South Melbourne's four-one humbling of cross-town rivals Melbourne Knights gave Knights' coach Vlado Vanis a headache of sufficient magnitude for him to pass the Knights' post-match media-conference duties to team Manager John Sigur.
And Sigur's comments on behalf of the renowned Somers Street taskmaster spared no-one in the side.
"Defensively we were all at sea," said Sigur, "and that's where Vanis was so disappointed having been a defender in his playing career."
"Some of the players think this league is a lot easier that it is," he said. "We had one or two players not putting in. It's hard to criticise anyone's performance (at) training. But it wasn't mirrored in the performance today."
South's coach Mike Petersen was - unsurprisingly - much happier with his team's performance, but still found time for some quibbles. "I still want them to get more ruthless - I'd like to see us concentrate for the full match."
Two goals from South captain Paul Trimboli - both from the penalty-spot - were enough to give the Lakesiders a handy two-goal lead at the break. Trimboli's second racked up his ton in South colours.
The lead was stretched five minutes after the interval from Steve Panopoulos - only declared fit for the game late in the week after suffering a car-accident mid-week.
"Panopoulos trained yesterday morning and he said that he was feeling fine. I went with his word - he's an experienced campaigner," said Petersen after the game.
Con Boutsianis put the game's result beyond doubt with a stunning lob just after the hour.
With the game in its final minutes, Toto Da Costa got a consolation goal for the well-beaten Knights.
South's opener arose after an Andy Vargas shot following a promising run was saved by Petkovic and cleared straight upfield. Boutsianis latched onto it and galloped goalwards only to be brought down by Knights captain Jason Vukadin for a penalty. Trimboli converted in regulation style.
It had been South's first attacking move of any consequence.
But the South momentum was incessant. Ten minutes later Trimboli's cheeky back-heel from inside the six-yard box went narrowly wide after a clever Boutsianis cut-back from wide on the left.
Just after the half-hour South extended the lead when Trimboli converted his second penalty. This time is was the speedy right-winger Andy Vlahos who had been chopped down in the box by Sash Ognenovski.
There was a slight delay before the taking of the spot-kick as referee Jeremy Blaney was required to sort out some off-the-ball action involving players of both sides.
South Melbourne were breaking quickly into attack from deep positions - an option made possible by the playing of two orthodox wide players - Vlahos on the right, and Boutsianis on the left. Both players exploited space behind the Knights defence which looked slow by comparison.
"That's just the way it pans out some times," said Petersen. "The players have got to make those decisions out on the park."
Knights' old-boy Zeljko Susa was dominating the middle of the park, and late in the half found Vlahos, whose shot hit the post.
Two Knights efforts, in first-half stoppage time - the first a grass-cutter from Alex Kiratzolglou, the second from Joel Porter, both safely gathered by South's keeper Michael Petkovic - were the Knights only other chances of the half.
A tactical change was made by Vanis at the start of the second half, bringing in Xhezair Sulemani for Josip Kozic wide on the right.
"We felt that Sulemani could give us a bit more pace up forward and a bit more width," said Sigur. "Kozic seemed a bit ower-awed with the occasion. But there were probably another seven players Vanis could have replaced."
Sulemani was at the heart of much of Knights' forays from that point, but the Knights still found it impossible to claw their way back into the contest.
Their task was made the more difficult when South took a three-goal lead after another quick break. Petkovic's long clearance fell neatly for Vlahos who awaited support from Trimboli wide and to his left. Trimboli, faced by a Knights' defender, delayed on the ball as Panopoulos scampered upfield to assist. After receiving the pass and taking a touch to control, Panopoulos shot past a diving Lupce Acevski.
Porter, Andy Vargas, and Sulemani had opportunities for Knights within a short space of time, but without breaching the home defences.
The game was over just after the hour when Boutsianis lobbed Acevski from wide on the left. When I asked him after the game if he'd intended it as a shot, or what seemed to me to be the more likely cross, Boutsianis smiled and said "You make your own decision!"
Trimboli came close to celebrating a hat-trick within two minutes. Susa and Panopoulos had combined to send the diminutive striker through a flat Knights' backline, but Trimboli's side-foot shot went just wide with Acevski well beaten.
Da Costa was coming into the game in its final minutes, setting up Sulemani with a header the Petkovic came for but missed, requiring veteran defender Mehmet Durakovic to clear off the line.
It was a Petkovic error which lead to the Knights consolation goal, four minutes from time. The usually faultless keeper dropped a cross which was then scrambled clear for a corner. As the corner was swung in, Porter nodded on at the near-post for Da Costa to head home from three metres.