What Bullets learned from double-defeat

Brisbane head coach Justin Schueller is prepared to use his side’s Round 3 results as a learning experience, as his group continues to get to grips with a new system.

The Bullets started the new season on fire, but their momentum has come to a screeching halt with three straight defeats – two of which came to Melbourne and Sydney in Round 3.

They lost to Schueller’s former side, Melbourne, by 11 points on Sunday, and he says United are a barometer by which he can judge the Bullets’ progress.

“Having been on that other side, that sustained pressure is what we’re trying to do right now,” Schueller said post-game.

“To be a team that there might be a mini run but we come right back at you and find a way to sustain pressure. It’s a good learning curve for us, this weekend’s been a great learning.

“We’ve played two of the better teams in the comp and we can take some great lessons from it. Getting in big holes like that, I should have gone to pressure defence a little bit earlier, but we’ve just got to find a way to keep consistency, and I think that’s what we’ll learn out of this one.”

Despite saying the two defeats are that strong learning experience, Schueller has not underestimated the ability of the players at his disposal.

“There’s talent all over the floor and we know that, and we equally think we have enough talent to beat any team in this league,” he continued.

“This whole game was about us and what we need to be able to do to have consistency in it, and that’s the frustration right now. There’s going to be a lot of positives out of this game for us but there’s going to be some things where there’s still huge growth in the group.

“We know this is a long journey for us – it’s not a sprint – that’s the way we’ll approach it. I love my group, they want to get better every day, we don’t hang our heads from a loss – we learn from it – and that’s the approach we’ll take.”

Emerging star Josh Bannan is yet to make his debut for the Bullets after suffering a lower leg injury in pre-season, however it looked like he could have taken to the floor against United.

After executing an extended pre-game warmup but still remaining rooted to the sidelines, Bannan could play as soon as the upcoming Round 4 fixture against South East Melbourne.