He leaned against a table and almost winced when the cliche 'positives' was part of my opening question.
Less than an hour earlier the 20-year-old had stood in the middle of Etihad Stadium believing the team he leads alongside co-captain Jack Grimes could win as it earned a 20-point lead late in the third quarter against the Fremantle Dockers.
Now he stood in the rooms as co-captain of a team that had collapsed to a 34-point loss and did not mince words.
"It was there for the taking if we really wanted it and our effort just was nowhere near the mark in that last quarter which was the really disappointing part of it all," Trengove said.
Trengove was not in any mood to give too much oxygen to any possible alibis.
The fact the Demons had lost two players to injury and were therefore down a rotation when compared to its opposition in the last quarter was irrelevant as far as the Demons' co-captain was concerned.
"As a group we are not going to look into that at all," Trengove said.
"You lose a few rotations here and there and in the whole scheme of things it should not matter."
Then the co-captain virtually repeated himself, his central point becoming more obvious the longer we spoke.
"We got ourselves in the contest for the first three quarters and our inability to finish off was really disappointing and you can't make excuses like that," Trengove said.
While much has been made of the 20-year-old's performance this season -not just his first as captain but, mind you, as the youngest captain in the game's history - on Saturday Trengove was very good.
His tally of 21 possessions was by no means spectacular leaving plenty of room for improvement, but 13 were uncontested, an area of his game the coaches have been keen for him to develop. He also made a critical smother in the third quarter to spark a mini-revival after the Demons lost the lead for the first time.
And he was often seen in space with the ball in hand, a place Trengove has not been seen often enough in 2012.
Even nicer to hear however than what observers saw was a frank articulation of how his attitude might have changed slightly as the year has progressed.
"I've just been trying to go back to the basics really." Trengove said.
"I've probably been falling into the trap of overthinking things a bit too much this year."
It was a refreshing revelation from a player who does not put a foot wrong when it comes to both effort and attitude.
Spend even a minimal amount of time with him and you understand why the club (and his teammates) believe he is a person and player who a future can be built around.
They know by his actions that team success is what drives Trengove.
But what his words show is that he is starting to find the balance between responsibility for the group and the need to care for himself.
"Sometimes you have to sit back and get back to the basics because sometimes you can fall into the trap of trying to do too much," Trengove said.
No-one can even accuse Trengove of not trying.
It does not seem to be in his nature.
Nor is accepting a loss such as Saturday's defeat.
"Footy is about playing four quarters and we weren't able to do that today," Trengove said.
