Scott 'boiling inside'
Brad Scott says he will wait until Monday to address his players' efforts against the Bulldogs
VIDEOS: Match highlights | Petrie flies high and goal | Cunnington hard at it | McIntosh goes down | Brad Scott press conference
Can't view the videos? Visit the NMFC YouTube Channel
NORTH Melbourne coach Brad Scott admitted he was "boiling on the inside" after his team's performance on Sunday against the Bulldogs.
But he remained measured in his approach after the game, seeing no value in berating his players and deciding not to address them.
"Tomorrow we will do that forensic examination on the game and the home truths will be told with examples so the players know exactly what I am talking about," Scott said.
"There is no point berating them post-game when they really don't know what you are talking about, so I will show them specifics. Post-game people tend to generalise. We'll get really specific as to what the problems are."
North Melbourne not only lost the game by 18 points, it lost the contested possession count by 55 and conceded 11 more inside 50s than the opposition.
It made poor decisions when it had possession and was, by Scott's own admission, not able to execute the plan.
"It is as poor as we have been in a contest for a long, long time and I sincerely hope it is an aberration," Scott said.
"To be down 55 in contested possession is not representative of the way North Melbourne play their footy."
Although convinced it was a one-off, Scott said it was unacceptable and he forecast changes as the club had players performing at VFL level.
"I'll be worried if it continues, that is for sure. We will be forensically examining this game to work out why, and the players who are not performing will go out because we have got players performing at VFL level.
"We'll examine it really closely and we'll identify the reasons and we'll train it up really strongly and we'll demand change because that performance is far from acceptable and as a coaching group we're not going to cop that."
However he also said that the Bulldogs deserved credit and the Kangaroos were only able to play the way the opposition allowed them to.
He said Bulldogs Ryan Griffen (11 inside 50s in the first half) and Matthew Boyd (44 disposals) gave his young midfielders a lesson in clearance work and winning contested possession.
"I thought the Western Bulldogs out pressured us, out contested us, out ran and beat us in almost every facet of the game," Scott said. "I thought they were fantastic today, so full credit to them."
After heartening performances against top four contenders in previous weeks, it is a setback for North Melbourne. The club has now won three from seven and heads to AAMI Stadium to play Port Adelaide next week.
North Melbourne's best player on the day, Scott Thompson, said the team's expectations remained high: "We want to make finals and be up there pretty high, so we have got to turn it around."
There is no doubting Scott will demand better from his players.
[It's] clearly our poorest performance across the board today," he said.
VIDEOS: Match highlights | Petrie flies high and goal | Cunnington hard at it | McIntosh goes down | Brad Scott press conference
Can't view the videos? Visit the NMFC YouTube Channel
