North Launceston coach Brad Cox-Goodyer didn't mince his words as his side went down to Clarence 12.16 (88) to 4.6 (30).
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
"We were pretty poor, our effort was just non-existent," he said.
"I think the boys' mindset was elsewhere, we had a few crook boys through the week and I think it affected them on the way down and their mindsets.
"I'm pretty disappointed with the effort."
The loss was the Bombers' second to the Kangaroos, missing their vice-captain Tom Bennett.
He and Jack Aherne were ruled out before the ball was bounced through illness.
The Bombers actually had the lead at quarter-time but from there, it was basically all Clarence as they blew the margin out to 25 at the main break, 36 at three-quarter-time and 58 at the final siren.
Former Melbourne Demon Colin Garland, who was identified as the major threat this week, kicked three, as did Roos skipper Jarrod Harper and were among their best players alongside Baxter Norton.
As Blade Sulzberger (two), late inclusion Will Harper and Cox-Goodyer hit the scoreboard for North, their coach admitted it was lucky not to be a bigger margin.
"Clarence just worked much harder than we did," Cox-Goodyer said.
"Their ability to leave stoppage and run and create and use the ball through the middle [was the difference] and our inability to defend that tore us to shreds.
"We were lucky that the margin wasn't bigger, we managed a few gettable goals and we were pretty lucky in the end that it was only around 10 goals.
"It was a very, very poor performance."
Despite the doom and gloom, Cox-Goodyer had high praise for a young midfielder for the second week running, an experienced defender and a previously underrated gun.
"Blade Sulzberger's second half was really, really good," he said.
"He struggled early but he worked himself into the game, so he was one that lifted.
"Corey Nankervis [impressed] once again, being one-on-one with Colin Garland is not a nice place to be, especially with the height difference and his ability to compete and defend was pretty good.
"Jack Avent tried hard all day as he does, you know what you're going to get from him. Just our ability to crack in over the 22 wasn't there and we paid the price for it."
The Bombers have an "interesting period" coming up, with a bye next week before facing Kingborough and sitting back out for the competition bye the week later.
"We have to work hard over the next couple of weeks to rectify things that haven't gone right because that's twice against Clarence," Cox-Goodyer said.
"I don't know what it is with them but we'll look to rectify that and the boys will learn from the experience and hopefully come out the other side."
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark www.examiner.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter: @examineronline
- Follow us on Instagram: @examineronline
- Follow us on Google News: The Examiner