The players were extremely disappointed with their efforts against Geelong last weekend. Having played so well in the previous few rounds, last Sunday we came up against the benchmark of the competition. To travel down to Geelong and see the opposition play at their best shows we’ve got a bit of work to do to compete with them.

We didn’t get our structures in place on the day, we were beaten through the midfield and had an under-performing forward line.

We thought our defenders battled on pretty manfully considering the way the ball was being moved into the Geelong forward line - the fact our defenders held together well probably kept us in the game in the first half, but over the course of the game we lost the contested ball through the midfield and our forward line didn’t operate at all.

The forward line had previously been in pretty good form, with Goodesy and Daniel Bradshaw and Jesse White slipping in there, plus guys like Jarred Moore, who has been terrific for us as well.

Unfortunately on Sunday, none of them had a great day. Braddy really struggled to get into the game at all, Moore was hampered by an injury, and Goodesy and Jesse didn’t have the games they would’ve liked. To have them go from being such a potent forward line, to not contributing on the day - well, you don’t expect that to happen very often. If one player’s being kept down, as was the case in the battle between Braddy and Geelong defender Matthew Scarlet, you hope to have the versatility and the structure to allow the other players to bob up and assist, but that didn’t happen on the weekend. I don’t think we could say we had one guy in our forward line who was actually a winner on the day, and that’s disappointing.

The one positive we could take from the game was Mummy (Shane Mumford) - he was fantastic in the ruck against his old side. I think he had something like nine or 10 tackles on the day, and he was a real presence for us. I thought his effort was probably one of the better efforts from our midfield group.

Another guy who did well was young Lewis Jetta. I think he’s kicked seven straight points so far, so there’s no doubt there’ll be a fair celebration when he does finally kick a goal. I thought his effort against Geelong was pretty good. Under some real heat, he showed he’s got pace and class, so he’s not that far away from that elusive goal and I’m looking forward to the celebration.

Looking ahead, we’ve got to return to the form we’ve shown previously, and get back there quickly. This means getting back to strong contested footy and tackling, and re-implementing our team structures this week to really get back on track.

The Bulldogs are not only a terrific side, but are also benefiting from the services of an ex-Swan. It’ll be different to see Hally (Barry Hall) out there in the Bulldogs colours, that’s for sure. And he’ll be nervous too, I’d say, coming up against his old side. Hally’s important for them up forward. We know what a great player he is, so we’ve got to make sure he doesn’t have a big day.

In terms of the Bulldogs’ other key players, through the midfield, you’ve got Cooney and Cross and Giansiracusa; and down back there’s Harbrow and Gilbee who are so dangerous and can set up a lot of the Bulldogs’ plays. They’re the sort of guys we’ve got to make sure don’t have a big influence.

Canberra’s only a short plane trip away, and we enjoy playing at Manuka. We’ve played the Bulldogs there a few times and have done ok. During our last few matches there we’ve probably been beaten in a quarter of footy where the Bulldogs have had a real run-on and kicked six or seven goals in a row without us answering. So we’ll be looking to put in a four-quarter effort this weekend, and working really hard to make sure that surge from the opposition doesn’t happen.