IT WAS a tough day for the Blues, who fell to the Magpies by 17 points on Sunday afternoon at IKON Park.

Despite a scoreless first quarter, Senior Coach Mathew Buck knows his group will learn from the loss to Collingwood and make the improvements that need to be made as they near the end of the season.

Here's what he had to say:

On Collingwood’s pressure from the start:

“Collingwood’s pressure was amazing, I thought they brought some great heat and I think they’ve done that all year. It probably took our midfield by surprise a little bit and showed us a new level." 

On the response in the second half:

“In the second half, we managed to get our system up and going which supported the way we wanted to play a little better, which was good.

"Some lessons there, first half and second half, we’ll go back through it and see what we need to change or what we’d alter if we had our time again but there will be lessons for individuals, teams and coaches.

"We’re pleased with the second half for sure and I thought we gave ourselves opportunities late to get back in the game but couldn’t take them. It’ll be a good one to review and get the learnings off”.

On Jess Dal Pos and Jess Good:

“Both went off with ankle injuries, they’re getting assessed, so I’m not quite sure how bad they are at this point but couldn’t finish the game, so we’ll have a look and figure it out during the week”

On Brea Moody and Jess Good against Sabrina Frederick in the ruck:

“In terms of the ruck, I thought it probably broke even, which is a pretty great result. For Collingwood, I think against our two rucks - who have had a great year - I thought Sabrina was excellent today and played the role well.

"Their midfield got on top of their clearance numbers, which we were able to fight back in the second half but the damage may have been done by then too”.

On taking away positives after a loss:

“The way our system supports the way we want to play. We got back into the game in the second half and had plenty of opportunities late to get back on our terms. I think if we go back in the past it may have been a game where it could’ve just went away and the wall might’ve broken, but to our player's credit, they stayed in the game and gave themselves opportunities to get back in it.

"We just couldn’t quite hit that scoreboard late to have that impact that we would’ve liked”.

On Carlton's growth this season:

“Its been a big year and from day one, we’ve put a lot of pressure on the players to get better with their habits and standards and they’ve done that really, really well.

"That’s translated into some great performances throughout the year. We’re really pleased with how we’re going with our growth,

"I think individually we’ve seen some great growth, as a team we’ve seen some great growth, the way we want to play has been good and we'll continue to work on that. 

"There's a few games to go, but we want to keep getting better throughout this time. I don’t want to get to the end and be like 'we’ve had some great moments', we want to finish the year strong and however that finishes is fine, but we’re on a long journey here.

"We want to be a great team and finishing seventh or eighth or whatever it might be, if you end up scraping into the finals probably isn’t the way I’m looking at it. I’m saying 'how long is going to take us to be a top-end side and what do we need to do to get there?'"

On Erone Fitzpatrick’s individual growth so far:

“Erone’s an exciting player, there’s no doubt about that. Her pace is one of her real weapons, so today was an almost game for ‘Ronnie’ I think and almost took her moments.

"She’ll go to work on it, she’ll learn and get better and that’s what I’ve loved from Ronnie since she arrived from Ireland, is just her willingness to learn the game, but then go after the skills and then go after how we want to play the system.

"She’s had to take a lot on and we’ve seen some tremendous growth in just a few games, so I look forward to seeing how Ronnie’s going in 12 months because I think she’ll be an exciting player by then”.

On backing the system:

“Contested possessions numbers were well down in the first half for us so it was a little bit about just putting it on the group, obviously Brea Moody did a little bit more ruck work late in the game and throughout the second half so she makes a big difference around the contest.

"To our mids, we didn’t change any mids who haven’t gone through there throughout the year, they just had to stand up and handle the heat a bit better and they managed to do that. They’ll be better for this game, take the lesson and learn and get better, that’s what we’re about”.