IT’S BEEN a tough season for onballer Paul Licuria, but asthe experienced Magpie's body gets stronger by the week, he continues to growin confidence.

His season was derailed in round four when he injured ahamstring against Port Adelaide. It was a complaint that would keep him fromplaying AFL football for seven weeks, and force him to re-enter the senior sidethrough the VFL.

Now, with four senior matches behind him, the 29-year-old ispleased with how he is progressing – even if he does believe Geelong's Joel Corey got the better of him onSaturday at the MCG.

"I had to do a job on Corey and I thought I was prettygood for the first half," he said of his own 27-disposal game.

"In the second half, through match ups, I probablydidn't get to play on him as much as I would have liked.

“He ended up being a pretty big ball winner for them, so Iguess I probably didn't do my job as well as I would have liked.

"Each week now, I think I'm running a lot better, andI'm getting more confidence.

“Since I've been back, I've had some pretty big jobs to do,and I love that challenge, but today he [Corey] got away from me in theend."

While the Pies incurred the wrath of Mick Malthouse fortheir performance on Saturday, Licuria said positives continued to exist in theway the club's younger players had stood up in the absence of a handful of injuredand more experienced on the list.

"The guys that played today have done pretty well, andwe can't keep saying ‘there's all these guys that have to come back into theside’," he said.

"They're not ready to come back in, and it's going tobe pretty hard for them to come back in. They may have to go throughWilliamstown.

"In saying that, that experience will help them. Fullcredit to the guys that have come in and taken that role, particularly theyoung guys in the backline.

"They have been pretty good for us in the last six weeksand they've gained a lot of experience through the misfortune of these guysbreaking down.”

However, Licuria did also share his coach's frustration andsaid the Pies were their own worst enemy at times during the 16-point loss.

"They're obviously a very good side, but we did backourselves today and went into the game with a lot of confidence," he said.

"It was just frustrating because there were times whenwe could have kicked a couple of goals if we'd used the ball well enough, and itprobably would have gotten us pretty close to taking the lead.

"Full credit to Geelong, they're quite adisciplined side and they use the ball pretty well."