Ross, what did you make of that? Mate, we lost. Frustrating day. I thought we had plenty of opportunities to be in a more commanding position. It happens. I was listening to the radio yesterday and heard some stats from the Collingwood versus Richmond game. They (Collingwood) were plus 16 entries and down six goals, I thought how does that happen? We’re 53 to 42 inside-50s, and I think, how does that happen? So, we got counter-punched in an uncharacteristic manner, out of our forward 50 in the last quarter for four goals. That just shouldn’t happen. It doesn’t happen but it did happen. We’ll look at that.
We allowed them to spread the ball and we stopped spreading the ball. I thought in the third quarter we had full control and we should’ve gone four or five goals up. A comedy capers. Turnover after missed handball, missed handball, miss from 20 (metres), drop mark, kick-in over the line. In the end it takes a bit of a toll. You leave the gate open. I thought they (Kangaroos) were terrific in the last quarter. They spread the ball. A 50m (penalty), someone, I mean, someone checks someone and someone collapses off the ball. Is that a 50? I don’t know.They take that down(forward), through some poor defence, they get a goal. You think you take a mark and it’s not a mark, then a dropped mark. A play-on when you don’t get off the mark. All those things add up to you being under more pressure than you should be. We sit here losers.
My boys gave effort, they really gave good effort but really, what I just spoke about, in the wash, I think, was costly. North to their credit, we gave them the invitation back in, to their credit they took it. Sutcliffe on Harvey was pretty good, but when you’re turning the ball over like that, Brent’s going to kick a couple. That’s how I see it. I could be wrong. I reckon I’m a reasonable judge.
You’ve been doing it for a few games? I think some of the players need to eradicate those errors out of their game. I’d say I’ve seen a bit of that in those certain players. They need to take that responsibility on to improve because good teams just capitalise.
Just coming to half-time, early in the second quarter I don’t think you scored but had all the play, signs were on the wall a bit then? We know that’s our challenge in our front half. We have a young Alex Pearce, trying to develop a couple and build some talent through there. That’s a challenge for us. We’re working through that. We still kicked 1.4.
Are you confident, I think you gave it an eight week injury, do you think Ballantyne will play finals? I haven’t thought about it to be honest.
Too far away? Yes.
Is he going okay with his rehab? Yes, I think so. No one really tells me too much.
Did you stop spreading the ball or did they shut you down? I don’t think they shut us down – I think we could’ve spread the ball. We were a bit helter skelter maybe. We spoke about composure at three-quarter time. The buck stops with me, we should be playing with composure when we need it. I’m happy to take the hit. Failure is feedback, we need to get better.
What do you think about the Nathan Fyfe incident? Where he went for the ground ball and went low.
Yeah, that one…Yeah, that’s how I saw it.
So you think he should be fine? I don’t even know if he was reported or not.
He was…Is it the MRP – they adjudicate. I coach my players that if you go for the ball you’re going to be OK. But if you go for the man and you bump, like if you tuck yourself up to bump and you go for the man when you can go for the ball, I think you’re in trouble. But I think if you attack the ball you’re OK. Hopefully on the vision Nathan’s attacked the ball and gone for the ball. So if he’s done that, he should be OK, but if he’s tucked in and bumped, I think he’s in trouble. That’s just my understanding of the rules, but I could be wrong.
Are your systems going OK and it was more a case of turnovers and errors? A little bit of system, counter-punch, a little bit. The system is they shouldn’t kick seven (goals) out of your front half. That’s unheard of. It does happen if you do some crap and clearly we’ve done some crap somewhere. But fundamentally in some of those other areas you just can’t defend or coach that I wouldn’t have thought.
Are you running out of time to reclaim your best form before finals? I thought there were some good signs today. They’re a pretty good team and we’ve come interstate and could’ve had the game iced by three-quarter time, but we didn’t.
Are you confident that your players can get back to their best? Yeah, I’ve got belief in my players that they can get to that level.
Any injury concerns today? Not that I’m aware. I asked them and they all said they were clear. But as always you need to gather yourselves, the bodies cool down and you might have some bits and pieces but it doesn’t seem on the surface that there’s anything significant.
Would you say you missed Pavlich? No, I thought we had opportunities without Matthew. There were a few dropped marks, attempted chest marks when you should maybe have them (your hands) out.
Is Pavlich a chance to come back next week? I’m not sure. At my press conference during the week I was asked that and I said I’m not sure, I’m not overly confident.
