“The way you communicate is important in the modern day and you have to be calm and measured but there are times when you have to wake people up and make them realise it’s not good enough - at times it’s appropriate,” he said.
“The odd spray doesn’t hurt. It’s not something you will see a lot but I felt it was needed.
“I don’t think it rattled their confidence as they played better after half-time and I don’t think it will have an adverse affect this week.
“We have followed up with the players since then and the discussions were pretty solid but the players have come out well the other end. We’ve discussed the game, our training, our day-to-day behavior so we’ve vented and now let’s have a crack at Adelaide.
“Young men have an ability to bounce and come back very hard - they are all proud men and they will come out and want to play much better on Friday evening.”
Knights said the squad had looked closely at problem areas – especially having slow starts in games - and worked to address them.
“It’s not the players' fault or the coaches’ fault it’s all of us together as a united football club,” he said.
“When you have the wins and the glories you share it and when you have the losses you share it and that's the way I see it and will always see it.
“There are patches in games where you are seeing quite good football but there are other areas that are pretty ordinary and that maybe linked to having seven players with under 10-games, it might be a contributing factor.
“But you will continue to see younger players coming into the side for the rest of the year if their form warrants it.
“For guys like David Myers, Darcy Daniher, Leroy Jetta and Tom Hislop the last few weeks and what they have learned has been invaluable to their careers.”
In a major positive for the team, Knights today revealed that champion centre-half forward, Scott Lucas, will return to the Bomber line up to play Adelaide on Friday night if he gets through a final training session.
He said Lucas has been “meticulous” in his rehabilitation which gave him no hesitation in bringing the 248-game veteran straight back into the senior team.
“We have our last training session in the morning before we fly out and, if he comes through with flying colours, he will play on Friday night,” Knights said.
“He will be able to give us decent minutes because of how professional he has been in his rehabilitation and because of the position he plays and I expect him to play well.”
Lucas suffered a Grade 3 tear of the Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL) in the Round 1 clash with North Melbourne and was placed on the long-term injured list.
