• They owned the outside: Logue
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Ross, what was the most disappointing aspect of the game?
Lots of areas. We felt like we regressed tonight. The start was really disappointing for all concerned. We've been starting a lot better over the last few weeks. And our form has been really consistent for four weeks. We've been in tight, tough games. We've been giving ourselves plenty of opportunities, and defending really well. And clearance work has been strong. So we came here really optimistic. But we were also aware it was a milestone game for their coach, for Alastair's 300th, and they've got a lot of three-time premiership players running around still. And they've been in good form. So we spoke about they're going to be very passionate, which you expect, but sometimes there's that extra edge at the start, so be prepared. But unfortunately they spread really hard. Every time we turned it over, the first seven possession gains they had, they had six entries and scored 4.2. Our ability to run with them and hold them up and deny them and slow them down and stop them getting inside and scoring ... and sometimes it was a broken tackle or outmarked. So that was really disappointing, because we hadn't seen that for a while. that's what we'll focus on in the review. Because it's not like they did anything that we didn't think they would do. And then we wrestled back. We had control. We had the next 11 entries and struggled to score. After that period, their efficiency was about the average, and ours was really one in two, and ours stayed at one in three. Our inability to capitalise and some poor decisions ... at the minute we just feel like we're a bit reliant on our very senior core. When they're just a little bit down, the others are struggling to pick up that slack and step up a little bit. That's the way we see it. We've been defending possession gain well, and having shots. But tonight it was eight shots to 20 off possession. And stoppages were basically a 0-0 draw. they ran harder, they spread harder, and were more skillful, so they pulled us apart, which is credit to them. But disappointing from us.

How is Michael Walters?
It's a PCL. They can have different degrees of severity. We'll have our fingers crossed. He's incredibly important to us, and we'll look after him. We'll get scans done in the next 48 hours and as always put it on the injury page.

Did you talk to him after the game?
No I haven't. He'd be disappointed. I'll check in with him at the right time. It's certainly not career threatening. He's had one before on the other side. They're not ideal longer term as you get older. But he'll tend to bounce and get back. We'll see what the severity is.

Was it unusual how he did it?
No he'd done it previously. PCL's tend to get jammed in, pushed back.That's how they happen.

Do you come here today thinking you were closer to the Hawks?
Clearly. Our form line told us that. Geelong, we played pretty good footy. Saints, except we slaughtered the ball. I thought North we were solid. You just need to look around the competition. The ability to sustain it, particularly with a young grou. There's some experienced groups struggling to sustain it. And we didn't sustain that level of intensity and improvement that we have. So yes, of course we did. But you're always on edge that they're not comfortable, but they understand you've got to keep that up. There's some great lessons for our younger group tonight about how tough and ruthless this competition is. Champion boxers come up once every 12 months or two years. AFL footballers and great teams have got to come up for 22 weeks if you're going to finish top four or win one. You've got to keep getting up and getting ready for it. That's the maturity and mentality you need.

Is your forward line still lacking a big tall?
Well I think that’s abundantly clear, that’s self-evident isn’t it?

Has been the case the whole time you’ve been at the club?
Matthew Pavlich was handy, he was a handy key forward. I think you coach with who have you’ve got. Everyone was baying for Shane Kersten’s blood but he kicked two goals and got 16 possessions. So the reality is with those two young boys (Brennan Cox and Luke Ryan), who made an error of judgement, they would have been playing tonight so they would have changed the balance of our team a little bit. In saying that, we wanted to play better than we did tonight. As I heard one of the supporters say ‘don’t sugar coat this, there’s not too many positives out of tonight’. I think that’s a fair take.

Would McCarthy and Kersten be better players if they were second or third forwards as opposed to first and second?
Probably, but until we get that other forward we’re never going to know are we? Ryan Nyhius is really a backman, maybe with Cox and Kersten and McCarthy in together maybe we can get it done. I think efficiency can be dropped marks, I think we dropped two sitters coming out of a centre bounce, sometimes it’s a simple as that.

Were you surprised there were another two players to break team protocol?
They are slightly different issues and it’s really simple. It’s a player policy and their requirements, not mine. My job is to support the player group so there are no draconian measures here. On six-day breaks just get ready and on seven-day breaks you can basically go and do what you want but look after yourself and carry yourself well. In short term rehab stay off it or refrain and in long term rehab pick the right time. We have five six-day breaks for the year. They’re young men, they’re a young cohort. Luke Ryan was playing amateur football a few years ago. Both their parents were supportive, their parents understand, there’s a lot of distractions and lures for young men and it’s easy to make a wrong choice. They weren’t out until all hours of the morning or anything like that. But there was enough that they were made aware, they were inducted by the players, the whole player group was supportive and they’ll be better for it. The standard you walk past in the hall way is the standard you accept. There is no such thing as a snitch culture. Support the person, challenge the behaviour. We all make slight mistakes but we’d like to think we’re tyring to build something strong. 

Will the guys come back into the team?
We’ll have a look at it, even with Connor we had to look at things it certainly wasn’t an automatic.

What are you looking for from Matt Taberner to give him a chance at AFL level?
That’s between Matt and I. he has things to work on. Nick Sautner played at Sandringham and was the leading goal kicker of the VFL nine times and never played a game of AFL football. If you think its just about getting goals at secondary competition like WAFL and VFL and that’s how you play AFL footy you are a long way off the mark and Matthew knows that. I’m not going to hang him out here, but he has things to work on. You would have seen him play previously he’s got plenty of things to work on in his game. A young rookie list tall, he’s worked incredibly hard and carving out a career. He is no silver bullet for us, he’s got plenty of things to work on. The simple measure of kicking a few goals in the WAFL, that’s not the measure.