AFTER Port Adelaide was in a match-winning position and lost to Richmond by four points in round 13, coach Mark Williams ordered his players into a chamber at AAMI Stadium and berated them.

When he emerged to greet the media, his eyes were red and glassy. They always are after a loss. Williams takes defeat hard.

Coaches have long berated players in front of their teammates and made them apologise for a weak performance. Vitriolic legends such as the late Alan Killigrew at St Kilda were always proud of that.

Tonight, at AAMI Stadium, Adelaide hosts Geelong, and coach Neil Craig will demand maximum effort. How he talks to them after the game will be interesting. But first, his preparation. He has told them that, from the Cats' loss to Collingwood, there is a need for them to get to their opponents quickly and apply defensive pressure.

"We're in pretty good shape in that area," Craig said yesterday. "We then need to put attack against them. Can we do that? If you go back to our recent form you would say 'no'. That's our challenge; to add that to our game really quickly on a big stage, big TV audience and a full house of our supporters."

Craig paints a picture of how it will unfold. "(Robert) Shirley will take someone; (Cameron) Ling will take someone. Very unusual for a tagging situation to unfold on the wings, so it's attack-attack there, which leaves you with neutral midfield, plus one ruckman against another. That's where it tends to unfold a bit.

"Where you can get bogged down a bit is when you have one player under control and then another bobs up. They are No. 1 in the competition with rebounds from half-back, so our first line of defence will be our forwards.

"If you took a snapshot of Collingwood's game the thing that stood out for me was their ability to get to the ball quickly, adding to the pressure and forcing the issue; Collingwood's want and desire to put some attack against it, and not just getting the ball off Geelong, but putting some attack the other way.

"If you look at the North Melbourne game, when they did reasonably well against Geelong, it was a slightly different method. That's what happens when you sit at the top of the table. Everyone looks to find a way how we are going to beat this mob."

Craig has prepared his men as best he can. So what of his after-match speech, win, lose or draw?

Like every week, win, lose or draw, Craig won't say a word. He will not discuss the match until two days later. It's a policy that follows Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who doesn't talk to his players after a game either.

"I don't think players listen too much after a game," Craig said. "It's been a bit of a tradition that you debrief after a game, but these guys will have just worked extremely hard for four quarters of footy … high pressure, high intensity, high stress. More often than not you see it, win or lose, that they just want to be left alone.

"They have given a huge effort and I think you have plenty of time to talk to them throughout the week. After a game I have the advantage of statistics, replays and other people talking to me, and some of the things I might want to talk to them about they would not remember.

"My experience tells me, as well as saying some things that are incorrect, win, lose or draw just let the players recover — Monday comes around quickly enough.

"I don't know what other clubs do, but it's tradition that, after a win everyone goes into a room, board members and a coterie group come in too, there are some kind words and everyone is happy. Two minutes later the coach asks the players what was said and they don't remember.

"If they lose, it's into the rooms, get berated, this is this and this is that, and people say this is the way it should be, and two minutes later the coach asks the players what was said and they don't remember.

"As a group we talk to the players on Monday. It gives them time to settle, get their thoughts together, and any information on their own games. It gives the match committee time to sit down and have a decent discussion without any of the emotion."