Did that feel like the one that got away after the strong start and finish?
No, not really. The trend early was the scoreboard was a bit deceptive. They were doing some things right, getting the ball back off us sort of centre forward for themselves. It was a little bit against the grain although we did sort of counter punch quite well. So we were a bit concerned about it and then that came to fruition in the second quarter as we dropped some of our tackling. At half-time there were some concerns. They lifted around the ball in the second quarter, their tackling and their hit and some third-up stuff that we knew was going to happen but we should've been able to stop. In the third quarter we were just sort of hanging on. Obviously Dangerfield impacted forward. Did we have the right match-up? I don't know. He's a pretty good player. But I was really pleased with our last quarter, lots of entries, plenty of opportunities, just some lack of composure at times I thought. In the last quarter I think they went in three times and kicked two when we'd been in nine or 10 times. In the end it was 16 entries to seven in the last quarter and we had some real opportunities. So a little bit of a lack of composure. But we take that out of it. I thought compared to how we've been playing, we played a quality team that were under pressure and needed to win. They just had a bit more oomph when they really needed it I thought in the second and third quarters. I thought Stephen Hill was really super and Walters was strong. I thought Pavlich looks in really good nick. Not a lot of supply. There's some bits and pieces around the edges. I thought Mick Barlow was up and about early. Just to clarify, he's hurt his AC joint and they couldn't settle it down. Normally they can settle them. So I'm not sure about next week, probably unlikely. But Hayden seems to have a fractured cheekbone, so really courageous as he is. But we're at a point where we'd really like to look after him. There's some positives, but overall I thought they had the ascendency on ground position, entries and we were just being really efficient and counter punching quite well. In the last quarter I was pleased. We sort of dared to win, got involved in the contest, really pressured them. First time we were able to stop at centre forward all night and get repeat entries and have them under real pressure and our backs, I didn't think they were running very well tonight. Suban went back and got involved, Lachie Neale went forward and come up.

Confident Barlow will get up?
No, I'm not. I think it's more on the severe end, so he's probably more unlikely. We're off to the Gold Coast, so that's another challenge.

Peel's on tomorrow, hopefully some players down there...Darcy Tucker went back to find the ball a little bit, de Boer's down there, Shane Yarran gets to build, we've got Zac Clarke in the ruck. We've got some challenges, but there's an opportunity there for a few people.

Close win for cats

Just to clarify, are you confident Mick will play again this year?
Now we're going to this year. I think you're a little bit unfair. Not unfair. The post mortem is he's hurt his AC, he couldn't finish the game. I think he's unlikely for next week. I'm not in a position to comment for the rest of the year. I don't know...how long they take, what they are - they go to surgeons, they get scans. In the fullness of time we'll have all the detail and we can share it with you. We don't hide anything really, well not this year anyway.

Ballantyne cheekbone?
I don't know how long they are. You might be able to Google it before I can. I've got no idea to be honest. But I would suggest it would be a number of weeks.

How do you get your young group to reproduce that first quarter effort?
Well that's the aim. It can be done. We all know it can be done. We just spoke about you need to sustain it. We're not going to go from where we were to a flat-out four quarters. Or we'd aim to. So we've just got to keep building. If it was two and a half tonight, let's get to three. If it was two, let's get to two and a half. We just want to make those incremental steps and try to get some momentum as an individual AFL player. Forget the collective for the minute. There's plenty of us, including the coaches, we need to get better game day, and our own personal trademarks and standards can't drop. If you look at the big goal, wanted to maintain a campaign, where we're at, six to go, It's easy to back off in areas. We're hard wired to do that. But what we want to do is fight that trend. We want to tap into what we're about, and we're about improving and becoming a really good AFL team. And to do that, you need really good AFL players and really good AFL coaches.
So we've all got, including myself, I certainly haven't been at my best, I know that. We all fight that mental challenge. We can't back off. There's plenty to be gained. We had a good week talking about that. I thought we saw the evidence of that tonight. We'll continue on in that vein.

Were you pleased with your transition from defensive 50 to forward 50?
There was some good stuff, we turned it over a bit and there were some out on the fulls. We got the ball into some hands of good users and we would like to build more good (ball) users. It was far from perfect. On the surface it looked ok. There was probably a little bit more going wrong than it looked on the scoreboard. Funnily enough I liked our last quarter even though we didn’t score as heavily because we had lot of entries (16) and opportunities. I would prefer that, than some of the counterpunches telling you, you are going to be in trouble. We are better off playing like we did in the last quarter and have all those numbers and you are going to come out on top. But early on we were in front but the numbers weren’t good.

Who gets your 3-2-1?

Before tonight people were fearful about your run home. After tonight are you optimistic about what the team can achieve?
I have plenty of optimism about the future. Coaches sell hope. There is no limit on us. We certainly have some challenges but we would like to give that effort and then we can say, ‘we should have pressed up here’. As long as you are bringing effort. It was a step forward.

Compared to your game against Collingwood, you must proud of how the boys stepped up for that Friday night exposure?
I didn’t think about it. But yes, you are right. It is really important that we compete. But we want to compete every week, no matter when we play. Again you look at our leaders, Spurr was very good and got to work, David Mundy was improving, and I thought Pavlich was super. He looked in really good knick and threatening at times. And Walters and Ballantyne. It is important, you don’t want to flick the bails. We are fighting and we want to continue that fight.