How do you assess the win?
I thought the first half was pretty even. I thought we jumped into the game well. Their ball movement was real slick early, and they took the game on, but we found opportunities back the other way. It was a fast game and the second quarter I thought we had the better of it. We were probably fortunate at times they didn’t make the most of their opportunities and then in that third quarter they threw a really good punch and I thought we went away from our footy and our contest fell away. I thought even though we had a lot of tackles we missed a lot of important tackles and they just won critical contests and they were able to score and then they ran out of legs, and we found something. So, it was a good win in the end. It is a win we needed, and it is a performance we can build off.
They had some injuries, were you disappointed that you couldn’t capitalise earlier on your chances?
I clearly got the boys in the huddle at three-quarter-time wasn’t to say, ‘well done.’ I was disappointed we went away from our brand of footy and to expose an opposition in that sort of sense you need to win the ball and we couldn’t win it. It is hard to expose their lack of run if you can’t get the ball on your hands. I thought we steadied at points in the quarter it just got stuck in our back half too much at certain periods today.
How did you assess the hitout battle compared to the clearances?
We’d like a better result out of the clearances I am not 100 per cent sure how it ended up the clearance battle, but it is a better result than we have had but we will take but just like the rest of our game there is still plenty to work on.
How disappointed were you that there was such a disparaging difference between hitouts and then you only ended up as plus four in the clearances?
We have been positive in the hitouts all year and we haven’t been able to get the plus four clearances. It is not as easy as everyone thinks to get your ruck-midfield connection right. Especially when an opposition probably expects to lose the hitouts, it is not as easy as everyone thinks. So, we will keep devising plans and try and come up with a plan to try and maximise our hitouts and our ruck-mid connection. So, we will keep working on it but it is not as easy as everyone thinks
How did you assess your forward line and inside 50 entries?
It was better, I thought we were able to hit the shorter kick a little more and had more forwards leading up at the foot. There also wasn’t as many bombs to three versus three, as we have seen in the past few games. I thought out forwards played with much better energy just to be dangerous. So, it was clearly a better result, but we have plenty to work on.
It was fast early and was a quick style of play, were you pleased with the way they played?
I thought we got some good looks with our ball movement and got some chain and got goal side of them, but I have been seeing that first two rounds as well. If you look at the stats, I don’t think we went inside 50 from our back half as much as we have in the first couple of weeks with our ball movement. We got some better looks, and we were able to finish off a bit better and when you finish off on the scoreboard and you connect inside 50 it makes your ball movement look a bit better. So, I think the final piece of the puzzle was there today.
What did you make of Caleb Serong’s game today?
I thought it was a typical game by him, but he got a bit more out of his possessions today than the previous couple of weeks, but he is a real competitor, and he works as hard as any player on our team. So, it is good to see him get the spoils I suppose.
Centre bounce was something you wanted to look at, what did you make of it?
I will have to review it. I think we have a lot of work to do in there still. Once the ball is bounced and it hits the deck it becomes an isolated contest, which you get all over the ground and especially in that first quarter they were all over the ground and they become critical contests, clearly. I just think at times we’re not as fleet of foot around the contests as we need to be. Clearly, today we got one more and field position from today, which is a bonus, but I still think we have plenty of work to do.
What impact does Sam Switkowski have?
I thought he was probably one of our better players all over the ground. Clearly you would have seen his speed and agility, but he shows great composure with the ball in hand and very rarely wastes a possession and the stuff you don’t see is he puts relentless pressure on the opposition every time he can. We see that internally and reward that, but he is a very good player.
He gives you so much in the middle and is a special player in there, do you want him to go in there?
Like I said before it is an isolated contest and when the ball hits the deck you need good ground ball players that hunt the footy and if they can’t hunt the footy, they hunt the man he does that all over the ground, so he is a good centre bounce player.
It was a special moment with Luke Jackson and the players getting around him for his first goal, how important was that?
I thought he got some reward for effort. He has been getting his hands to a lot of aerial contests and he still dropped a few today that he would have liked to take but he was able to get some reward for effort. His first goal was special but the one in the last quarter where he just launched at the footy and marked it at its highest point, that is what we have seen all summer. He just needs to keep putting himself in the right positions and keep rocking up and they will stick.
How important is Michael Walters as you missed him that first week?
He makes things happen and he finishes his work and probably the stuff you don’t see at times is he just brings great energy. Not just on the field he brings great energy, when he is up playing and off the field in preparation at training, I love that about him he lifts those around him.
How is he fitness-wise? If you weren’t 0-2 would he have started today?
The tricky one was probably the week before whether he gets 80 minutes at Peel thunder in the WAFL, or we play him as a sub and risk getting 30 mins into him and he do top up running after, but we took that risk. He isn’t out of the woods yet hopefully the build continues, and he can have a good crack at it now.
You said Matt Taberner is at full fitness, but he was pretty quiet today?
No, he is alright. He has done a power of work, but he has missed a lot of footy over last year and sometimes it takes a bit to get up to full fitness. I thought he ran out the game a lot better today, which is good. He is doing a lot right; he is able to sit under those long down the line kicks and give us a contest. I thought his follow up was better, but he needs to finish off his work. He is a bit like Luke, where they are both getting their hands on a lot of it but they are just not quite finishing it off and getting the reward for effort, but he is not too far away.
How is Heath Chapman?
Looks like he has done a low-grade calf
And what about Fyfe?
Fyfe will be a week-by-week we won’t go too early.
How do you build on this for the next few weeks taking on Adelaide and then for Gather Round?
That we just make sure we approach it the same way we approached our two losses. That we rock up to training with an attitude to understand what went right and what went wrong and get to work. Then we have a really fortunate opportunity to go away for eight days and play two games in six days. We are looking forward to that because we can get much better than today and we can get much more consistent performance across four quarters than what we produced today. We will strive for that.
Did you feel you took a step forward or because of the circumstances you feel the same around the mark?
We definitely took a step forward they had a great win last week and I am sure they would have wanted to back it up and thought in the first half when they weren’t running out of legs, we were up by 22 points at half time. The third quarter was disappointing, but it is definitely a step forward.
What did you make of the Frederick celebration?
It is not something that I would have done but we love our players to express themselves. I didn’t see that coming and you can’t take that out of the game, can we?
Will you fly a team to Adelaide with the first game in mind or will you take a squad?
We are going to take a squad for the first game. The Peel boys missed out on a game this week through a bye, and they are playing Friday night, so we would like as many guys getting a game as we can. So, we will take a squad for the first game, and we will fly some boys over if we need.
Were there concerns in the last quarter when they closed the margin to two points? What was the feeling in the box?
Of course, there were some concerns. They threw a great punch at us, and they are playing a brand of footy that they get on top in the contest and they are dangerous and that forward line is a good forward line. If they get goal side and they are playing a decent brand of footy it is really attacking. So, I was worried, absolutely the message was more around getting our hands on it and we thought we could find a mark and spread them a little bit, then the fatigue would show and it probably did once we started getting field position they looked tired but you have to give it to them they fought it out really well so Adam Simpson should be proud of those boys.
