I'll be honest, I'm a little surprised about all the criticisms from yesterday.
Yes, we were poor. Yes, a bunch of our best players never really got going, and some of our fringe players failed to impress. So Golding was the only positive to come out of it.
But really - what do you expect?
It was a meaningless game, after three whole seasons of games that counted. It's inevitable that your intensity is going to drop off when you're playing in a game that doesn't matter. And you're not going to be able to make/break a reputation based on one meaningless game when you've already had 45 important ones to show what you can (and can't) do.
For players like Cam & Matty T who have nothing to prove - I don't blame them for a second for going through the motions. It's psychologically a really tough thing to lift yourself for a professional sporting contest when you know it's going to have zero impact on your personal or collective goals.
For players like Seddon & McGuane who are trying to show that they have something to offer - well, unfortunately yesterday was just more confirmation of what we already knew from watching them play all season i.e. that they are players with some merits but also pretty obvious weaknesses.
It was what it was - a poor performance, but one that can be forgotten (other than the fact that Golding can clearly play) as soon as the final whistle blew.