Do you feel like inexperience was a factor tonight?
In the first quarter the game was won and lost so we know that and that’s often the case, after that I thought our endeavour didn’t wane. If anything it stepped up throughout the game so that was pleasing. I think where it did effect us a little bit was (Harley) Balic and Griffin (Logue) forward, which we knew was a risk against an organised, experienced defence and they did that pretty well. They play to the line of the ball pretty well, our first three entries they marked the ball. So (Jeremy) McGovern had a picnic marking the ball and I think (Elliot) Yeo might have taken a couple. For the game they marked nine of our entries and eight of those occurred in the first half and I think about five of them in the first quarter, so that was an issue for us and that’s maybe where it contributed. We were able to work our way through that, so if you don’t use the ball well going forward and you don’t position well that’s going to be an issue and that allows them to counter punch you pretty quick. When you are not playing good footy teams will get back on you and they get out on you, that’s what happened. They had a couple of forward 50 stoppage goals that we have been pretty good at defending, a few scrambles, a few quick kicks over the head and then it just compounds and comes together. At one stage we had 11 entries and one point or a goal and they’d had five entries for four goals. So they were really efficient and effective defensively. That comes back to us and preparing them well we think we have been doing that in a reasonable manner but there are some really good lessons that we spoke about at half time. I thought in a real sense we improved our method working the ball forward, making them defend a little bit (it was) far from perfect, but it was a bit more of what we wanted so you have to pay to learn though don’t you? We understand the path we are on, we didn’t hide Griffin Logue we put him onto (Josh) Kennedy and thought we’d let him experience this, Tommy Sheridan back to (Mark) Le Cras and Connor Blakely had been playing on (Luke) Shuey so it’s not like we are hiding young players but we thought out of that wreck they get an opportunity. The key part is you have to learn from your experiences, no use having the experiences and not learning. Ethan Hughes, I thought early was a bit tentative maybe, but once he started to fiercely compete he looked a lot better. Sometimes it’s just simply about getting a bit fiercer and not being as tentative and backing yourself in. So I thought once we did that we did look a lot better. All credit to West Coast, they did what they needed to do at the start of the game, they have been under a lot of pressure, we know they are aiming for top four and they played strongly and did what they did. To our boys, I thought our endeavour never waned and I was pleased with the way we fought on in difficult circumstances.

Given you are playing a shorter forward line is you use going inside 50 the area you need to work on the most?
No you just need to be there. You don’t have to be giants but you need to try and get representation and equal numbers. Some of it was work rate. They worked harder to the ball than we did. Some of it was not smart positioning. Height has been a non-issue, we didn’t get any taller in the second half, we just positioned and used the ball going forward a lot better.

Fyfe was a lot quieter than usual tonight, is he okay and what did you think about his game?
I think you have to understand he’s human. When the ball is going into their forward 50 and not coming out it makes it hard for midfielders to get a bit of the ball. At once stage it was eight entries and seven goals one. There is not too much rebound ball coming out, it’s quite difficult. I thought his hit around the ball was fantastic, he wasn’t perfect but I thought he was okay. I think he is leading well, he’s embracing the group and it’s really pleasing in an overall sense. We all lick our wounds, I know that’s cliché but we go away and cover ourselves and get going again.

There was an incident with Nat Fyfe and Elliot Yeo in the final term. Yeo stayed down for a while, what did you make of that?
I didn’t really see it, all I know is that Nathan is a ball player. He cops a lot of attention, some players stay down to milk free kicks. I don’t know.

Do you not think Nathan is the type of player to do that sort of thing?
It's not for me to comment. I didn't see anything. It doesn't interest me. It only interests me if it's an issue. At this point, I think it's a non-issue.

Michael Walters hasn’t been at his best for the last month?
Past month? I wouldn't have thought so. We know he hurt his ankle a couple of weeks ago. He didn't look injured in the last quarter. You wouldn't want to be a small forward when there's no crumbs. I mean there's always fake news. There's no fake news with Michael. He's had a bit of an ankle, he's working through it, he's getting better. But there's hardly an AFL player that goes down the race feeling 100 per cent. But I think you saw his agility and run in the last quarter. Did he look injured in the last quarter? So I think you've answered your own question – ‘geez he's moving well in the last quarter’. We probably should have done it earlier to be fair. It was a really tough night being a small forward. It was disappointing for his 100th game. He's a pretty special story, with plenty to come. And Aaron Sandilands, we would have liked to honour them in a better way tonight, but we didn't do that. But we'll butter up next week. That's the transition we're on, we're committed to a path. I don't know how many players were under 30 games, there might have been 10. Balic showed a bit. We just need to keep improving.

You gave some kids some jobs, do you keep playing those kids in those positions?
That's a good question. Strike the balance, what's best for their development? Do they need to gather themselves, do they need to keep going? It's a good question. Philosophically, we like to keep integrity to selection, and all things being equal the youth have been getting really good opportunities, and have been fantastic for us. We sit here 3-3, played a pretty good team, after the first quarter I thought we matched them in a sense. They probably looked in control a fair bit of it, but at times we worried them. We've seen around the league, we all know how challenging an environment it is to sustain really good form for a long period of time. There's only a couple of teams doing that, the rest of us are going up and down a bit.

The was some great defensive marking from West Coast, were you disappointed the team didn’t pick up on that and change the way they handled it?
Ultimately we just need to train it a bit more under pressure. That's how you become a really good team, you do it all the time. You don't have lapses. But I think when you have 10 players under 30 games you're going to get a bit of that. As long as we learn. That's the important thing for me and the group.

Danyle Pearce headed over east for personal reasons, can you clarify that?
I can clarify he went back for personal reasons. I think we respect that boundary. He wouldn't want me to elaborate any more than that except to say it's personal, it's family, and he'll be fine. He'll be back at the club on Monday or Tuesday, and he'll do all the training.