Sandringham Coach Lindsay Gilbee says his side was taught a lesson by Footscray on Saturday night, after the Zebras suffered a 98-point loss at VU Whitten Oval.
After falling behind 5.10 to just 0.3 at quarter-time, Sandringham was never able to recover, with the Bulldogs piling on 10 goals to one in the second half to put the Zebras to the sword.
“We were outplayed by a very good football side tonight in every area,” Gilbee told saints.com.au.
“Our contest, work rate and our effort across the board was nowhere near good enough tonight and Footscray showed us what it takes to be a successful football team at this level.
“It shows us where we’re at as a football club at the present time and it was a really poor performance tonight.
“It’s a big football lesson that shows the improvement we need to make as a team and also for our players to have successful careers.”
Despite the Zebras youth, Gilbee is adamant lessons will be learnt from the loss and a chance to rectify against Collingwood on Sunday will show how much his team has learnt.
“We know this is a young group but its really important our players learn from it and become better as a result,” he said.
“To become a strong football team you need to put in the hard work and to get an AFL chance its the same principle so we’ll address tonight’s performance and move on to rectify next week.”
