For the ever reliable Harry Taylor, Friday night’s loss to North Melbourne was a frustrating one.

Speaking to SEN on Saturday morning, Taylor admitted the Cats had done their homework.

“We had a really good idea how they were going to play.

“That was our fortunate part, we did plan for that during the week but just didn’t execute on game day.”

Ultimately, North Melbourne had over 90 more handballs than the Cats in what was a fast-paced style of play.

“We certainly would have liked the game to be played a bit differently.

“We wanted the game to be more of a contest and wanted to use some of our strength in the contest.

“But it didn’t happen, their run and carry was far too good.

“They were able to get players out free forward of the ball and it’s very hard to stop when that happens.”

With 15 disposals and eight marks, Taylor played his role well despite constant shallow entries inside 50 by the Kangaroos.

“I had about 10 spoils which is probably a little bit more than usual for me.

“I felt like I controlled my opponent pretty well. I felt as though a lot of the time Robbie Tarrant didn’t try to mark the ball, he tried to bring it to ground himself.”

Outnumbered all over the ground, Taylor said that was the Kangaroos’ strong point.

“They just outnumbered us really well and unfortunately we just didn’t get the four points which we really needed.”

When talk swayed to the form and fitness of teammate Tom Hawkins, Taylor was quick to defend the gun forward who has been wrestling a back issue for most of the season.

“He is battling through and doing everything he can to make sure he is feeling good on game day.

“He doesn’t use excuses when he’s out there, he just tries to compete as hard as he can.

“I thought he did really well in the aerial contest, a lot of the times it was two on one.

“Unfortunately at ground level they just controlled the ball way too easy.”