How is Andy Brayshaw?
Andrew Brayshaw was king hit 100 metres off the ball. He’s got a fractured jaw and four displaced teeth that are caved in and he will be undergoing surgery tonight.
Your thoughts on the incident itself?
I think it’s self evident, I’ve got an 18-year-old kid that I saw in a real mess when I came down to the rooms and his mum in tears as I was walking in. It’s not very palatable.
The incident that's seen Brayshaw come off the ground#AFLEaglesFreo #foreverfreo pic.twitter.com/QVOaC3P3nO
— Fremantle Dockers (@freodockers) August 5, 2018
How tough is that for a coach to see a young player go off in that sort of distress?
It’s very distressing. My senior players certainly wanted retribution and I had to stay out on the ground longer at three quarter time to settle a couple down and say "don’t bring yourself into disrepute”.
You know Andrew Gaff from the International Rules Series?
I think that’s irrelevant.
Did you think it was a dog act from him?
You can use whatever words you like, I am just stating the facts of what occurred.
How many weeks does Gaff deserve?
I’m just putting the facts forward. Andrew’s unlikely to play again this year. There’s certainly a precedence set… I think Barry Hall got seven (weeks).
How do you feel your players handled the aftermath?
I thought they were dignified. They competed, they weren’t getting it done. I thought we started the game really well with plenty of entries but inefficiencies and their ability to be efficient and go forward and score. I thought we certainly gave ourselves plenty of opportunity – at the end of the day hopefully we will go forward and be able to play with more polish and do the basics better. There were some dropped marks, missed handballs and fumbles that were really costly but we fixed our centre square bounce work from the week before. We took more marks inside forward 50, they kicked a lot of crumb goals but our ability to spread the ball has been poor for the last four or five weeks, when earlier in the year we were doing that really well. So that’s just a simple focus for us, spreading the ball more, working together, have more kicks and uncontested marks. Sometimes we just go too quick… they are quite a composed team, a very experienced team… we had six players with 20 games or less and they had three. That’s where they’re at and where we’re at. Failure is feedback, that’s what we are working on, we just have to deliver on it better. But it was a challenging day.
What do you do now to rally behind Brayshaw?
It’s quite personal. He was pretty distraught. I gave him a hug, it was hard to keep the emotion back yourself, to see his mum… it's pretty tough. It’s a tough enough business as it is. It’s a pretty significant moment I would have thought. Our number 2 pick won’t play again this year I wouldn’t have thought.
Do you know if his teeth have been corrected?
I think we’ll just leave it at that they are caved in.
How did you address the rest of the players after the game?
I told them at three quarter time what had happened, which they all knew. That we need to try and fight on. I thought we kept trying but they were just a bit too good for us. You can ask a thousand questions, the facts are the facts. Let’s just deal with it.
Is this the angriest you have ever been in your coaching career about something that has happened to one of your players?
I don’t think I’m angry.
How do you feel?
It’s not about how I feel. I’m sitting here healthy.
Joel Hamling came out of the team before the game?
Unfortunately at the last training session his calf went on him. We thought he might be a chance but he’s probably unlikely for next week as well.
Any other injuries?
I think Stephen Hill might have tightened up a little bit. Am I angry? I don’t know. I am pretty emotional. It’s a tough game. I wouldn’t have liked to have seen my son like that.