Ross, what went wrong today?
We were pleased at the start, we jumped out, competed, got it in. A little bit of repeat entries but couldn't put it on the scoreboard and they just counter punched a couple of really easy goals. That was probably the story of the day. In the end, they worked their way on top of the stoppages but we couldn't take their game off them. They’ve worked on kicking it around and controlling the ball and building up from the back half. We knew that. If you really worked together and worked hard, we should have been able to take that off them. They had some good pace in their team, but we just weren’t able to take that part of the game off them which we were expecting that we would based on, you know, a small sample. But in our JLT we’ve been good at that sort of thing. Working hard, be hard at the play against, not as many uncontested marks and kicks against. That was a bit frustrating really. I just thought, it might not have seemed like it on the scoreboard but there were times that we were really in the game. We’re going forward and we just didn't execute. At half time we felt we were running strongly, come out after half time three times we’re out, we’re centre-forward and we turn it over and it goes back. At times it was a bit closer than it may look now. I thought we fought on but simply we couldn't take their game off them. They have worked hard on that, we knew it was there, bit like Adelaide, first half Adelaide take it off them and second half they don't and they get going. That is going to be the challenge with Port Adelaide and we couldn't execute that. In the end they got on top around the ball. So if you can’t find them, you can’t tackle them.
You talk about those repeat entries and not being able to take advantage. Is there an issue with the delivery?
A little bit of connection piece, they play back shoulder so you should be able to tick up and hit one. I thought Nathan Wilson showed good composure but it’s a game of inches a little bit of the time. Almost take a mark, should see the handball. But overall, it was a hostile environment, couple of young debutants, to jump out like we did and really get to work was pleasing. I thought at half time it was tighter than it looked, but then they got on top. They worked their way on top around the clearances, but again their ability to seep out, get out, whether it was through hard run or us ball watching, that was probably the tale of the tape.
Can you tell us a bit about Brayshaw and Banfield, a real baptism of fire today?
I didn't think it was a baptism of fire, that's AFL footy. They're a tough gig everywhere. They roll up next week hopefully and it’s Essendon. It’s a tough gig, I thought Andrew looked composed with the ball, obviously we’d like more of it. They are a very good team, well, we think they are and they proved it today. We come with expectation to win, compete fiercely, I thought we competed, not exactly how we wanted to but I thought it was a pretty strong effort. We will take the feedback where we need to improve, as I said we couldn't take their game off them. So they will be pleased with what they did and we will be frustrated tat when we get beating with what you know.
How valuable is it to play on the road and in the Adelaide Oval environment?
I don’t get caught up in ovals too much to be honest. Good teams win anywhere so that’s what we want to become. History proves that, if you’re good team and build a good team, you win anywhere. If you just want to be a hometown flat track bully that’s not going to take you too far. The grand final is played at the MCG. We’re trying to build and clearly we need to keep improving. We’ll gather ourselves and get going again. We’ll assess it and give the feedback, we won’t whip ourselves, we know there are things to work on.
How concerning was the lack of pressure?
I said that if you can’t find them, you can’t tackle them. It’s about consistency. I wouldn’t have said that the whole game but obviously some patches. They’ve got some big strong bodies, Ollie Wines, Tom Rockliff, Travis Boak and Sam Powell-Pepper are big men and they tackled strongly, so we have David Mundy and Nat Fyfe, and we’ve got some other guys too but sometimes it’s intent and we would like to win that battle and clearly we didn’t win that battle.
It was more physical than mental?
I don’t know, I just look at the numbers and they tackled a bit more than we did but as I said if you can’t find them and equalise it in there with their numbers you’re going to get beaten. So times when we should have equalised numbers, we didn’t.
What did you make of Alex Pearce v Charlie Dixon battle?
Look it’s a bit hard, I thought there was a lot going on but I thought Alex Pearce never gave up and competed until the end. Marshall kicked four goals and they had a fair spread of goal kickers. Considering how quick it came in, he’s a pretty good player Alex Pearce. We went smaller, we wanted to run and create a little bit more than we did but you need to rely on pressure.
How did you go injury wise?
Nothing has got to me. Maybe cramp, hot and tough but they’ll hydrate. We need to come again, we’ve got the new Optus Stadium in Perth next week and we’re excited about that. Essendon will be full of beans coming over but we need to get back and recover and get moving. Peel Thunder played today so we’ll see what comes out of there as well.
Do you expect to wield the axe personnel wise?
It’s not something I’ve thought of. I don’t know about a game like that. I think that’s a bit inaccurate. I think that’s a throw away line. We had some debutants, I think we competed, we didn’t execute and we played a pretty good team. You don’t have to do much wrong to lose by 50 points in the AFL.
