How did you see that today?
Certainly we are disappointed but Brisbane really won it at the source really well and spread well. Early, when we had opportunities to execute we couldn’t hit a target and put some scoreboard pressure on. They were more fluent, they spread well, so it was a battle all day. 

What happened in the warm up with Aaron Sandilands?
I got the call up (in the coaches’ box) that he had popped his calf. So I got the call and thought it was appropriate to leave the box and just inform the whole group. The midfielders obviously knew and then we had Ryan Nyhuis… our emergency always warms up in the rooms and is ready to go so we just changed that around. 

So it’s strained not just sore?
It sounds that way, it sounds like he has done his calf. 

And Nat Fyfe? It looked like his hamstring was sore in the first quarter and then he came off in the second quarter?
I haven’t got too much information on that, I think I know what you’re talking about, it was one moment. He got checked and then it’s a yes or no answer – it was a yes and then he’s gone on to do it (the injury). So it’s not ideal but soft tissue injuries happen, our sports science team have been very good for a long period of time and these things happen. Some things are out of your control. That continuity off the bye is a difficult period for all clubs and throws some challenges. But your never going to know the absolute root cause. 

With Sandilands, at his age calves are quite a bad injury. What does it look like for him at the moment?
Soft tissue injuries aren’t ideal but I’m sure we will rehab him and get going. It’s really an opportunity for Michael Apeness, you just saw Stefan Martin a a very very good mobile ruckman. He had his trials and tribulations at Melbourne as a young ruckman, went to Brisbane and has learnt how to train hard consistently, compete and build that durability. So that’s instant feedback to Michael to feel what it’s like to come up against and that’s what he needs to build to. You’re not going to build to that after six games after two PCLs and an ACL but we’re aiming that down the track he can deliver that type of performance. 

Is Fyfe’s a fairly standard hamstring?
I haven’t got too much information. I spoke to him at half time and he said ‘I’m not sure, it’s in the hammy’. I try not to get involved in that because I’m not an expert in the area. Hence – let the cobblers do the cobbling. 

Sean Darcy has played a few games, is he ready?
That was something that was just thrown up, it’s something we will canvas. Max Gawn is a pretty good player I think. I don’t think anyone could expect me to do selection post that performance. We will get to that during the week.

Fyfe and Sandilands are arguably the two most important players, how do you go about filling those holes.
Well that’s the job, isn’t it. No Sandilands, no Fyfe, no hope. We’ve heard that for a long time haven’t we. At times we get it done, we didn’t quite get it done today. There were some reasonable performances at Peel, we’ll have a look at that. Bradley Hill played, we look like we need some run and spread, so he is an obvious one. But off the cuff, Sean Darcy is the obvious one too, Scott Jones is also down at Peel. He was in the stands today and we did speak about getting him ready for today’s game, but he’d played a game at Peel yesterday. Ryan Nyhuis wasn’t quite the height we wanted in defence, that was probably proven to be the right decision based on his ability to handle (Daniel) McStay and those guys today. That’s the way it pans out.

Did you feel like losing Nathan and Aaron was a major contributor to today’s loss?
To be honest, no.  We have to give Brisbane a lot of credit, as a coach and a coaching panel you’re almost like the conscious of the team with the bye. It’s my job to see the bigger picture, to try and prepare them for the bigger picture. So you tell them about Brisbane, that they have good levels of competency, they can score if you don’t pressure them. They can set up to score, they have good spread. They lost four games by a kick, they beat us last year. They’re dog hungry to get a win, so you’re sharing all that you’re working with your strength and conditioning team, they’ll give you the kilometres and what they want to do and we’ve go t respect that, they tend to get it right. At all times you’re trying to keep that edge on. When you look at the numbers today they scored in some areas where they were double what it’s been at all year for us, with or without Aaron and Fyfe. It just highlights at a really high level of performance, a second of time in AFL footy of reaction and spread is eight metres and you’re going to look at times how we look. It’s the reality of the business. It’s real feedback to all of us, how demanding and how sharp you have t be to be a competitive AFL team. No one is more disappointed than myself and the players for our fans or our members because they came here with an expectation today. We knew internally it was going to be tough, but we are a young group and they’ve got to take that feedback. We’ll never get that back again, but as long as they learn that you can’t breathe out, you’ve got to fight and fight mentally to stay sharp to do all your training. Just talking about it doesn’t get it done, you’ve got to do it. Somewhere in our preparation we didn’t nail what we needed to nail. That’s indisputable, is it me? Is it our strength and conditioning team? Is it the players? Is it a collective? That’s the debate but we wont linger on it. You’d think we would need to change things going forward. That’s without taking anything away from Brisbane. The results are telling you it’s a challenge within the league - a team off the bye playing a team that’s razor sharp, ready to go and dog hungry. That’s just the reality of what we faced today.

Does it feel quite costly in the context of the season?
No, that was put to me, I think from Tim Gossage at a press conference. We felt good about ourselves, but I have never spoken about finals since I have been here. It’s always clearly the aim and while it’s a mathematical possibility, I don’t have to talk about it because everyone’s aware of it. But the only way we can get there is to play good footy and deliver. If you get your processes right and preparation right, you tend to get your wins. Today is a sharp reminder of that, you can talk all you want about playing finals but you have got to get it done. It’s a harsh filter.

Is fixturing around byes something you might offer feedback to the AFL about?
None at all. Let’s all be big boys and get it right, that’s the job.

Shane Kersten went back forward after a period in the backline, where do you think he’s at, where do you think his best position is at?
I can clarify the reason for that. We picked the team with Michael Apeness and Aaron Sandilands. When you lose one and you bring in an 188cm player (Nyhuis) that means we lose a 200cm (Apeness) out of our front half. You have Cox, so when he was on the bench, all you have is Mundy. The logical decision is where is some height? We started with Nyhuis but we were too short. Kersten was defending quite well, but we needed to try give ourselves an opportunity so that’s the reason that occurred. 

How is Cox with that cork?
You have to fight through. Corks happen, ‘Coxy’ dug in, it just happens. You just have to fight and fight. He was the least of our worries with a cork. 

Were there any other issues out of today injury wise?
Not that I am aware of. They will cool down, they will get in tomorrow. We don’t like losing, we like winning, it feels good. All of our egos are dented but we’ll take on the feedback. That’s all we’ve been doing and trying to improve our football and our preparation. We have a big challenge. We won’t linger, it’s a short week, off to Darwin. A real opportunity to compete and improve our football with our young players. Out of the wreck, (Adam) Cerra had more midfield time, (Stefan) Giro, (Luke) Ryan went forward, (Darcy) Tucker went back. (Bailey) Banfield went back. We were still working for the future there, exposing those players in those positions. There were a couple of good signs at either end, out of that wreck. Cerra’s kick inside the 50, the quality to hit that target just highlights that we just need to keep moving him through there. Tucker down back was solid. Out of that wreck, there are some little gems within that. That’s our job and our status at the minute to find those little gems and not everyone will seem them but it will pay dividends going forward.