Ross, what did you make of that today?
I thought we had a real dip. Really proud of how they played. We had a difficult side and a number of debutants and young players. It was a really good step in the right direction.
What is the overriding feeling? Was it pride or disappointment to not get over the line?
It’s clearly both. We have a parallel view; we are really proud and really disappointed.
I thought we started really well. The first quarter we had lots of entries. Couldn’t quite nail it. There were times when we needed a bit more polish and connection with our forwards. Really we competed. It’s not a complicated game. A lot of people want to complicate it, I thought we competed fiercely at ground level and the pressure was really well. We really ran at them, used it between the lines and created some good opportunities. So what happened in that last quarter? They improved around the clearances early even though we had been really good all day. Some youth clearly tired a little bit. That’s AFL footy, that’s the filter. You’ve got to be able to go as hard from first to last, particularly against a quality team. Probably from their end they lost two, one being Joel Selwood early, so they were down on numbers and they would be pleased with their resilience and push forward. Last kick of the day, we had an opportunity to win the game. That’s what we take out of it. Our ascendancy came from competing fiercely, using the ball well and defending well. There were phases where we were pretty good. Just lost it a little bit. Their experienced backs ran off a bit in the last quarter when fatigue set in… a couple of bits and pieces. You know Connor Blakely, I love that he didn’t just go down the line. That he took it on and got it to Weller. We were a bit unfortunate, a little bounce and it was the most powerful man in AFL football and Lachie’s really explosive himself. They are the fine lines, but you have to dare to win and I thought that we did that today.
Did Lachie make the right decision centring at the end?
He clearly made the right decision. It’s not even for debate.
What do the young guys take from this?
Well, birth certificates go out the door and you’ve got to take the emotional risk. As much as it’s a reality and you’ve got to build, we don’t go down and say here is a birth certificate and make the excuse and don’t compete. The demand is to compete, that’s the price and you’ve got to find out what you are capable of doing and the courage to do that. There is plenty of people that sit behind shadows of ‘would have, should have’ excuses. We don’t want to be that group, I don’t want to be that coach and we don’t want to be that club.
Sean Darcy in the ruck and our other debutant Josh Deluca really applied pressure and we have a couple of fourth game players in Logue and Ryan. You have your ups and downs, but we know what we are capable of and that is where the demand is at.
What did you make of Hayden Ballantyne back in the forward mix?
It certainly helped us. I think it’s a credit to his preparation and shows he is a quality AFL player. We know that, and he is important to us and we really respect him.
Sean Darcy, you would be pretty happy with how he played today?
I thought he performed. He had a lot of hit-outs, played against competence; he was a shining light for us really. Gave us a really good opportunity and that’s what you want your ruckman to do.
They almost wore you down in a sense?
Just some errors. They beat us in some one on ones, fair and square.
We could have been organised a little bit better. We had people in different places. That’s all leadership and working together. In the end we had an opportunity to win the game the last kick of the day. Our leaders stood up. It was a strong performance without getting the points and we walk away disappointed but it is that parallel story of growth, and going forward. You can lose it going forward. But you would think that against Brisbane. We lost and went backwards. But this is the right way to go about it.
Bradley Hill was penalised for deliberate out of bounds, which was a contentious one? What did you make of it?
To be frank, we don’t win and lose games on umpiring decisions. I’ve never criticised umpires and I am not going to start now. To be truthful, I didn’t even know.
Is Bradley Hill ok?
I thought he might have really hurt himself, but he ran it to Michael Walters. Let’s focus on the good aspects of the game.
Any other injury concerns?
No we are pretty good. I just want our members and fans to be proud of our efforts and I think they will be.
