Although at one stage it looked like it would be much worse.

At three quarter-time the Roosters had managed just four scoring shots, 1.3, to trail by 90 points. The noncompetitive display, seven days after the group's best performance of the season, saw coach Marc Greig throw the onus on the players.

The usual meetings between defenders, midfielders and forwards were thrown out the window as Greig addressed the group immediately and placed the responsibility in the players hands as an open discussion led by the playing group took place.

The three quarter-time change-up was a refreshing approach in what has been a difficult start to the season. The on-field response was positive, a North Ballarat outfit played out the final term that was unrecognisable to the one that took to Eureka Stadium across the first three quarters.

The Roosters kicked 3.5 to lose the quarter but one point, but the intensity, spread from the contest and willingness to take the game on was massively improved.

While the response was positive, it left the coaching staff scratching their heads. Where was that same intensity for the first three quarters? How can the group revert back to a poor mindset following a heartening display against Sandringham? Greig will be left to ponder those questions during the week. 

In what was a disappointing day, the last quarter provided hope but the challenge now is to unlock that approach from the first bounce week in week out, across four quarters.

“Three quarter-time the message was, you blokes actually tell us what we think we’re telling you...to make sure they understood,” Greig said.

“You’re not responding for some particular reason, is there something you blokes want to try? Or you blokes explain what’s happening.

“The energy just wasn’t there in the first half for some reason. We got beaten in our one-on-ones all over the ground. In the last quarter we won them and we played on and we kicked 3.5 and it should’ve been five or six goals.

“It’s there (the ability), but sustainability across the four quarters (must improve).”

Greig said it was difficult to pinpoint an exact reason for the lapses and inconsistent performance, but the club would remain measured in its match review and continue to work towards getting the group mentally prepared for the VFL standard.

“We’re not going to barrel into them, we’ll show them what we can do and we’ve got to get that out of them for four quarters.

“We’ll just show two or three clips of the first half, where we didn’t think our competitive efforts were great and then we’ll show two or three clips of the last quarter – this is what we can do.

“The mindset’s a powerful thing, we do try and keep the boys up the best we can. It doesn’t matter which sport you play, when you don’t win, no one enjoys that.”

Mitch Rodd hurt his knee, Lane Buckwell ended the day on the bench while Coby Perry copped a knock to the head - all will be assessed during the week