Straight to it for the Kangaroos

THE KANGAROOS will begin the post-mortem of their 18-point loss to the Brisbane Lions as soon as Saturday night, after coach Dean Laidley declared he was unsatisfied with being a side simply known for putting in good efforts.

Laidley said the Roos' handball turnovers cost them the match, and he would sit down with his players to address the growing problem before they left Docklands.

"There were 31 ineffective or clanger handballs. We just wanted to give that extra handball instead of going down the line," he said.

"It crept into our game against Collingwood about five weeks ago and again today. The first quarter was pretty good but after that, the balance went right out the door.

"We're having a video made now and the boys are going to come back and watch it now, while it's fresh in all our minds.

"Their effort was super, some of our young boys were great again, we had some wonderful efforts all over the ground, but we don't want to be known as the side that's done a good job today.

"People who go home after shopping on a Saturday afternoon and see North got within three goals, and think 'Gee, that must have been a good effort' – we don't want to be known like that."

Laidley said there were positives to come from the game, including former captain Adam Simpson's first half against Simon Black and subsequent 37 touches, and the extra game time that went into his young charges.

"It's more games into Ben Ross and Sam Wright and Benny Warren, who was terrific today with his work ethic and the way he goes about it," he said.

"Scott Thompson's improvement amazes me. They're all positives. The downside is we got beat by three goals."

Laidley said his players must abandon their tendency to handball when a kicking option was available.

"When you're free, you want to kick the footy. You've got to hunt territory; you can't go sideways, backwards," he said.