While disappointed not to take maximum points out of the contest Postecoglou said he was delighted with the efforts of his team, who he refused to concede were undermanned.

"Certainly we weren't fantastic today, but the boys put in a very, very good shift," Postecoglou said.

"The general feeling in the sheds is that it was two points dropped, but you certainly couldn't fault the effort.

"We definitely had some inexperienced players out there today, but we felt we could cope with that given we had the experience of the likes of Craig Moore, Josh McCloughan and Sergio van Dijk out there to help them out."

Despite the missing players, the boss said the message from the squad remains the same.

"The players have said all along we won't be making excuses about having players out," Postecoglou added.