What did you make of that?
It was a tough game of footy, we won the ball really well. They were a smart footy team early and exposed us a bit on the outside, which we want to be better at and we need to be better at. We sort of adjusted, particularly in the last quarter got the game on our terms and dominated. At the end, just not quite good enough to finish.

You left the box there with about 40 seconds to go, was there a reason for that?
We hit it in tight in a forward 50 stoppage and I went off my head, when we should have flipped it out. So I thought, ‘what’s the point sitting there?’ So I went down and then I saw that last play when we had an opportunity.

So the idea was to get Mundy to wait until the siren went so he wouldn’t get put off by the siren? You said four seconds to go, just take your time.
Who me?

Yeah.
I was on the far side of the ground.

You were putting four fingers up there at one stage.
Michael Johnson asked me how long to go and I never knew and I think our president said four seconds.

From where you were standing, did you think it was going through?
No, I didn’t think it had come off (the boot) sweet. I thought it was a challenging kick, it looked the mark was about 45 or 48 metres…he’s (Mundy) a beautiful kick, he is a beautiful kick, but look it’s a 50-50 bet from there. I think he got the distance but it was always a challenge. I think we had some opportunities prior to that.

From that point, you’d want to have it (the ball) in your hands I’m sure?
Look, you don’t want to be kicking to win after the siren from 46 metres out when you’re fatigued…it’s pretty simple, you’re trying to get it done before that. Unfortunately, we had some moments where we weren’t at our best tonight and they took full advantage. But look, they’re a very good team, we think we’re a pretty good team and it was a pretty close battle. I think we walk away unearthed and really excited about Duffy and Crozier in our front half full of speed and class, we’re pretty keen to go forward with that. We’ve still got Michael Walters to come back in. I thought our midfield was very good, but either end we had some very good moments and some not so good moments that probably cost us a little bit.

Did that first quarter come back to haunt you a little bit?
It doesn’t help. Accuracy is an important start and there was a fair breeze in the first half into the wind so that made it a bit more difficult. But look at the end of the day, you’re trying to kick them and they took their opportunities and if they had lost they would have thought ‘gee, we were in front most of the day’, but to our credit it goes for 100-odd minutes and I thought we played some pretty good footy. We dominated the second (quarter) without scoring, third quarter I thought we were a bit off, maybe I didn’t set the right tone at half time, so I take some responsibility. I certainly gave the plan at three-quarter time and the players really went to work and showed the sort of footy they can play.

Are you still short of tall forwards?
Maybe, possibly. I’d have to go away and think about it.

Was there anything you could have done to overcome Harry Taylor?
Well we did it in the end. Their backs hurt us, their plus-one hurt us and we were playing on very quickly which is good, but if you play on quickly and kick it straight to them well you look a bit silly. You try to find that happy medium to go quick, but make them defend. Their pressure was good and once we started using our number we manned it up, I thought we looked like a different team.

Ross, you’re two games and percentage from the top two - does that worry you?
It hasn’t been a focus for me. All I know is you win what’s in front of you. I would imagine we’re fighting for a top-four spot, little alone top-two. We’ve got a pretty hard team next week, the Hawks.

So if you have to travel again in week one of the finals can you take some heart out of this?
I don’t want to be rude but I can’t indulge you hypothesising about week one of the finals. I’ve got three home and away games to prepare my team for, so we’ll review this and I think there’s a team called Hawthorn waiting for us next week. I don’t have that luxury. I think you’re entitled to write about all your hypothesis and extrapolate it all out. It's not the time for me to do it after a game and it’s something I don’t indulge in because it’s a pointless exercise.

Luke McPharlin done a calf, has he?
Not too sure whether it tightened, it doesn’t look good but we’ll give you an update.

Is it bad timing for him?
It’s not ideal…he’d prefer not to have it, to state the obvious.

You would prefer it too, he’s a key player?
He’s a pretty good player but Alex Silvangi 2012, no McPharlin, he played against the Cats and got it done. He can play and we've got young Alex Pearce. We all have our time in the sun. I’ll be moving on at some point.

Could you have done anything differently in those final two minutes?
I thought we did a bit right didn’t we? Hit out to space in the forward 50, not bang the phones and punch the window, not a good look for the kids.

Is it fair to say you can take as many positives out of that coming through the middle?
We review our game the same, whether we win or lose. I know that’s hard to believe. Probably a few more smiles when you win, but you go through the same process. Identify what you need to improve. I think when you give really good effort it’s easy to identify what went wrong. Where as you try and identify what went wrong and you’re a team that jumps out of the way and doesn’t chase, it gets very confusing. But I wouldn’t have thought we were a team that jumped out of the way or didn’t chase.

How is Ballantyne’s cork?
Corky's take time to settle, so he’ll ice it. R.I.C.E..what is it? Rest, Ice, Compression & Elevate.

What did you make of the Stevie J & Crowley battle, it was entertaining?
We’re about entertainment I think it was a pretty good battle wasn’t it?

Do you think Crowley got the points?
I thought they both were happy with what they did.