What are your thoughts on today’s game?
I thought it was a really strong performance today against a quality team. It was a good method and good competition, we had good intensity. It was a bit frustrating we didn’t take our opportunities that looked golden, they had a few of them at their end. But I thought at certain times in the game we could have a put a real gap on them, we just needed that little bit of finish. It might be dropped marks, missed handballs some of those basics but there is a strong method. There were some good deep entries and good pressure, strong clearance work.

When you have retiring players we want the effort to be there. It’s not about whether you win or lose it’s about whether you bring the effort and we certainly ticked that box. We had six over 30 on our list and we retire three. We have Michael (Johnson), Danyle (Pearce) and Lee (Spurr) being wonderful servants and special players under my tenure here. In my eyes they played very good football, we saw that again today with Michael Johnson. Then we have 3 over 30 next year who are Aaron Sandilands, David Mundy and Hayden Ballantyne. If you look at the competition average, which is five, we will have three. I think we rank 18th with that stat, regardless of some of the hysteria around that. We are really pleased to help them continue to bring our young players through.

I heard the crowd roaring, 42,000 here today, it speaks volumes to the commitment of the Freo community, to our football club, this new stadium and where we are heading. I think on and off the field there are some really strong signs. Clearly we need to keep improving, but if confidence is built off action we certainly didn’t come into the game overly confident but we leave with a better mindset about our capacity and our method to compete against a top four team. We have plenty of improvement to do, but you’d like to minimise the ups and downs that we’ve had this year. They had a number of players out, in particular their back line but so did we. You could say we had Luke Ryan, Stephen Hill, Connor Blakely, Griffin Logue and Andy Brayshaw all missing. I thought Sean Darcy against Brodie Grundy was superb today. There was stuff we’d like to tidy up, but we ticked the box today. You can lose going forward, or lose going backward. Last week we lost going backward, we lost today and went forward.

 

You only kicked 1.5 in the last quarter, was is it a poor finish in the end that cost you the game?
I’m not going to get stuck on that, I’ve already spoken about the connection. Bradley Hill spoke after the game and said ‘we did so much right, it was just that bit of connection inside 50 for some easier goals’. Collingwood were playing for a bit so I thought they were on with their mindset and intensity, as were we.  It seemed like an intense game.

 

You mentioned the crowd today, how important was that game for them?
When you sign up to play AFL there’s no hiding, whether you’re a coach or a player you’re up for daily and weekly scrutiny. I expected an intense week last week, but no one is drilling in more than the coaches and players. It’s what you do with it, you can get frozen and go into your shell or you can be resilient and work really hard and acknowledge where you’re at. We are not there yet, but we will dig in and work. I felt we did that from the Monday, our leadership group were fantastic. Nat Fyfe rang me Sunday and we devised a plan, we worked closely with David Mundy. The coaches were really organised and diligent. We filtered it down to a really narrow focus, we wanted to join in and spread and we certainly did that. So today’s game was really important for our fans, there’s a bit of a bubble around the place I think even our supporters, like me, were not that confident but we love the club and we love Fyfe and we love young Cerra and everything in between. We’re on a journey, we have a strategy, we have a structure wrapped around that. We need to improve every moment we can. 

What changed after the first five minutes?
Nothing changed, really simply we over handballed in the midfield and we had a shallow entry when it should have gone deeper and we missed a squared kick from Joel Hamling across goal and they scored a goal. Fyfe gets tackled when he could have maybe handballed first time and they score another goal. So three errors resulted in three goals. But the signs were there, we were looking to build the ball, shift the ball, make them chase us get it in, we scored quite well in the first quarter. Sometimes it’s a simple as that. We needed some better execution. 

How did you rate Taylin Duman today?  Your backline as a whole looks like it is starting to build some depth.
We really believe in Taylin, he is starting to believe in himself. He came in at 69kgs, he has put on nine kilos his first year and two kilos in his second year. Fyfe was the same and eventually got to 20kgs, so if he can put on another five or six kilos he’s that 191cm running player, he uses it well. I thought his intensity today and his intent was strong. Strong enough that we all saw it and that’s the important thing, that’s the standard. Having Joel Hamling back helped solidify us. Team defence is quite systematic, you need to roll around, you need to slide but when you have young defenders it’s quite hard to get that done.

