PRIOR to Friday night’s loss to Brisbane, Jack Billings had been involved in two AFL games for two wins.

So following his first defeat at the highest level, the 18-year-old No.3 draft pick voiced his disappointment with St Kilda’s work-rate, especially in the first two quarters against the Lions.

“At the very least we need to bring great effort,” Billings told SAINTS.com.au.

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“I guess there were a lot of blokes that didn’t do that tonight in the first half and we probably took a bit too long to get going.”

The Saints trailed by 25 points at the main break in Wellington, and had it not been for a late Clint Jones major, the margin would have exceeded five goals at the halfway point.

Despite the lacklustre start, Billings denied the Saints underestimated the previously winless Brisbane Lions outfit.

“Brisbane has some really good inside midfielders and we knew they were going to be really hard around the contest,” he said.

“We thought we could match them in that area and it was just about getting our hands on the footy which we probably didn’t do as much as we would have liked in the first half.”

St Kilda fought back in the third quarter and drew level with Justin Leppitsch’s men briefly in the last term, before a string of missed opportunities cost the Saints the four points.

Although one of these near misses was a result of a miscued Billings dribble attempt, he still finished with 16 disposals, three tackles and a goal in his second full game of league football.

“I’ve got still got a few things to work on but I thought I was alright tonight.” He said.