What were your overall thoughts on the game?
I thought we jumped into the game reasonably well. We had field position early, we didn’t make the most of our opportunities and then I thought we didn’t execute the plan. It was as simple as that. We allowed them to get goal side too easily. We looked too flat at contests, and we didn’t handle the conditions well enough in the first half, which allowed them to get momentum. Once they got momentum, we weren’t able to hold that momentum through execution of the basics. It was really disappointing that part of the game because we went in with a plan and we didn’t execute it. We changed some things at half time, and it didn’t work straight away but it allowed us to control the midfield a little bit and battle in there a bit more and it gave our forwards a bit of a chance. I was proud of the way we fought it out. We didn’t see it through because we didn’t show the composure we needed, particularly late in the game, and we couldn’t execute in the chaos of the game once it when turn over to turn over in that last quarter but I thought we started executing the things we wanted to and got the game on our terms a bit more. I was happy with the fight but there were some things in the first half that we just can’t cop.

What are some of the things that happened early that you didn’t like?
I am not going to go into too much detail here but I mentioned it before, we allowed them to get goal side. We didn’t play as smart as we have been playing and we weren't able to work off each other. We allowed them goal side at stoppage from those contests, which was pretty much one of the most important things we wanted to deny off them. I thought we were able to control those things better in the second half but we left our players way too much work to do.

Did you feel the conditions got in their head?
No, because it highlights it even more if you look at maintaining your contest balance, especially defensively against the Tigers but the basics we didn’t execute well enough in the conditions. I think experience comes into that a little bit. I think they had 15 100-game players to our three. We haven’t been confronted with that experience before and they just handled that with a bit more momentum but to our credit we adjusted and got things right and we made a game of it. I reckon they would have been a bit worried, I was happy with the way we adjusted, it just took way too long.

When was the message to take the game on at all costs?
Well take the game on is one thing but you have to be able to pick up the footy and make sure you are winning the footy. We were minus 20 ground ball in the first half four weeks prior to the bye we have come a long way with our contest and a long way with our ground ball we just didn’t get that aspect right a bit of it came down to structure we need to review that

Do you think the bye broke that momentum you had some really great wins and you have the time over the bye and you weren’t at the level you were before.
Maybe. All those sorts of things come to mind. We made sure that over the bye you are training the right things and you are focusing on and I think we started the game well. We weren’t slow at the start of the game, everyone has to go through the bye but I don’t want to make excuses.

Do you feel like you robbed Peter to pay Paul with Luke Jackson today as someone who’s had good form down forward, but you needed him in the ruck?
Possibly. He’s the next best ruck in line and I thought he did a pretty good job. We’ll have to review whether we got the balance right with our forward line, whether we need to bring in another tall, we had to play Luke in the ruck. I thought he played a decent game, I thought Josh Treacy gave us a really strong contest and fought his backside off all over the ground. We’ll watch the tape and review it and see whether we need another tall down there. We were probably inexperienced down there at times, do we have another experienced forward we could’ve brought in? I don’t know, we’ll cover all of those bases in the review.

How is James Aish?
He’s doing his tests now. I don’t really want to make a comment too early on that.

Do you feel like this young group still has things they need to adjust to and learn from, with the four wins, the bye and now tonight?
Yes. We just need more experience in those conditions. There are times when you need to body line the ball and in wet conditions, you’re not going to take it cleanly, but you leave it in a spot where you can get a second bite at it. I just thought there was a bit of attention to detail that we lacked. So yes, it was another good experience for us to learn from, the bye is another good experience for us to learn from, we’ll pick ourselves up and go again.

Walters was one of those guys that seemed to ignite you, will he be ready for a full game after tonight?
Yes, that’s the plan.

During the week the AFL sent a memo out around dangerous tackles, how do you approach that with the players?
We haven’t gotten to the point yet where we’re practicing tackling differently. We talk about it. It’s just a really tough one, in terms of split second, we talk about just making sure there’s not two motions but yes sometimes it just comes down to a little bit of luck with that as well even. We’ll continue to tinker, I didn’t think there was anything untoward tonight but it’s something that we’re going to need to keep looking at across the competition.

Is it difficult to not confuse the players when trying to coach them on it?
Yes. There are a lot of confusing things in our game, there’s a lot of split-second decisions we are asking our players to make in what is a really contested and competitive situation. We need to find a line with that. I feel for the players, one thing the players do do is they tend to adjust really well. It takes a little bit of time, but they tend to adjust really well, we just need to make sure that the ball carrier is not contributing to it as well and that we come down hard on that if the ball carrier starts contributing to it.

What were your initial thoughts on the Ethan Hughes goal?
You just rely on the correct avenues to get it right in that situation. I’m 120 metres away in the second tier, so I don’t have a great view of it. You trust that the review gets it right, that’s where I’ll leave it.

The crowd liked the replay and they got pretty excited
I got pretty excited as well, it would’ve been a handy goal but I’m sure they made the right decision.

Can you believe your luck, or lack of, when it comes to those decisions?
I look at the stuff that we got wrong as a team, I probably dwell on that more than an umpiring decision. Control what we can control.