How would you describe the season?
It's very difficult. I'll go away and assess it. We'll review everything, as a professional sporting organisation should do. Clearly, I'm all in, my coaches are all in, our leaders are all in, Fyfe's in, and they're incredibly supported and committed. Fyfe doesn't sign a six-year contract when he could walk for million-dollar offers elsewhere if he doesn't believe in the people and the club. He could have easily not been here. He experienced me from 12, 13, 14, 15, and he signed. He didn't have to sign. Our retention rate is incredibly high for our players. I'm all in, and I'm committed, and we're going to keep building, regardless of what anyone thinks. We know when we win, we play better footy.

What's a realistic step next year?
It's so hard if you look at wins and losses, because when we won eight the year before, they were by eight points and a kick. We could have easily had three wins last year. We'd like to make a progression, but if you look around the league, it doesn't automatically happen with draft picks. Culturally you've to work hard, you've got to enjoy the burn, you've got to be high demand, but balance it up with the human side. We think we do our off field and the educational as well as anyone in the competition, and that's the feedback from the AFLPA. We want to grow great people on and off the field and make a progression. What that looks like - I don't know, but I'm sure you'll hold me and the club to account if it doesn't hit the perceived markers.

When does win-loss start to matter? When do results become a priority again?
When we start winning more. West coast teams have a bigger challenge than the east coast. There's the travel stuff. If there's two teams on the west coast of Australia and the rest are on the east coast, and 10 of them are in Melbourne, it's an easier recruiting proposition to get them when you're a Melbourne club. That's just common sense. It's a real challenge for West Coast and us to shift people from the east coast to the west coast of Australia, and you say you'll be travelling every second week, you'll be flying 10,000km every second week, when they can sit at home and sit with their families. That's why both clubs have gone down the come-home factor, but I think we've got to be more than that. But you've got to recognise that when the epicentre is Melbourne, it's going to be very hard to shift people to the west coast of Australia. That's indisputable. That's why it's quite hard for these two clubs. Then your retention has to be spot on, and your off-field has to be spot on, because it's a bigger challenge. And we're seeing that with the northern expansion teams. That's the reality of what we're facing. That's all part of the mix here. It's a bigger challenge here.

 

Targeting players from WA, are you still a destination club?
Have you seen our facilities, have you seen our stadium, did you see the crowd? I don't touch national and under 18 recruiting. David Walls has picked the last two drafts, with the final say going to Brad Lloyd. I hardly watch a tape, it's not my job. I don't know the kids, but if you want to ask me about an AFL player, I reckon I've got a reasonable handle on that. I'll be getting involved in that more than anything.

What type of players do you need?
We'll take a bit of everything. Run - we're not the quickest. We'd like some speed and skill. We want multi-positional players who can play midfield, forward, and back. If you look around at the best teams, they're multi positional. We'd like some more multi positional midfielders. Stephen Hill and Connor Blakely can play mid back, whereas Fyfe, Mundy and Neale are mid forward. We'd like some wingers that can play back. Darcy Tucker, Brad Hill and Ed Langdon basically can't do that. That's what we're looking for. But you've got to be quality. You've actually got to come and be no doubt that you can play in our best 22. If we're bringing you in as an AFL player and we're targeting you, there should be no doubt that you sit in our best 22. Because otherwise you're shifting people and making promises, and it gets very difficult if they're not playing.

Has Rory Lobb been mentioned?
He has been mentioned. A lot of people have mentioned him really since I've been here. Any player out of contract, and if you're smart and a manager, you'd throw their name out. But we don't conduct our list management business here. I think there's only been two (list management) meetings at this point, because it's all done in the background. Now that it's over, they’ll hook me in.