Despite everything we did during the week to work out the way we were going to tackle Fremantle, we got a lesson on what it takes to become a top four team.
Fremantle dominated virtually every aspect of the game when it mattered and we struggled to have any influence on the contest.
We understood going into the derby that Fremantle was in pretty good form, but they were white hot in the first 40 minutes.
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READ NOWI guess we got a close-up education on how far we have to go to become a top four side.
There's no question Freo is in that bracket and we have a lot of work to do.
They dominated the contested possession count and were terrific as they ran in waves and were so confident in what they were doing.
Full credit to them for an outstanding effort.
We will take that loss for what it was, learn from it, continue to build and understand what it will take to get to the same point in our own team's development.
Obviously, it wasn't a great day for us, but there were some positives. We did fight it out and while the final margin of 30 points was a little flattering, at least we finished the game off and kept working.
We also understand that as a group we conceded a couple of years in age and experience to Freo.
That's not an excuse, we expected better of ourselves going into the game, but across the board we will continue to build and mature.
While it was a disappointing performance, we won't dwell on it. Every game, win or lose, contributes to our education and sometimes the toughest losses can be the most beneficial going forward.
It's one game in a long season and we will look to respond straight away against Brisbane this weekend.
We know there is work to be done and we are prepared to do it.
As the old adage goes in football, we always have next week.
We will need to be better than we were on Sunday if we want to beat Brisbane at the Gabba.
The Lions also have an exciting and developing young list and hopefully it's another important building block for our club towards our end goal.