It was really important to get some momentum by getting a win on the board early. We came in uncharted waters a little bit, but I thought we had a good look, we knew they had a really big summer. As I said on record, I thought we really trained on over the past three weeks, and West Coast gave us a fantastic hit-out in 36-degree heat, so I’m just fortunate the players continued to give in that manner and had a really positive start.
What pleased you most about the performance?
We’ve got plenty of things to work on and they’ve (Collingwood) got some youth, they’re re-shaping and re-framing. I thought once our pressure lifted, I thought our clearance work and ball work early was poor, but when we did get it we looked really dangerous and our ability to score was quite strong, so it was just getting the clearances up and respecting their pressure, and once we did we won the ball pretty well. Mark Stone and BrettKirk, our midfield coaches made the necessary adjustments. I thought the good signs early was our defence was defending really well, I just thought we slaughtered it coming out, so we tuned up those areas and lifted some deep entries and we got some momentum.
Will Nat Fyfe still get top votes in the best and fairest?
First quarter he was getting beaten at half-forward, he moved himself into the midfield, and he hasn’t played for a couple of weeks, he got to work inside and started driving the ball forward, so he did play very well, but we had a weight of numbers performance tonight, everyone contributed, but he was significant in his part.
Was it a precaution him being subbed off?
Yes, against West Coast in the first NAB Challenge he wrenched his knee, that and the aerobic, the speed, cutting, and once he cramped, we were in a commanding position so it was Lachie Neale in and himout.
You talked about wanting to kick more goals this year. Is that the sort of style you expect to see for the rest of the year?
I don’t think there’s too many teams that will get 65 inside 50 entries a week, the AFL last year averaged 55. If you can get up near 54, 55 it’s a nice number. We’re quite efficient when we go forward, but we need more ascendancy around the ball to do that, and tonight we did that.
What did it mean to have a fit and ready to go Aaron Sandilands at the start of the season?
His perseverance and resilience has been terrific because he’s had big summers and been injured in my first year, after the Tigers in the wet and he came back late, and then last year he hurt his hammy. Again, hisresilience and his professionalism has been outstanding and he’s been able to get through unscathed. The Collingwood pair are young ruckmen, it was bold,they backed in their youth with Brodie Grundy and Jarrod Witts. Grundy is going to be a star of the competition, and it would have been easy to play Ben Hudson from the outside, but you can lose and go forward and clearly those young ruckmen would have went forward against a specialist ruckman like Aaron.
Were you surprised that Quentin Lynch and Hudson didn’t play?
I’m the Fremantle coach, I can talk about what happened out there tonight, but it’s not for me to second-guess selection of other football club’s.
It was an entertaining brand of footy, fast and down the corridor, does the dour tag still bug you?
Not particularly, we just like winning, and we need to win more, so failure is feedback, every club in the competition is chasing Hawthorn. We’ll have games that will be low scoring. Hawthorn were top two defence, it’s not going to look like that every night, we’d love it to, we came here to put on a good show and take care of what’s in front of you, we accepted the challenge tonight, it’s pleasing.
Danyle Pearce and Stephen Hill outside tonight?
They were inside as well, but we recruited Danyle for a reason, he came in under a cloud with a calf, so his toughness was really strong, desperate to play, and Stephen really ignited us in the second.
The old man Luke McPharlin did a handy job on Cloke.
I thought it’s a really good match-up, Luke got plenty of support and obviously with Ben Reid going down for them and Jesse White, sothey’ll look significantly different in the front half. But you can only play what’s in front of you, but I thought the pressure up the field was really good, it made it hard for Travis, but he’s a star of the competition.
Were you happy at quarter time in a sense that you were even and that your defence had stood up to the clearance situation?
I thought we were in the game, it was clear what needed to be fixed, and there were signs for us in the second term that we’d swung and got back into the battle. It certainly wasn’t panic stations but these are things that we need to fix.
Will Zac Clarke be available for round 2?
He was really available now, he’s fit enough, but it would have thrown him to the wolves. The split round, we’ve got a couple of guys on the plane, Sylvia will play (for Peel), Zac will train and play for Peel I think.
How do you handle a 15-day break?
We’ll need every inch and minute to recover early. We’ve got strong methods, I really trust Jason Weber (Sports Science Manager) and histeam to guide us, but again, there’s no breathing out here. I thought we accepted a really strong challenge tonight. It’s hard to come into uncharted waters and start poorly and recover, but we’ll lick our wounds and, I think we’re unscathed, but 48 hours later you tend to know.
What do you think about playing a game on March 14, it’s almost two weeks earlier than you’re used to?
I get on the treadmill, I couldn’t tell you, I have to check that it’s Friday. I’m on a treadmill of training sessions, it is what it is, there’s people who do roles and plan, and continue to do a great job growing the game, and all our media partners and TV, it’s fantastic, so we just want to play our role and be a good team within that, so we were really honoured toopen the season tonight, we were thrilled.
Ballantyne was handy tonight, how much did that Grand Final burn inside him over summer?
I haven’t spoken to him about it. Any one of us that played in a grand final, whether it be the under 10s in the Diamond Valley League or let alone the AFL Grand Final, but I’m on record, Hayden Ballantyne’s as mentally tough in the AFL as there is. I don’t try and think about what people think because you can’t do that. I deal with the actions in front of me and all Hayden’s done is train hard, be bubbly and be super positive. I’ve told Hayden, I see the headlines, but if I write the paper, I’ll say, you gave us a chance to win. That’s how I look at Hayden’s performance. We had a chance to win and he gave us that chance. Wayne Carey (North Melbourne) against Adelaide in 1998 (Grand Final), and they were 7.22 a half time, so it’s been done before, and it will be done again. But Wayne finished with a premiership and slotted a few on the big stage, so hopefully Hayden can follow that lead.
What was the theme of the summer for you?
Hard work. I think it’s been alluded to, a short period of time, we just backed in our strength and conditioning, all we did was run and light ball work, and we trusted the players to work hard over the break andcome back. Then we had to push the envelope quickly, we monitored other clubs and we thought, ‘gee whizz’ but we backed in our system.
Ross, do you dwell on the heartbreak of the Grand Final… (Ross interrupts question).
No, you know what? I went to Ireland in 1984 with Dean Bailey for the Victorian Schoolboys team with Stephen Silvagni and those guys. Dean was a part of that and he’s lost his life to cancer and we’ve all been affected by it, so when you read the Daniel Morcombe, and you start to question where society is going… it’s a Grand Final loss, those things tend to sober you up. In my world, footy, it’s really important, but I tell you, we’re not sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves here.
