Ross, first up Hayden has been reported again, how do you feel about it?
How do I feel about it? Well it’s not ideal. I haven’t seen anything, I don’t know anything. Obviously I am aware. It’s timely for me. A good memo has come out from Mark Evans that says we’re not allowed to comment on it (reports) pre or post (match), so I have no comment on the actual incident. I didn’t see it anyway. We’ll let it run its course. It is what it is.
Ballantyne incident on Tomas Bugg
Just on Hayden and his performance today, he continued in his good form. He continues being an important contributor for you this year?
Yes he has. What you’ve seen, we’ve seen. He’s been a very good player. He’s a great little small forward who cops a lot of attention, but that’s the lot of an AFL competitor.
Without reporting on the specific incident, can you just say he’s put those acts behind him? And have you seen that from him? That maturity?
He’s been very good for us and I can only comment on his year. To be truthful, there’s been a report, he’s playing very good footy, we’ll let that run its course. I really rate Hayden, value Hayden, and every time he’s available I will pick Hayden. So that’s what I think of Hayden.
How do you assess the performance overall?
I thought it was a bit scratchy, I thought at times we tried to bully them with the ball. That and just trying to blast it through everything. They were good, at times they’d drop off and roll around and all that. We just spoke about just showing a little bit more composure and spread with the ball. Then that made them pick us up and we were able to get forwards isolated a little bit more and pass the ball in. I thought we started really well, I thought defensively we were a bit sloppy on a couple of occasions; we turned the ball over a few times in our defensive 50. David Mundy and Michael Johnson never turn it over like they did, or very rarely, and today was one of those rare days that was a little bit costly. They’ve won four games, they beat Carlton the other week, they almost knocked over Hawthorn at the ‘G. I think we need to understand Adam Treloar was out for them and Stephen Coniglio, who are very good players and John Patton a tall forward was out as well. They’re really building, they could have easily won six games for the year, I think they’re right on track, they continue to grow, they’re really well coached, but for us and where we’re aspiring to be, it was really important to put on a good performance.
You’ve been up for eight wins in a row now, is the bye coming up at a good time? Do the players need the rest mentally and physically?
I haven’t thought about it, we manage them really well. All I’m thinking about is the review and our week, get through healthy and then planning heavily for St Kilda. I’ll deal with the bye when it comes, we’ll take it, we’ve got no control over it. But certainly at this time of year I’m firmly focused on the Saints, but when the bye comes I think players are happy to take it. The timing’s pretty good I would think.
Chris Mayne moving to defence today, can you tell us about that decision?
That’s about building flexibility in our team, he went there against Jack Darling against West Coast Eagles in one of the derbies and did really quite well. We thought we’ve had Johnson and McPharlin out for a fair whack and we played the Eagles they’re really tall…we put Matt Taberner down there. I wrestled with Chris Mayne all week and, in the end, I thought it kept him forward for the pressure, so we discussed it as an opportunity today to put him on an Adam Tomlinson and play down there.
Garrick Ibbotson's calf injury?
It's a calf injury so I think it's a few weeks. We know it's not a week injury, it's probably three weeks if not more. It could be two, it could be four. It's one of those ones with calves, because sometimes you can have a positive scan with a calf and play, but it's at a higher level than that. It's not a hard question. He will be rehabilitated, he will jump all his KPI's and keep progressing, and we'll see how he goes.
Huge roar when Morabito came on?
It was good. There were a lot of Dockers up in Darwin by the way, so we were thrilled with that and then today the roar when he came on was fantastic. I thought he played strongly and he will play again next week.
Will he get a starting role next week?
We will certainly consider everyone for a starting role, but I think to be fair we have really handled Anthony well as a club. Everyone got ahead of themselves and tried to bully us into picking him, but we pick a team when we are ready and that all died down. Then Anthony played, so that was nice and we think we've really progressed him nicely. I think he's more ready for a full game next week than he was this week.
How did you see Michael Apeness' game?
To be fair my eyes are going all over the field and I'd have to check in with Peter Sumich. I thought that what he did do is what we know he does, he competes really well and I don’t think he took too many clunks, but he had a couple of good second efforts. Probably with the supply he could have done a little bit more, but I mean talls take time and it's been fantastic that he's played two pretty much full games now. But we've got some pressure on for spots. Matty de Boer was fantastic at Peel, Tommy Sheridan has put his name up, Jon Griffin was really good and Stephen Hill will be back definitely after the bye, and Luke McPharlin may play next week and be available. So there is some good pressure on for spots and Matt Taberner was down there with Peel and so was Hayden Crozier. We've got some pressure building so everyone will want to keep their end of the bargain up.
You are inside the top two on the ladder now.
We'd rather be there than not. You can only do what you can do because it's a really tough, arduous competition. Port Adelaide has lost a few now and there's just quality coming at you all the time, and at this level if you are off five per cent you will get beaten. Our ability to sustain effort over long periods has been pleasing, but we've got some significant challenges that lay ahead. In our run home, Hawthorn sit there, Port sit there, Carlton, Geelong and there's some pretty significant challenges coming our way. But if you are any good you have to accept them and beat them, but it's one week at a time really.
Will you want to give anyone a chance from Peel?
I will look around but we have played a fair few players. Matty de Boer has played a fair bit, Tommy Sheridan has played nine or 10 games and it's not like people haven’t been playing.
WAFL Watch: Player Stats for round 16
What about Jon Griffin?
It's funny how these things take care of themselves. We finished the last game with McPharlin and Ibbotson healthy, but as the week unfolded they were unhealthy. Sometimes you don’t have to plan for it, it just happens and there's not too many who haven’t played for us this year.
Any injuries today?
None that I'm aware of but that's what I said last week and that was truthful, but then you get to Wednesday and you are having scans done on their soreness. That's the difficulty of closed ended statements post-game. They are really quite difficult to be 100 per cent right because they cool down and all of a sudden those soft tissue injuries are insidious sometimes. Sometimes the players don’t even know they've got them, but when they cool down they try to move and have them. That's why we are always on edge.
