What’s your thoughts on that performance today?
Really disappointing for us, (we were) certainly beaten by a better team today. We know they’ve had quite a few years where they’ve been working and gelling together, and we got beaten in pretty much all facets of the game. (We have a) disappointed group down there.
The midfield battle - unfortunately just couldn’t get it done. What happened with some of those players today, did they just not stand up?
We just couldn’t get our hands on the footy, and we struggled contest-to-contest, our backs fought really hard, but we were just always going to be outdone with the amount of ball going in there, but a lot of inside 50s, and we just couldn’t arrest momentum. We certainly learn a lot from some of our players. Emma O’Driscoll once again stood up – she’s been doing it week in, week out. We do learn a bit about our players today, but obviously really disappointed.
Inside 50s were 48-18, how’d the players hold up?
The backs are pretty fatigued that’s for sure. We tried to really change things, we tried to arrest a bit of momentum, but we just couldn’t do it – they (North Melbourne) were clearly the better side today.
How about Hayley, did she have a hand issue?
I haven’t got the medical on that. We obviously started her inside and we know she can be really dangerous when she goes forward, so we pushed her forward to see if we could get a spark, but as you could see, we just didn’t get our hands on it enough and we couldn’t have that momentum. We had a couple of opportunities where we could move the ball the way we wanted, but outside of that we really struggled to keep ball in hand.
You lost 17% today, and you’re now at the bottom of that list of teams with four wins. Are you still confident that you can make finals from here?
Going through this game we’ve got a lot to learn and a lot to takeaway, and we just said that to the group. Another opportunity presents, that’s exciting for us. We can build again going to Geelong and just put our best foot forward because clearly that wasn’t what we did today, and that other stuff will take care of itself. We need to get back to the process in what we can do to influence and change our team going into the next game.
What was your message to the girls as you look into next week?
Just disappointed with areas of play that we just couldn’t grow. We know they (North Melbourne) are a really good side and we certainly didn’t underestimate that. We knew obviously that they’re really tall, but their inside mids are just a fantastic group of players. We tried to mix things up, and we just couldn’t get it right – just disappointed, but we have to take learnings away from it, but then going forward we want to make sure that we’re raring to go for Geelong next week.
How do you view your forward line mix, both in this game and in the scheme of the season, I think you’re in the bottom four for points forward.
We’re still trying to find that right mix. We’ve got a lot of mids that play forward – we tried to change a few things today. We know Sarah Verrier is a fantastic player, and we’re trying to bring her into that inside mix, which then has Kauffman playing forward. Obviously, we haven’t quite got it right, but I don’t feel it’s too far away. I’m sure that we will get it right, and obviously we’re still learning a new game plan under what it’s like, and there’s just elements of that, that are just breaking down at the moment.
Can you talk us through the move of Sarah into the midfield and the thinking behind it because obviously she’s got such a great kick on her.
We try not to focus too much on possessions, but the more we have the ball in Sarah’s hand, the better we are. She slows the pace of the game down, she makes really good decisions and we just want to start exposing her to that inside-mid. I think going forward she can be a really good inside-mid – she’s got areas of her game that she needs to work on like every player in our team, so we just thought we’d have a bit of a look at her inside today.
Where do you see Roxy Roux at the moment?
Our forward entries as well struggled, we probably didn’t get our best version of Roxy out there today unfortunately - we weren’t predictable with our inside 50’s. We are confident that her best is good enough, but it just didn’t work out today.
How do you get her back in form when there are no reserves?
She’s had a bit of an interrupted pre-season, so she has to do a lot of work during the week to be able to put her best foot forward again. Everyone going into this week is going to have to put their hand up for selection because that was a disappointing performance and Roxy is no different from that team group. We just have to get back to work as I said to the girls, nothing’s going to change. Geelong’s a good opportunity for us to get away, get on the road, build again and hopefully Roxy is a part of that.
Have you got much of a read on Kiara (Bowers) and whether she’ll be available for that Geelong game?
No, I’m not too sure yet, I think in the next couple of days we’ll start understanding a little bit more about her injury but until then I’m sorry I can’t give you too much clarity on that.
If she’s 50/50 does this loss force you to bring her back earlier than you would have liked?
We won’t risk anything with Kiara, we know with her if she’s good to go, she’ll play. We just have to wait and see for all of the medical advice to come back, obviously it would be great to have her back but if it’s not a week or a couple of weeks then so be it.
Do you foresee having to make a few changes after this loss?
We’ve had a lot of girls that are banging down the door, they obviously went and played in Adelaide yesterday so that’s exciting for us. One thing that we’ve been really keen on is supporting our non-playing players to get games into them because we know that we’re stronger together with that and I know there was some good performances yesterday, so we’ll certainly have to look at that.
What’s the focus for next week?
Getting back to winning the ball at the source is one of the main things for us but sticking together too, these things happen we know we’re going to have ups and downs in a season and we’re really confident as a group that we can work through this. We weren’t great against Essendon, we showed what we can do against Richmond and I see this as another week to embrace the challenges in front of us but also grow together as a group.
Has Kiara Bowers been able to train at all?
She’s been doing a little bit of running - I think she ran yesterday, trying to keep her down is not easy. She’ll certainly be working out - I know she works out with her son in the pool as well so she’s always pretty fit. Whenever her time is and when that is she’ll be right to go, I’m sure.
