Chris Newman

And I'm sure the players did the same.

It was a good opportunity just to take stock of what we've been able to achieve in the first half of the year, albeit not as many wins as we'd hope, but still developing players, getting games into those guys and still refining our game style.

Yeah, well, a week in footy, a lot can happen, a lot can change.

So, no, nothing really that was too different throughout the week.

There was certainly a bit of enthusiasm around the club, but to the boys' credit, I think, regardless of our wins, they've maintained a certain consistency with their energy levels around the place.

A great understanding as to where we're at and what we need to do to be able to compete with the best, and Sydney's certainly one of those.

Especially on their home ground, if you give them any sort of leeway, they can really make you pay, and

We just did that consistently.

Probably in terms of the way we played, we were reasonably happy with the way we started the game.

But then obviously fell away a fair bit throughout that back half and some of their good players really rose to the top and really taught us a lesson.

And that's what it is.

It's sort of lessons learned for these younger guys.

We didn't shy away from the review.

We were really honest with it and went through some things that we can do better and also showed them some examples of how the best in the comp do it.

Yeah, no, not unfortunately.

I think it's great.

We get to go up against another team in a competition that's been the benchmark for the last couple of years and

and test ourselves against the best.

We get some of our younger players playing on some guys that are the best in their positions in the competition and they get to really learn and challenge them in their own right.

So I think we're really leaning into this opportunity and the challenge that we've got today and hopefully set ourselves up to have a better performance.