Ross what are your thoughts on the game?
I sit here really disappointed. We came down with a real purpose and I thought we were well in the game. I thought we had momentum in the third quarter. I thought we were getting over the top and then inexplicitly some real basic fundamentals of not getting off the mark and kicking into the man on the mark and turning the ball over. I think they kicked three quick goals to poor execution. Then it became 21 points quick, it’s sort of been the tale of the tape a little bit, so we spoke about the improvement required in that area. The ability to gain entries off possession was strong. Our ability to finish and score was poor again, it’s becoming a pattern that we thought earlier in the year we clearly got on top of. That’s a real frustration with some unpredictability with the youth. We spoke about fighting hard and not regressing. We felt like we made some real improvements as a team and as a club but the last four weeks have been very inconsistent and frustrating. We just want to fight and get back on the winning list and improve.

The strongest part of the match seem to come with Fyfe doing some magical things up forward how tempting was that to just leave him there?
We changed our mix this week and rotated a lot through the midfield and we pushed David Mundy more forward and Nat Fyfe more forward and they rotated through the forward line, so we’ll continue to do that. We need a presence up there, its been a bit of a battle with some personnel challenges but that’s just reality and that’s not making an excuse. We know they are a really good roll off defence. We made them defend. I thought we had all the momentum earlier in the third quarter and those clangers came and ripped that momentum away and allowed them to hit the scoreboard. At three-quarter-time I still thought we could do it but again just some inconsistency with the ball use and execution really hurt us. I spoke to Alex Pearce and he said a few of those errors you can’t defend. That’s a challenge. We thought strategically we come down and understood them. I thought we handled that. The score on possession game on turnover really hurt us and our inability to capitalise our self but they’re inexplicably linked, some of those turnovers when we should have scored go back the other way. 

With Fyfe on such a hot streak and taking those grabs did you think of starting him forward in the third quarter was that a gamble?
We just thought that the mix in the third quarter we were right on top and Fyfe was a part of that. We had real opportunities, I think he got checked off the ball heavily and I think he got a couple of free-kicks but we’d like him to be looked after more. We’ll probably have to take it in to our own hands if he doesn’t start getting looked after. I don’t say that lightly but I probably had enough of it. He’s a midfielder/forward, we’d love to have three of him but we don’t.

And just with those comments are you actually referring to that incident when he hurt his shoulder or just in general?
Just in general, all teams do it but maybe in the heat of the moment have I got my red head hat on or blue head thinker hat on I’m not too sure. Sometimes you just have to protect your own, I thought he got a couple of free kicks off the ball but he got checked heavily against West Coast off the ball and went down. He was checked heavily today off the ball and went down and I hear the fines but I think if you’re getting bumped off the ball, I’m not sure if that happened today but I’m pretty protective of my player so we’ll see what happens.

How is his shoulder?
He came back on, he was pretty good. I’m not too sure I think he hurt it a little bit last week maybe in a marking contest. He is leading really well, it’s not all about Nat. But I think that’s the real point, we need more people to step up and earlier in the year we had a really even spread of contributors, and we need that again. Until we get that we are going to be in game but not getting across the line. That’s the real message to our players and our members, we are looking for an even contribution across the board, we need some people to step up again.

Do you concede that finals are out of reach now?
No, I was planning to win the next seven. I came down here with confidence, there was nothing early, I think their first three goals came from free kicks, a holding the ball, a high tackle and we turned it over and there was a marginal free kick. This was early in the game, I thought up until half time if you take those out we were well in the game and planning to win. Early in the third quarter we were still planning to win. We haven’t given up, we have the Swans at home next weekend, we need to re-group. We’re not giving away anything, these games count, there is no flicking the bails here.


Any update on Jesse Hogan?
He is a possibility for this week, it’s all based on KPIs. We won’t take any risk but if he was to get up we would like to play him.

Have your forwards going down been your biggest issue over the past month?
No, I think it’s been our ability to defend, poor turnovers have hurt us on transition. People who were in really good form have tailed off a little bit, so we need to fight to get our form back as a club. There is no isolating of individuals, we need to protect our own, we need to become a tougher club and a tougher team, a bit more ruthless. We are maybe a bit too nice at the minute, but I think that it something I can help coach.

How do you do that?
Show examples of other clubs being tough and ruthless. We will see what happens.

Your 300th game milestone, obviously not the result you wanted but what does it mean to you?
At this point in time nothing. It’s a number, it’s really about improving this football club, I am passionate about the Dockers, I have never been more committed, and I just want to really continue to develop and drive this group which we had been and clearly, we slipped. The criticism has come in, but that’s where my focus is. I’ve never waivered on that, I’ve never been a numbers man, you’d rather coach 80 and win 80. As you look back on your life it might mean more but I don’t have time to look back I need to prepare, do the review and go forward.