"For me it was difficult to manage training," he admitted. "You've gotta give guys time off.

"In the end we had Christmas Day and we trained on Boxing Day, but we had three days off before that because we had the game a few days earlier.

“This week's been difficult. If we have a good result in Wellington maybe I'll change my mind.

He added: “We actually came in on New Years Day, which isn't actually fair on the players.

"I don't think we have the football culture where we you can put football matches on Boxing Day and New Year's Day and expect the punters to turn up.

“Cricket and the Sydney to Hobart have that tied off so we should just let them have a week off.”

And Kosmina did not pay the Adelaide Oval any compliments after Sydney's December 28 fixture against his former club.

“The pitch was the hardest we've been on all season," he said. “A couple of the older heads felt it a bit more than others, plus it was 36 degrees.”