THE WOLF DEN
By GRAHAM HARVEY
I won’t dress it up — we were off it on Sunday.
After a strong four-game unbeaten run, we went into the match in a good place, but what we produced against Brisbane Roar simply wasn’t at the level we’ve set for ourselves this season.
Credit where it’s due — they worked hard, they had energy, and they took their chances.
But from our side, we made it too easy for them.
With the ball, we were poor.
We turned it over far too cheaply, far too often, and never really built any momentum after the opening 10 minutes.
That’s been a strength of ours — controlling games, moving the ball quickly — but we didn’t do that.
Without the ball, we weren’t much better.
We didn’t defend key moments well enough, and at this level that’s the difference.
You switch off for a second, you’re half a yard off, and you get punished.
That’s exactly what happened.
The frustrating part is we started well.
Joe’s goal inside the first 10 minutes was exactly what we wanted.
But instead of building on that, we went the other way.
We lost control of the game, lost our structure, and allowed them to dictate terms.
Our execution, our decision-making, our composure — all of it needs to be better.
We’ve been solid defensively all season, so conceding three is disappointing.
But I don’t look at it as one area or one player.
This was collective.
When you turn the ball over as much as we did, you make the game transitional.
You put pressure on your backline, and you create situations you don’t need to be in.
That’s exactly what we did.
To the boys’ credit, we showed character again to get back to 2-2.
That’s the second week in a row we’ve done that.
But what hurts is what came next.
We concede again shortly afterwards — and it’s a poor goal.
From a throw-in, we don’t track runners, we’re not tight enough, and suddenly we’re chasing the game again.
At that point, you’ve done the hard work to get back into it — you must be stronger.
Going forward, we also made life difficult for ourselves.
We lost discipline, particularly in the middle of the first half, and players started chasing the game instead of sticking to their roles.
That’s not us.
The reality is, I don’t think anyone — me included — can walk away from that performance happy.
But this is where we find out what we’re about.
One result doesn’t define a season, and it won’t define us — unless we let it.
The challenge now is to respond.
This league is tight.
Anyone can beat anyone, and we saw that again.
Consistency is everything, and we didn’t have it on Sunday.
The good thing is we’ve got an opportunity to put it right quickly.
We’ve got a big stretch coming up — FA Cup and then two games at home.
After a performance like that, the players don’t want to sit around — they want to get back out there and fix it.
That’s exactly what we’ll be aiming to do.
We’ve been in a good place up until now.
The standards have been high. Sunday wasn’t that.
Now it’s about making sure it’s the exception — not the start of something else.
