Knights said the intensity had been up all week during training and believed his platyers had switched onto the task of tackling North Melbourne from early in the week.
“We trained really well during the week and we refocused really quickly after the Carlton game”, he said after the 12-point defeat.
“The way we played, we didn’t generate and nothing came easy to us ... We had some good opportunities, but we came away with 7.15 from 48 inside-50s.”
Knights said that a lack of poise was costly but he also acknowledged the pressure applied by the Kangaroos.
“I think we just panicked a few times. The game on the whole was a bit scrappy. The positive from our perspective when nothing was working, at least they kept persisting. We got within five points, got within a kick and gave ourselves an opportunity to win it, but we couldn’t quite nail anything inside 50.”
Knights ruefully outlined the circumstances surrounding the crucial interchange bench error which saw the ball taken from Matthew Lloyd just as he was about to line up for
his 899th AFL goal.
“It was a good chance to get four guys off the ground and bring four on. As a club we didn’t execute it the way we should have. The last interchange player came on without the fourth player coming off the ground.
“It’s no-one else’s fault but our own. We’ve just got to do it better next week because it did cost us”.
The blunder was made more painful by the fact that scoring chances from set shots close to goal were so rare.
“I was disappointed because shots on goal weren’t easy to come by. Any shots from inside 50 were gold. And to give one away when we did have momentum was pretty costly.”
Knights said he told his players at three-quarter time that whatever had happened in the first three quarters should be left behind and they had to concentrate on generating some run out of defence and from the back of the centre square.
“When you are playing catch-up football it is really difficult and the opposition only needs one or two goals and they put you to the sword.”
Knights said he preferred to think that inaccuracy by Scott Lucas was “just an aberration” and was happy that Matthew Lloyd had marked the ball crisply and cleanly.
