Sydney, the Saints were encouraging in a 25-point loss to West Coast in Perth last weekend.
But that all came crashing down on Sunday at Etihad Stadium when they failed to match the sustained effort of the first three rounds against the previously winless Crows.
Coach Alan Richardson said the Saints had expected to ride highs and lows this season, as communicated to the club's members, stakeholders and the media earlier this year.
But from the players' perspective, Stanley said they had to judge themselves harshly when their endeavour fell away despite the club being in full rebuild mode.
"We need to be hard on ourselves because we don't just want to be a mediocre side," Stanley told AFL.com.au after the game.
"We want to continue to improve and be harsh on each other and hopefully next week we'll come out and have a crack.
"We will be harsh on each other and review ourselves hard and get on the track and try and create the enthusiasm we've had in the first three rounds.
"It's one of those things where we've got to keep each other accountable and get back on the track and look at the tape and go through it."
Effort and hard work has been the centrepiece of Richardson's game plan so far, as has encouraging the players to stand up to preordained trademarks when it comes to the tough stuff.
After winning the contested ball and clearances in all three of their previous games, they still managed to break even in both categories against the Crows with the visiting side's outside game the deciding factor.
Stanley said numbers meant little when players weren't accountable.
"Today I think the stats sort of lie a bit," he said.
"We matched it in the contest but we weren't accountable.
"They had 115 uncontested marks, which is an incredible stat and they do work incredibly hard.
"We were just unaccountable."
Stanley said last Saturday's trip to Perth and red-eye flight home was no excuse, nor was the fact the Saints had plenty of young players in Sunday's team.
He said they weren't looking at the loss as a step backwards but instead a chance to learn, as communicated by Richardson who maintained his level and composed approach in their post-match meeting.
"We don't want to think that we'll be up and down based on young players," he said.
"Luke Dunstan has come in and is playing good footy, Eli Templeton with his run and Josh Saunders … these types are exceptional players.
"I don't think we can blame the difference in young and old players in the group.
"Richo basically said it was effort based and we didn't really show up to play and that's on us.
"We know when we bring great effort we can match it with anyone, which we saw in the first three rounds.
"Today we just didn't bring it."
