Justin how do you sum that up?
I think it probably shows our level of maturity this year. I don’t think we panicked. Clearly, we were getting dominated early and they were proactive, led us to the ball and I think a few of our leaders, in particular our young leaders just stood up and started getting a bit physical in that second quarter. Through our physicality we started playing the game in our front half and got ourselves into the game. That just probably shows the maturity of the group to stay on task and remain process orientated and in the moment and find a way to get back in touch.

Was that your main message to the players when you were trailing?
Yes, that’s been our message the whole time. We knew we weren’t going to get the game on our terms today. It’s always a bit of an unknown playing against a team that’s out of finals contention and we knew they were coming to have a crack so. It was really disappointing the way we started but the message was to just stay on task, it was a bit more than that because we needed to get our contest right, we were playing the game in our back half that second quarter and like I said we were reactive rather than proactive.

What did you make of the forward line mix?
It was obviously a little bit makeshift and given the size of their backs we were a little bit undermanned, especially when one of our rucks was on the bench and Sean Darcy or Lloyd Meek weren’t down there. I think that fed into our game early, I think we were trying to be too cute with the ball and trying to be too perfect because we didn’t trust our forwards. Once we just started taking field position and banging it in there, I thought our mid-range small forwards just gave us a contest and it allowed us to get to work at ground level. Sometimes you go in with the focus of connecting and trying to make sure they don’t intercept mark, sometimes that can backfire, and I thought that did early but as a collective we kicked 89 points in the end which isn’t a bad result.

How nice was it seeing Michael Walters kick three including the sealer?
Great, it was great for him to get some reward for effort. He’s been building his footy, I feel like every time he gets close to his best form, he’s had a bit of a mishap with injury and I just think his physicality helped us get back in the game. He had a really important back with the flight in the second quarter where he didn’t know what was coming but went back and halved an aerial contest. Along with a few others those sorts of acts got us going, so it was good to see him get some reward for effort with three goals, but I thought his game was a lot better than just the three goals.

Sean Darcy almost proved to be the difference when he got thrown back into the ruck late in that first half?
We started working out that Meek did the work against Briggs and then Sean got a look against the second ruck, and he was just really dominant. He’s in good form and he’s been in good form playing large ruck minutes so his role changed a bit today through the necessity of the team but he had a real influence when he went in there.

When do you make the call on Logue? Obviously the pre-finals bye makes a big difference
Yes, the pre-finals bye makes a big difference. He was close and like I said we gave him every opportunity and he just missed. We didn’t want to put him at further risk so we’re hoping he improves pretty quickly and can train by the end of the week.

What about Nat Fyfe’s game?
He’s the one that got us going a little bit in the second quarter. We planned to mainly play him forward, his whole rehab he’s been training as a forward, but we just needed something around the ball. He was important without getting a lot of touches because he just brings a bit of physicality with his body size. He likes hitting bodies and he makes the opposition be a bit reactive as well. It was probably a nearly game for him I reckon, he showed a lot but just didn’t finish his work off.

Is he likely to get a game for Peel next week?
We’ll see how he pulls up and see what his gut feel is and if he feels he needs it. We’ll cross that bridge when it comes.

Anyone else you want to get a game into?
Probably not. We’re pretty confident Lobb will be alright fitness-wise, and we’ll see how Taberner goes, he’ll be touch and go for this week and Tucker and Hughes were our carry over this week so we’ll get some minutes into them. We’ll work through that in a bit more detail, a lot of our boys have played a lot of minutes throughout the year and are ready for the next challenge.

Did you try to find the corridor a bit more in the second half?
Not really. I thought that it came off our better defence to be honest. When you can defend well and pressure you quite often find those opportunities to bounce out of your back half a bit easier. I thought Jordan Clark was really important in a few of those, he just took off and created a bit of overlap. I thought their one-on-one defence once they slowed us up was pretty good but when we got those opportunities to go we made more of a few of those. Our ball handling and our contest was so much better after the first 40 minutes of the game, I thought we were fumbly early and Jordan Clark, Luke Ryan and Heath Chapman all started getting involved and bouncing a little bit more out of our back half and created a few more fast-play looks for us.

You were using Lachie Schultz deep, and it was taking Sam Taylor out of the game, it’s something you’ve done before against the Dees, is that another bow to your string coming into finals?
We wanted to take away their interceptors and I think he’s been as good as anyone in the competition at doing it. We just wanted to play a bit more length with our deeper players, Frederick did it a bit, Schultz did it a bit and I thought Schultz in particular, Banfield and Switkowski were really good at giving us a contest when they were outsized and that was really important for us to be able to bring pressure and lock the ball in our front half.

You used your hands a lot today, was that something to do with the wind?
We’re a handball team, we like to drive and take the game on and I thought it got us in trouble early, we probably just tried to go straight back through them and it got us into a bit of trouble. Once the game opened up and we got better looks off our pressure, I thought it contributed to us scoring off the back half using our hands. We probably handballed a lot inside forward 50 trying to find a free player and because they got so many numbers back and their pressure was so good sometimes that got us in trouble as well and it stopped us from getting a shot away. We’ll continue to work on that balance between kick and handball.

How much does David Mundy mean to the footy Club and do you think the boys are playing for him a bit?
There’s definitely a little bit in it, the players are finding a little bit extra, and I think you can get some motivation especially during the week within Dave’s retirement. He’s a legend of our Club and like I’ve been saying the last few weeks we want to send him out the right way. He asked for six, we’ve given him three, we’re halfway there.

What would it mean to this group to finish in the top four?
Clearly we want to. I said to the group after the game that what happens tomorrow won’t define our season. We’ve won 15 and a half games, we’ve improved on last year, we didn’t scrape into the finals, we deserve to be there on a large body of work, so I look forward to it and we’ll be ready for the challenge.

What are the plans for tomorrow are you going to watch the game together?
No, we’ll get home late tonight and it’s a good opportunity in the next couple of days to spend time with family, get away from the Club and each other and hit the week early next week.

Do you feel like you’ve shown that you can cause some damage in September even away from home?
Our players should take a lot of confidence from that. It’s not easy to travel as much as we do and perform as much as we have so they’ll take a lot of confidence in our away record. They should feel that we can win anywhere.

Have you noticed the difference in how GWS fronted up today in comparison to when you played them earlier in the year?
Probably not a massive difference to be honest and it’s probably hard to make wholesale changes when you take over the job halfway through the season. They probably tried to kick-mark a little bit more than what we scouted and control the ball and look for the corridor a little bit more but largely the same. Like I said before they defended well especially when they slowed us down and their key backs are still really impressive with the way they support each other.

Did you get through unscathed today?
Yes, I think so. We’ve got some sore boys. The RAC Derby last week was a really physical game and we’ve got some sore boys, so the week off will do them a lot of benefit.

Do you feel like you’re one of the beneficiaries of the pre-final’s bye?
Yes maybe. I feel like every team has got some banged up guys but I know a few guys that could benefit from a few days off.