Justin can we start with your thoughts on the finish to the game, and the kick out of bounds at the final siren?
I’m not 100% sure on the rules. So I trust the umpire got it right. My gut feel is that we would have stolen it if we had have got a shot on goal and we had have drawn or won it. I admire the boys fight at the end and never give up attitude but we’ve got a bit of work to do. So on the last incident, I trust the umpire got it right.
The game in general, you would have stolen it, how did you end up in that position do you think?
Well, again, the inefficiency going forward, there was just some really unpredictable work forward of centre. Missed opportunities in terms of hitting the easy one or hitting the free, especially early when we created opportunities off turnovers and we had players out and just couldn’t connect. We’re just having to work so hard for our goals at the moment. Clearly. Our work forward of centre needs to improve we need to become more predictable to each other, and we need to get better around the ball. I don’t know what it ended up, before we went on a little run in the last quarter, we were minus 10 centre bounce. Good luck trying to own field position with that number. We’re better than that, and we’ve got to start showing that.
That clearance battle, they really got on top of you, how disappointing was that aspect?
It’s disappointing because we feel like it’s a strength, but it’s not a strength until you show it. So we need to get our hands dirty. It wasn’t till the last ten minutes where we got a sniff, and started playing to win, started crashing in, bashing bodies, taking the game on – it needed to come way earlier.
Could it be a sense of complacency amongst the group?
No I don’t think so. It’s going to be different for every individual, so we’re going to be fighting a bit of doubt, some of them may be complacent, some are trying too hard. So we’ve got to get to the bottom of each individual, but as a collective we need to be more proactive, more predictable, and we need to get on the front foot.
You rolled almost half your team through the forward line at different points tonight, when did you make the decision that you just have to throw them down there?
You’re probably looking at that wrong, because it wasn’t that. It was trying to get guys through the middle of the ground. We tried to put Switta through the middle of the ground to give us a bit of energy at ground level, Aishy through the middle of the ground to try and get some energy at centre bounce. We’re trying to fix the source before the forward line. Forward line was secondary. Jaeger got pushed out for Switta at centre bounce and ended up getting on the end of a couple, so that a positive to come out of it. But we’re trying to fix the source, trying to get a little proactive through there rather than putting numbers through the forward line.
Do you know what your forward line is going to look like? How do you work out what the best mix inside 50 is going to be, to make it easier to score?
I liked the mix down there, probably better tonight. I thought we were able to tackle and pressure. We looked dangerous at ground level, we just couldn’t kick any goals from ground level either, but we looked more dangerous at ground level. I thought we still got a good aerial contest with the four smalls. So we’ll probably keep that, but keep tinkering with personnel. Clearly Fyfey didn’t come up today, Tabs has had to sub out twice, so we need to look at personnel as well.
What happened with Fyfe, can you talk us through the situation, and how bad it is?
He’s been carrying a plantar fasciitis for a while, and he just didn’t react well to last weeks game and pulled up really sore. To the point where he didn’t get up for the game.
Do you know what he needs to do to be okay with that?
He probably needs a bit of a rest, so medical staff have done some work behind the scenes and obviously he didn’t play today so he’ll be off legs for a little bit, trying to maximise a bit of a rest, and he probably needs another week, just to calm it down.
How debilitating is it for him?
Probably only he can speak to that, but I clearly saw enough of him to know he couldn’t get through a game. It’s one of those injuries that every time you walk, it stretches it and makes it sore, so it is debilitating in that sense so we just need to get on top of it.
How is he emotionally given the injuries he has had over recent times?
He probably thinks it’s a little speed hump. The rest of his body is feeling really good and he’s frustrated by this but he sees it as a bit of a speed hump and if he can get this right he probably feels like the rest of his body is holding up really well and he can have a prolonged crack at it.
With that type of injury what would be the minimum time on the sideline be?
Probably two weeks.
Luke Jackson, it just wasn’t happening for him tonight, what do you do there?
He just needs to get to work and maximise on some of the opportunities. It’s been probably two weeks of ‘nearly moments’ and three shots on goal last week, they were all reasonably gettable, and some dropped marks inside forward 50, so he’s creating enough opportunities he just needs to keep working on his game to create a few more but take the ones he’s creating, he’s just having a lot of nearly moments at the moment, and I’m hoping that changes.
That kind of sums up your start to the season, a lot of nearly moments in both games, is that a fair assessment?
It is, but that probably lets us off the hook a little bit as well. I don’t think that hard edge has been there often enough. There’s moments in the game, I think it was the start of the third quarter where we started lifting our pressure rating and starting getting after them and causing turnovers in good areas. We didn’t capitalise on it, but like I said before, it took until pretty late in the game for us to get that energy right around the ball. We’re probably just lacking that hard edge, not everyone, but across the board. You’re not going to be a good team if you don’t get weight of numbers chipping in. So we need to get a more even contribution.
Is it frustrating to see that you can kick three goals in three minutes and be so exciting, but not have that in your game earlier?
Yes it is. We’ve got to keep working on our method forward of centre. Both weeks we won the inside 50 counts well enough and haven’t kicked a winning score, so we need to keep getting to work with our mid-forward connection and being predictable with each other and getting a better result.
That spark that came, do you think that was Michael (Sonny) Walters coming on to the ground, he was exceptional?
Yes he was and he’s got a bit of class about him and guys that make good decisions and finish their work off forward of centre are worth their weight in gold. We took a bit of a gamble playing him as a sub but I feel like he got good minutes and he’s out there doing top up running now, so hopefully that can kick start his season.
Will he get more minutes next week?
That’s the plan.
Is Taberner struggling to get through games at the moment?
Yes he is. He started cramping in both hamstrings in the middle of the third quarter so that was the (reason behind) the decision to get him out of the game. We clearly wanted to get ‘Sonny’ in around that time anyway an because he was cramping we decided to take him out.
Is that a build up from not being out on the park as often as he would have liked?
Possibly, we’ll have to dig a bit deeper into that, our high performance team will do that and we will see what it flushes out.
You mentioned the midfield need to be more proactive, can you explain what you mean by that?
It’s probably more around stoppage, we can be better with our body work at times, better with our movement and trying to get the opposition reacting to us. I thought their big bodies probably pushed us around a little bit. And probably just holding our shape around the contest, I felt like we collapsed into pressure and couldn’t get our tackles done and then they were able to get us on the outside and get field position from that. So we’ll get to work and try and get back to our best in there, we need to do it pretty soon.
It's the part of the ground where you seem to be comfortable rolling the same four or five players, is it an area you need to address with other players or back your players to get it done?
It’s probably too early to say, we will get to that during the week and see what selection flushes out and what our best mix is. It’s probably too early to comment.
Earlier in the match, what did you make of Taberner’s mark review being called after he had kicked his goal? Were you comfortable with that process?
From what I’ve seen happen in the past with that process, they automatically call for a review and they review the mark before the goal is kicked. That’s what I’ve seen happen in the past. So I was surprised it happened that way, but like I said about the other umpiring (decision), I sit here and trust they got the process right. It just looked different to the way they’ve done it in the past. I’ve seen them review that before the goal is kicked in the past, so we will seek some clarification from the AFL but I trust they got it right.
Do you think the siren went before the ball was out of bounds?
I’m not sure.
