The Kangaroos had two debutants – Sam Wright and Nathan Grima – in what was already a young side whose performance gave Laidley cause for optimism despite the score line.
"The margin's really disappointing, but at the end of the day, you saw our future today and I reckon that's fantastic," Laidley said.
"We have played the most players in the competition and we've had the most debutants in the competition which I reckon is great.
"For me – and I've said this through the pre-season – this is the most exciting time that I've had at the footy club. Over the last three years we've made the most changes to our list and to see the young guys come through – they're so coachable, they really are."
Veterans Brady Rawlings (calf) and Daniel Wells (hip) were late withdrawals on the day and the Kangaroos looked decidedly undermanned in a first half that saw them fall 56 points behind.
"I thought some of our younger guys got a little bit over-awed early," Laidley said.
"We turned the ball over, but we had our opportunities probably in the first 15 minutes to put a bit of scoreboard pressure on.
"The 15-minute mark of the first quarter to about the 13-minute mark of the second quarter it was nine goals to zip and pretty much that was the final margin give or take a goal or two.
"I thought the second half was a lot better. We had a lot of young kids in, but we put them in the middle and I thought [Ben] Ross, [Gavin] Urquhart, [Lindsay] Thomas and [Sam] Wright in his first game gave us some real run and carry through the middle of the ground."
Laidley was hopeful both Wells and Rawlings would return next week to help the side push back into positive territory after falling to three wins and five losses.
The coach admitted injuries had marred his side's ambition of playing finals, but maintained the opportunities afforded young players would augur well for the long-term future of the club.
"For me it always hasn't been about wins and losses. I'll publicly state that we set ourselves to finish in the finals, [but] the week before the first game we didn't have an injury and we didn't have an injury over the whole pre-season," he said.
"Cruize Garlett went down the week before the first game and it's just deteriorated badly from that time. We also got rid of a hell of a lot of guys last year so we were always going to be a little bit vulnerable if we got injuries. But, on the other hand, that's the exciting part of it.
"We've gone down this track over the last three years and it's been accelerated this year. We knew that if we got a lot of injuries we would be susceptible, but we were prepared to do that as a footy club because it's our future."
