The soul-searching and reviews began the moment we walked off the court on Monday night.

The players have to look in the mirror and ask whether the person staring back has done everything possible to be ready to compete.

By everything, I mean absolutely everything.

Are they eating or sleeping as well as they can?

Are they getting enough shots up during training sessions and in their own time?

Are they cutting any corners in preparing and recovering between each game day?

Can they shut out the negative influences, both deliberate and unintentional, after what is now four tough losses in a row?

When they are confident they are in control of all aspects, will we be comfortable we are heading in the right direction.

By negative influences, it includes those close to you offering excuses after a loss.

Of course, we value the support of those around us more than anything, but comments about the refereeing, or not getting enough game time are unhelpful and counter-productive.

We have to shut it out, as well as be careful with the use of social media.

The players have been asked to be wary about reading some of the criticism on social media, because there’s no shortage of opinions out there and it can create anxiety for players. 

We battled hard in Melbourne and Perth.

We’ve had a tough run and we were a bit down after the trip back, as well as carrying a few niggling injuries along the way.

But you will not read any excuses in this column, because we offer none as a group. 

We simply have to be better than what we offered against the Kings.

With Eric Cooks and Matt Flinn, we watched the game back until 3am on Sunday, picking over the pieces and what we could have done differently.

Of course, we focused on our passing, movement and spacing, getting up and down the court and how we can find open looks at the basket and stretch defences.

But this group is a brotherhood and we’ve spoken about how we act taking the court, in the change room and the amount of support from players on the bench, especially when the going gets tough. You can handle dropping a game when the other team is better – and the Kings were on a different level on Monday.

But anyone who watched the third quarter, where we were beaten 25-6, including 11 turnovers, knows the effort was simply unacceptable. We had a lengthy video review with the players on Wednesday before training and now all the focus is on turning it around against Perth on Friday night.