Brayshaw bounces back

Tough lessons from experienced Hawks

WAFL Watch player stats: Rd 17

Ross, what were your thoughts from today?
We would have liked to have been better.

The two biggest areas that we thought we were deficient in were centre square bounces - right from the first quarter and we would have liked to have been better. It put us under a lot of ground position pressure. I think we went one to nine out of there and that trend continued. So we would like to better in there just to help swing a bit of momentum - and then our inconsistent ball use. Sometimes we would use the spare and then go to a contest and look really good. Then other times we wouldn't use the spare and kick to an outnumber or just build it up too much. So it’s that consistency.

They counter-punched from our attacking mid really well. They kicked 5.2 – four of them in the first half. You can’t use the ball one way all the time, so we spoke about the leadership in understanding that and we become all one thing - so that ability and experience and understanding the demands of the game.

You need players to get to the right part of the ground to help with your decision making.  We thought that struggled a bit today and made them look really good at times.

We butchered some real opportunities going inside forward 50 – we should have kicked goals. Even though we were behind it would have made us feel a bit better about ourselves.

Once we addressed that at half time – the entries evened out in a sense, we were able to get our fair share and defend them better.

They were the main things.

Then just their stronger bodies, they broke tackles more than we would like. We would like to stick our tackles and we’ve got to build some bodies. 

What did you think of Tom Mitchell’s very dominant start for Hawthorn?
We know Tom is a top-flight (player). We (considered) go to him, stop him or work off him. His first few centre clearances Bailey (Banfield) wasn’t on him. We didn’t make it a total lock down.

(Liam) Shiels for them, because we been up against Hawthorn when we were a solid team and you watch them in finals, Shiels’ ability to go to Neale or Mundy or Fyfe and then work off is exceptional. But that’s not going to come overnight for a 14-game rookie player out of Claremont I wouldn’t have thought.

But the journey starts this year.  We could say ‘lock him down and don’t touch it’ but we want to be more than that and today he (Banfield) learned some lessons.

The first and second year players didn’t seem to have much of an influence today, are they hitting a wall?
It’s certainly a big year transitioning, I think we had nine players under 30 games, seven under 20.  Some of the things I spoke about they need to get better at, as do some of our senior players. At the end of the day we have to look at our football program and make sure we are bringing them along in the right way, which we feel for the majority of the year we have been okay. It was a tough day, they had a lot of quality running through their team. They are entrenched in the eight now but we expected to play better than that and we wanted to play better than that. Are we hitting a wall? I’m not too sure. The next question is what is happening at Peel. We will look at selection as well.

Will Matt Taberner be a welcome inclusion?
He is just one of a few. During the week we will have another media conference and update you and see how he gets through training.  They are a young group, we don’t want to make excuses but the reality is, we have a derby next week, we look to Carlton who got smacked by Hawthorn, they re-grouped, flew interstate and played really well. We’d like our group to respond and have a good week on  the track. The Eagles won’t be thrilled with their day, they are looking to secure their position and we want to improve our footy. We will move on pretty quickly and focus on the opportunity and continue to work hard.

Your handball and kick count was pretty similar, was that due to pressure on the ball carrier or your plan going into the game?
No, we don’t want to be a 1:1 kick to handball team and the best teams kick it more. I think if you look at the second half I think we kicked it a little more, that’s just about players collapsing into the ball and sometimes you just have to stretch and create outlet options by foot. 

Is the Derby an exciting opportunity to re-group? 
We see every week as an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to make a statement about what you stand for as a player. We can help review, but they have to be their own best observers of how they play and give themselves the best feedback. If it starts coming internally and we support them we are going to shift quicker as opposed to it just coming from us. It’s important that we get there and respond.

Is it a chance to make life a bit harder for West Coast in their pursuit of top two?
It’s not something I dwell on, I couldn’t even tell you where they are on the ladder. I know they are going really well and you have to earn that and write your own story. We want to write our own story, at times we have this year, we’re a young group and we’re inexperienced and we need to improve. It was a frustrating day, we mightn’t have got the four points but I thought we should have been better than we were, but we never gave up. It’s a fierce rivalry, there is no doubt about that and we take it very seriously and we understand we are representing the Freo Dockers’ community and everyone that has gone before us and will go after us. We want to be a team that competes and stands up. I don’t think at any stage this year you’ve looked at us and thought these kids aren’t trying. Have we stuffed it up? Is our method not as slick as it should be? Yes, but internally the effort and the attitude has been really strong.

We saw Joel Hamling up forward today?
We gave him a mental break, he was under siege. We lost Cam (Sutcliffe), so let him go and enjoy himself and put someone under the pressure he’s been under. That empathy piece, once you know what he goes through, we might use the ball better, we might chase and tackle and go harder.

Is Cam Sutcliffe’s injury a hamstring?
He blew a hamstring.

Any other injuries?
Not from today.

You must be pleased with Harley Bennell’s game for Peel - 27 touches and two goals.
I sat on the bench and watched to the last second. It was good. I couldn’t tell you his exact numbers but I think you are reasonably accurate. We love the interest, but we will get there and we will assess it. We will do our medical update. It’s been a tough day but we love the interest in Harley. He is fighting on and you are right, it’s another step closer and his performance was better. We had a few other boys down there that fought on and West Perth were pretty good. Their last quarter was pretty strong. We’ll get to that at the right time, we need to be a really competitive team against a dominant for the year (Eagles) team this weekend.