MICK Malthouse believes the Magpies' 16-point loss to Geelong at the MCG onSaturday afternoon was one of his side's worst performances this year.

The margin did not exceed 16 points throughout the entiregame, but Malthouse said his side didn't have enough players "in touch orin form or consistent enough" when it pushed forward.

"We didn't deserve to win today," he said afterthe game.

"Well done to Geelong,they are a very good football side for a start, but I half suspect that isclose to our worst game for the year.

"We had some players who were respectable, who were inthe category where you could say they were okay.

"We had too many players in the category today thatwere ineffective, and not only ineffective, but [their] decision making,tackling and ball-carrying was probably at the lowest [standard] we'vehad."

Malthouse said Anthony Rocca was "thrashed" by thein-form Matthew Scarlett, but he also took aim at the Magpies' small forwards,calling their crumbing "second-rate".

He refused to blame the loss on a poor showing at trainingon Friday or the number of youngsters in the side.

"Our strategies and our game plan today were in place,but we failed to measure up," he said.

"We were terrible. We gave the ball back to them. Wekept on giving the ball back to a side that you just don't want to give theball back to.

"Our [decision-making] today was quite poor, and wejust didn't give ourselves a chance to win the game."

Malthouse said the players "didn't support theirteam" throughout the match, which Geelongled at every change, and was critical of the fact his side could get within 16points but not finish the task.

"I would have liked to be better to test them. Wecouldn't test them today. We didn't test them at all," he said.

"When they had the football, they hurt us. When we hadit, we didn't. When there was a loose football, they were clean, we weren't, andour tackling today was as poor as it's been for the year.

"Is that because they're quick and strong-bodied?Perhaps. But you've still got to be better at that. We were very poor in thoseareas."