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Lyon Rues Saints’ Efforts, Timing

09 Aug 2008

"LET ME sum it up – too little, too late. They turned up from the start, we turned up after half time, and it doesn't get it done."

They were the words of a bitterly disappointed Ross Lyon, after the Saints lost their crucial round 19 battle with Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday night and dropped from seventh to eighth on the ladder.

The Magpies jumped to sixth from eighth and were more committed to the contest all night.

Lyon said the message at half time, with his side 24 points down, was that it simply needed to work harder for longer.

"Our work rate – to me, we didn't run and spread to attack, and we didn't run and spread to pressure well enough," he said. "They went forward quite quickly and scored easy goals.

"It was a simple message: 'Roll up your sleeves, put your work boots on'.

"The message was it was four goals, come in at three-quarter-time and make it two and make it gettable, little bite-sized chunks.

"But they just had a knack of getting that one back. I think the closest we got was seven points, but there was plenty of time, I think there was 10 minutes to go, so we had time.

"But a couple of quick ones out of the middle, and it was all over."

Lyon said the team's skills needed to improve with three qualifying matches remaining before the finals.

"We're bitterly disappointed in what was a really important game, obviously," he said.

"We felt we were beaten in the main facets of the game, particularly in the first half. We slaughtered the footy, their pressure was good, we broke down up forward, and their good players were playing well, and ours weren't.

"I thought it was pretty simple.

"Tonight – slow out of the blocks, but we know we're better than that.

"There's a few things that we need to fix, and we need to do it quickly, and to move on.

"The aim is to try and keep improving, and for a fair period over the last six weeks we've felt we'd done that, but clearly we've faltered a little bit in what was a critical game."

Saint Jason Gram tackles Magpie Paul Medhurst

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