Jones said the Demons were on the back foot early after making some inroads in recent weeks.
“We’ve seen some progress over the last three weeks, so to take a couple of steps back was really disappointing for us,” he said post-match.
“But the message is that we have to stick together – no one else is going to pull ourselves out of it, except the group that we’ve got here.”
Jones said the Demons had prepared well in the lead-up to the clash.
“We were confident we were going to deliver – in particular the competitiveness for the game,” he said.
“It was really disappointing that we only rolled up and served half a performance.
“We were really poor with the stats – not being able to effectively stick those tackles - I think part of tackling is a mindset thing, and clearly we weren’t in the game for 100 per cent. That’s something we’re going to have to work on.
“Gold Coast is a developing side, but when we do play those stronger sides – if we don’t have 100 per cent effort by every player, the chinks in our armour are really exposed.”
Jones said Gold Coast’s start – when it kicked 5.5 to 0.2 in the first term – put his team back into its shell.
“We’ve been challenged multiple times this year and Neeldy has encouraged us, particularly in the last three weeks, to get at the game and put some pressure on and hit bodies, and get involved,” he said.
“We did the opposite of that today.
“We didn’t spread as much, we didn’t use the ball well enough and we didn’t put enough pressure on them to win it back.”
