What were your thoughts on the match?
I thought we started well with the right intent, probably for the first five minutes and then there was a 12-minute period where cost ourselves five goals in the first quarter, recovered alright and then the second quarter was a bit of an arm wrestle. I thought our contest method was average which gave them some looks to get goal-side and hung our backs out to dry and I thought the second half we had the better of it. And probably after quarter time I think we were plus 14 inside 50s, and then the difference in the game was probably a bit of class. They were able to execute a lot better and make the most of their opportunities going forward. Every time we’d get ourselves back in the game and look a threat, they would just have the class to win a centre bounce and win a couple of contests and connect inside 50 and they always held us at arms-length.

If it wasn’t for that five-goal burst in the first quarter you probably would have won, how frustrating is that?
They did enough in that period didn’t they and you don’t know how that changes the game, but we need to get on top of that. You can concede goals but it just can’t be five in twelve minutes where you touch the ball 15 times and they touch it 45 times and you lose total control of the game for a period and it hurts you on the scoreboard. We need to get better at that but I think we played a style of footy that will hold us in a lot better stead going forward than what we have the last few weeks.

Your ball movement, where were you at for balance, did it feel a little too quick at times?
It’s always a balance isn’t it? We want to tie our work off better going forward. I’ll watch it again and get a better understanding but it felt like there was a lot of basic execution that lets us down. Whether it was ball handling to receive, or our ability to finish it off inside 50 when a lot of the time we had clear targets to go to and sometimes really wide open targets, and we just didn’t tie our work off with execution. As far as executing roles and having a more fierce intent to execute roles, I think we took a step forward this week versus the last few weeks and I think our ability to trust ourselves with ball in hand and drive and use those roles and numbers was a lot better. So we just need to get to work on the execution part.

That five-goal run in the 12-minute period, do you put that down to experience?
It’s a part of it, experience, you never halt momentum with one person, you need a number of guys communicating and reassuring and instructing and we probably haven’t reached the tipping point on that yet to be able to stop some momentum runs. We just need to keep going to work. Last week was a whole quarter (momentum run), this week I don’t think it was a whole quarter, it was a 12-minute period where they piled on five goals. So we will keep educating the players and trying to help them out as best we can.

Is it disappointing to start quarters well and not be able to keep that intensity?
That’s a bit on the opposition as well. The third quarter we kicked the first two goals and then straight away we concede two centre bounce goals, where Buddy has a couple of moments where he capitalises on some good play and a free kick and he wins a couple of contests. We had some moments throughout where we would give away a free kick at centre bounce or we’re coming out the front and we give away a free kick. Or we get first hands on it and not quite trust ourselves to test the tackle and give to a team mate, and we get done holding the ball. There were other times when we were free and we could have trusted ourselves to drive but we would give the handball, miss the handball and all of a sudden you’re defending your back 50 instead of going inside 50. So we will keep working on that. I think our plans were pretty solid, it was just the execution wasn’t quite there.

How did you view Luke Jackson’s impact in the ruck?
I thought he was good. Obviously I will go back and have a look at it, but I thought he played his role well, I thought he competed in the air and at ground level and he got a bit of his mojo on around the ground as the game went on.

From a team balance point of view, would you like to keep him in there or send him back forward?
We went with a different structure tonight than when Sean was missing last time and I thought ‘Corbs’ (Josh Corbett) gave us a decent contest ahead of the ball when he had to and brought it to ground and created some opportunities himself as well. So we will keep tinkering with personnel but I think that structure is a better structure for us.

How do you view the coaching challenge for the rest of the season with finals out of reach?
Judging on this week, it’s not going to be a big challenge for me to motivate the players, they were really good this week. Hungry, driving standards and they’re really invested and motivated to finish the year off well. Like is said during the week and last week, we’ve still got a lot we can get out of the season so I don’t get a sense that any player has given up or any staff member has given up. In that sense, it’s not going to be hard to motivate them.

How much are you looking at this season and how much is one eye on next season in terms of game plan and structures?
No, we’re invested in the season. It doesn’t mean we’re not going to change and get some things going a little bit differently or the way they should be going. This week we spent a fair bit of time on our roles and our mindset and we will continue to do those sorts of things. In terms of personnel, we will just keep rewarding the guys in good form. We can’t get much younger, so we will just keep rewarding the guys in good form.

Do you have more flexibility in team selection when the games aren’t cut-throat games?
I’m not sure you would think like that too much. We need to maximise every game we play in and we’ve got to make sure we’re playing the right way and teaching players the right things, and doing things that are going to help us go forward as a football club. You don’t get any luxuries in not going 100 per cent in AFL footy, so we will just keep motoring ahead.

The third quarter was a chaotic one, is that the sort of footy you want to play?
I think when we’re playing our best we play that brand. I liked the way we set the ground up, I liked the way we pressured the opposition. I think we got back to defending our front half a lot better tonight, especially in the second half. I think they went end-to-end once in the second half out of 24-25 opportunities, so we defended our front half a lot better and when you defend well, and pressure well, you create those opportunities going the other way and it probably got a bit chaotic because both teams started making a few errors. But that’s the way we want to play and when we’ve played our best footy this year the game’s looked like that. We just need to tie off those opportunities a bit better because we’re creating enough of them.