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THOMSON was left to rue what could have been after going down in the must-win clash at Eastern Reserve on Saturday.
Coach Damian Clark was frustrated with where his side had finished, reinforcing the importance of a quality preseason, something his side lacked this year.
Consequently it had a poor start to the season.
"What you put in is what you get out, these guys have got to realise that if they want to go any further.
"You've got to put the time and effort in over the pre-season and Tuesday and Thursday. Preseason we had to be better, training habits and attitude needed to be better early," Clark said.
While Thomson's season has been far from a disappointment, Clark felt his side, which won four of its past six coming into the weekend, should have been playing this sort of football two months ago and left its run too late.
"We're playing Round 18 but we should have been playing this sort of footy in Round 10, and by Round 18 we should be about another a five-or-six-goal better side."
Clark also stressed the need to find other avenues to goal aside from Luke Forbes, Jackson Macleod and Corey Normington.
While the trio have been brilliant this season kicking 137 goals between them, the lack of spread was shown up against the Blues, with the three-pronged attack kicking 10 of their 11 goals.
The club now looks toward 2014 and the preseason in November, with fine tuning its quick ball movement game style a priority over summer.
Clark was confident his side, with the injection of some much-needed height, has the capability to deliver a more consistent year given a strong preseason.
"We play a terrific brand of footy but the bottom line is we've got to learn to do it for longer," he said.
"(We will) get a lot of the finer points that we should've done in the preseason sorted out."
