How do you sum up the game?
I thought we took a step forward. We were pretty aggressive with our run and our use. It was a pretty open game once we got it out of the clearance area. But still at half-time there was stuff we wanted to work on like some forward 50 stoppages and so on. But I think in the end we really ended up right on top and kicked 2.9 in the last quarter and had 20 entries. So there was a bit to like. We started to do some things better in the second half. And lived in our front half. That's what we were after a bit more. I thought it was step forward.

Did you get annoyed with the last quarter?
Well simply you would like 9.2, hold a couple of marks. But gee you can't...20 entries and 2.9, I don't think you can complain too much. Keep doing that…and the rain came and they couldn't get their boots changed so there was a bit of slipping and sliding, but it was a very positive performance. At the end of the day we were playing another AFL team that's been quite competitive and even on entries, but I think we dominated entry, dominated shots on goal. So I think we'll take it and move on...we've got a big challenge next week against Richmond.

How did you think the three talls went up forward tonight?
I haven't thought about it. I thought it was fine. Yeah we liked it.

Will you settle with that structure?
You'd have to give me time to go away and assess it and check in with my coaches. But on the surface I think the overall performance was really positive. I thought (Matt) Taberner looked really dangerous early. I thought Jon Griffin really contributed in the ruck and around the ground forward. He took some pressure off Mayne in the air and he was able to get to work a little bit. Obviously Ballantyne hurt his shoulder, we'll get that assessed. I thought there was less load on (Matthew) Pavlich in the air and he's had six shots on goal. I think there was a bit to like.

Ballantyne came back on and played the second quarter. Does that mean it’s not too serious?
We don't know really. Shoulder...they can look terrible and you can sort of gather yourself and get going. They'll scan him Monday I think. They always give 24 hours. He's pretty sore. He's tough. He was happy to keep playing, you know what he's like. But sometimes you've got to take responsibility to look after the athlete as best you can and Crozier was really ready to go. He's been in pretty good form. So we thought it was a win-win in the end. Look after Hayden and get Hayden on.

Did you tell him?
No the doctors said he can keep playing and he wanted to keep playing but sometimes you've got to look after them and that's the decision I made to look after him.

How late do you wait to make a call on him for Richmond?
Just to reiterate, we'll get a scan and update you.

Nat Fyfe had strapping on his thigh for his cork, how do you think he worked through?
No one told me the cork was an issue. It was strapped. He took a while to get going during the week. He couldn't kick more than 30m for a fair bit, but he's pretty tough. He played and he got a close tag again tonight. I thought he worked through it. We'll get better as a team supporting him. I thought it was okay, I think we need to do more. I think there's been some great teams that support. I thought Geelong in their period was super at supporting (Gary) Ablett. So that's okay. It's like Ryan Crowley. He used to go to tag, but he used to come off black and blue. So if you're going to play on Nathan you should come off black and blue.    

You have been using Stephen Hill behind the ball at half-back, will you stick with that?
We like him there. He's exciting there. We'll continue with that. It gives us good flexibility. I think he's in pretty good nick. 

How far short off your best are you?
I've got no idea to be honest. How do you measure what that was? It's hard to sort of compare because it's so long ago, but I think we will all know when we see it. We're not quite seeing it, but I thought there were some really good signs tonight.

You had a higher number of tackles this week, was that a focus?
It wasn’t a super one. We wanted to be aggressive in everything we did; defence, contest and use. I thought we did that and the by-product of that is tackling strongly. It was significant, particularly in the third quarter we really got after them.

Was tonight’s intention to get Nat Fyfe away from the contest?
Not that I'm aware of. I think we have got flexibility. I think we use him forward, we use him on a wing and we use him inside. It's part of his development and he needs to move around, and he's doing that and is aware of that. There is a lot that goes into the mix and he's only a really young man. When you look at Hodge and Mitchell, and what they've been through over a long period, they are like 31 or something. Nathan is 23 so he will develop all his repertoire, but you can't buy that. You have to work through.

Does Lachie Neale get enough recognition?
With respect, it's not for me to make that judgement and it doesn’t interest me what the industry says. We pick him, we value him, we pay him.

What did you think of his game?
I thought it was steady, I didn’t think it was anything brilliant.

Chris Mayne's game?
I know he got some goals but I thought he could have been better. I thought there were a couple of basics he could have done better...he dropped some marks and didn’t back off. But he kicked a couple of nice goals and he went down back where we are growing him. I thought he contributed and gave Luke a rest so we like where he's growing, but we'd like to use him on a wing a little bit more as well. I thought it was a step forward but I thought Chris reflected the team, I thought it was a strong performance without being anything brilliant.

Does tonight feel like a turning point?
They're a pretty good team Hawthorn. Everyone talks about them having the wood on us but they're a pretty good team and I think they've had the wood on everyone for a fair while. Do you know what I mean? We've beaten them, we've been close with them but we like to write our own story. What that means is going out to play and win, and you take care of what's written. But even when we were winning they weren’t emphatic wins so you leave yourself open. But as I said it all depends what you want to write. All we can do is go out and play. I thought if you go 60 entries to 35, 30 shots to 13, that it's a pretty healthy performance at AFL level. It's a pretty strong performance but we also know that Richmond are a really massive challenge at the MCG. We are excited about that, we can't wait to get on the plane and they knocked us over here, so we understand what they bring to the table. It's a big challenge but you can't sneak around in league football, you have to earn your position and tonight we banked four points, took a step forward and anyone who has been watching us or writing anything, I think you can write things that are a little bit more positive. But at the end of the day that's not how I measure myself.

Is it good to meet the Tigers so soon?
I think it’s just the quirk of the draw, isn’t it? I don’t think it hurts us? We get a day in them, it’s exciting the season is rapidly coming to the back third. It’s moving on. But you just saw Geelong beat the Bulldogs...it’s hard to win. How many games have we lost for the year? I think it’s two. So if you had have written that story for me in the pre-season and said this is what it’s going to be Ross I think you would have say, “Gee they’re in good shape, the Dockers". You’re a chance to keep on improving your footy from here. But we know the challenges keep coming.

How happy are you with the back six and with Zac Dawson playing for Peel today?
Yes and Alex Silvagni played in the twos just to build some confidence in his hamstring. I thought Alex Pearce grew again tonight. In that team we’ve got all our draftees from when I first came to the club four years ago. Which is (Cam) Sutcliffe, (Lachie) Neale, (Tommy) Sheridan, (Hayden) Crozier and then you have (Matt) Taberner who’s a third-year tall, who is a rookie pick and 196cms tall and Alex Pearce who was pick 35, 195cms tall and played key defender. It tells us if we get the right attitude and talent through the door we can grow them. Lachie Weller and Ed Langdon were two emergencies, David Mundy had been a bit crook with gastro but I got the call that Mundy was going to play, otherwise Weller would have played. There are some goods signs in the development area and we are thrilled with that. We just need to keep on improving and growing out players and Alex Pearce will be under some pressure now with Zac Dawson coming back, so it’s good for us.

Was there any chance Nat Fyfe wasn’t going to get up for this weekend’s game?
None, people don’t miss with corks these days unless they are severe. They did in our day because we would have a couple of drinks and fall asleep in front of the heater and it would calcify a bit. These blokes are pros so they don’t need to worry about that.