WESTERN Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney concedes he was "too honest" in his post-match criticism of young midfielder Jack Macrae following the loss to Geelong.
 
The 19-year-old has been one of the Bulldogs' most consistent performers this year, averaging 25 disposals a game, but was handed the green vest against the Cats at Simonds Stadium last Sunday.
 
After the 13-point loss, McCartney declared Macrae was lucky to keep his spot in the side, and said he wasn't playing team orientated football.  
 
"Jack has been letting us down in some areas and he is well aware of those areas, [which] actually bobbed up again late in the game today," McCartney said after the loss.
 
"There are possessions and there is team accountability and there is defensive decision making that doesn't overload your teammates that you should make at the right time.
 
"Possessions are important but not at the expense of how our team functions."
 
On Wednesday McCartney stood by his comments, but admitted publicly criticising the youngster was probably not the right thing to do.
 
"I was probably too honest," he said.
 
"I'm normally a bit more guarded than that so I've probably learnt from that. All our young players we're firm with them but encouraging.
 
"We're trying to build a certain way of doing things with all of them and still let them be young men growing in the game and learning the game.
 
"I've learnt from it. You've still got to have certain expectations. There's a certain way to play out there, I'm not going to back away from that either."
 
The pair has had a discussion this week following McCartney's comments with the coach confident Macrae would improve the team aspect of his game.
 
He said it was unlikely the 19-year-old would be dropped to the VFL this week.
 
"More likely he'll keep playing and learning the game the way we want him to learn it," McCartney said.
 
"We're confident that's happening … He's a very important young man to us and we have a lot of respect for him."
 
The Bulldogs travel to Cairns this week where they will host Gold Coast at Cazaly's Stadium on Saturday.