Magpies coach Craig McRae was left frustrated by his side’s slow start to the contest, giving up a six-goal-to-one opening term. He pointed to some game-play method that was off and lamented his side’s missed opportunity on the big stage.

“I don’t want to sit here and make excuses for our effort because I thought we were poor. I think anyone watching at home would say the same and [would] be disappointed in the way we went about it,” McRae said.

“You’ve got to give credit to them, they were up and about and a different level to what we were and I don’t want to take away from that but I just want to be better than that. I want to put a display on. Friday night lights are bright and they were shining on us and we were disappointing.”