Where did it go wrong tonight?
I thought we started the game reasonably well and got the ball inside our front half. We just got shown up defensively and their speed of ball movement really cut through us early which really put us on the back foot. We coughed up field position and then I thought we didn’t have the players that handled the basics in the contest and execution under pressure. It was a big occasion in terms of the 90,000 crowd against us and I thought they had a lot more players who handled that situation over us. A lot went wrong but I think if you looked at it they handled the basics of the game better than we did.

What is your level of disappointment?
Yes, we’re disappointed. I said to the players after the game unless you win a grand final you leave disappointed. Whether you miss finals, go out the first week, second week, lose a prelim or lose the grand final you’re disappointed and that’s how we should feel right now. We’re disappointed that we weren’t up to the challenge and weren’t up to Collingwood tonight. In the next week or so we’ll get the players on their holidays and reflect on the year in its totality. Tonight’s not the night for that.

You spoke about how big the occasion is and you’re disappointed that the team didn’t quite respond, are you looking at that as a positive and a learning experience?
Yes, we have to. That was my message to the players after the game is that’s the level that we want to execute under and we weren’t up to it tonight, our execution let us down. Every time we go to work over the pre-season that’s got to be in the back of our mind. That’s the level we need to execute under. We had some players who executed at the level tonight but not enough. 

The fact that you've won a final and taken a major step forward this year, how much of a positive is that?
In the end, we’ve won 16 games and drawn one. That’s a reasonable year but there are no guarantees, we have to get to work in the off-season and get to the level of the top four. We’ve definitely improved our footy, we’ve had a lot of individual players improve their footy and we’ll reflect on that come the end of the week and use that to set up the off-season, set up the pre-season and hopefully improve our footy again.

Are you planning a big off-season in terms of the trade period?
There’s always movement. We’ll work through that over the coming months.

When do you ask for an answer from some of these players?
The time frame is going to come pretty soon. We’ve got the players for at most another week and then they’re off on holiday. I’d imagine we’d get some answers soon and we’ll work through that. Trade period starts after the grand final and we want to make sure we’re ready for that. Those conversations will happen in the next week or so I imagine.

Is it the same as getting the answer potentially on Luke Jackson?
These things will work themselves out. I don’t know whether now is the right time to be talking about it. I’m sure there will be opportunities once the dust settles to talk about list management decisions. I’m getting my head around the loss tonight first. 

What’s the playing group going to miss most about David Mundy?
We’re going to miss his experience. Since my time at the Club he’s been able to really impart his knowledge and experiences and lessons, I suppose onto that young midfield group and he’s helped set them up for success in the future. It’s hard to put into words after the game with what he means to us and the significance of the moment but it’s as simple as thanking him for all that he’s done for us. His legacy is going to be left on the Club and individuals for a long period of time.

Do you anticipate having him around the Club next year?
We’ll work through that.

What effect will having a taste of finals have on the group?
Hopefully a big effect. Hopefully, they can really thrive off the experiences throughout the year but especially the last couple of weeks and really use that to drive them in the off-season and drive them in the pre-season. We’ve got a lot of growth in a lot of individuals on our list so if they can use these experiences to help motivate them to get back here it’s going to be great for us.

How much did you use the knowledge you had tonight from being at Collingwood for a few years?
Things have changed a lot and the way they’re playing is a lot different. It’s a really experienced group to be honest. They had a lot of men playing today and they played really tough footy. They were able to break a lot of tackles and we’ll learn from some of the things that they did to us today because that’s where we want to get to as a Club. I don’t think we’ve had a lot of experience playing in that environment as well and that’s the first time I think everyone apart from Dave and 'Sonny' (Michael Walters) has tasted that for us. We’ll learn from a lot of different things.

Are you optimistic Nat Fyfe can get fit for next year?
Yes, I am. I’m really confident he can get back to his best. That’s obviously driven by his body but I think we’ve seen some good signs that he’s got a lot of things right with his back and knees. We’ll get on top of the soft tissue stuff and give him a really good pre-season which he should have. He could have possibly played next week or at least the week after so he’s in good health and that will set him up really well for the off-season.

Would you have played Fyfe next week?
He would have been an outside chance.

How do you look back on the decision with Taberner?
It hasn’t crossed my mind since the game to be honest. I think it was the right call. I don’t think he was ready. He has had a really interrupted year. He has been in and out, he is another one that we need to make sure hits the off-season with a healthy body and is able to put in a really solid pre-season because he is important to us. But all those interruptions made me feel that he wasn’t ready.

Just on the way you moved the ball in the first half they seem to get a lot of numbers back, were you too hesitant?
A little bit, yep. We got it in there and probably didn’t get it in there quick enough I don’t think our forwards moved enough and forced their defenders to defend and the ball came out of there way too easy. It went in there six times in the first quarter, which hasn’t really happened against so they gave us a bit of a lesson there.