Coach Brad Scott saw his side fritter away a hard-earned half-time lead, with a ‘diabolical’ third term that saw the Roos concede 11 goals as the Swans took total control and kept their own perfect record intact.
“We’re becoming three quarter specialists, so that’s clearly a massive issue for us and it’s a massive challenge we’ve got to address,” he told reporters at Blundstone Arena.
North has conceded 144 points in third quarters this season, managing just 38 points in reply.
“There’s a specific reason for that (and) we’ve got to address that and rise to the challenge.”
“We’ve got two options, we can hang our heads and talk about ‘what if’ and ‘if only’, or we can address the challenge head on and get on the front foot and resurrect our season.”
Defeat by the Swans follows hot on the heels of narrow losses to Geelong and Collingwood in the opening rounds, but Scott refused to make excuses for his side’s winless record – despite them having faced the past three premiers to start the season.
“The reality is there’s only so long we can keep saying our best is pretty good,” he said, highlighting the Roos’ inability to halt opposition sides when they get a run on as a huge problem.
“When things don’t go our way, we capitulate. We’ve got to fix that and fix it now.”
“We cannot be a side that when we win the ball and we’re playing well we score, but if we don’t the opposition score.”
“We’ll certainly review things forensically to make sure we’re across absolutely everything, but the truth of the matter is it’s contest by contest.”
Scott went as far as suggesting his role in the loss would be scrutinised closely as the club prepares for its next match against the Brisbane Lions at Etihad Stadium.
“The role of coach is to help the players, and we tried to help them as much as we could in terms of numbers back and different matchups and different guys through the centre square.”
“The third quarter is not (just) the players’ fault.
"They’ve got to execute and have got a part to play, but the way the third quarter unfolded is my responsibility, and I’ve got to go back and review myself very closely and make sure I did what was necessary to stem the flow.”
“If the answer is 'I did what was necessary', then why haven’t I coached the players well enough to execute that (and) that will be a long process, I suspect.”
With little to show from several periods of excellent football in the opening three weeks, Scott said the only positive he could take from Saturday’s loss was that the Roos were now forced to face their demons head-on.
“That’s the only solace I take is that we’re going to learn a very tough lesson, and it leaves a bitter feeling with all the players but at least we address this now… the reality is we’re doing 90 per cent of things right but the 10 per cent is slaughtering us.”
