How is Aaron Sandilands?
Aaron has a punctured lung and likely rib damage. He has headed straight to hospital. He was very courageous and got up. It was a big contest and the result of a turnover. It’s very disappointing. It’s not ideal, but you win them and you wear them.
How much did that affect the course of the game?
It wasn’t ideal. We’ve gone in without a second ruckman banking that Aaron and Alex Pearce can do a percentage of the work.
However, that’s debatable in the first place, because we do have Jon Grffin. With some teams you can handle it better. But they got the ascendency of us in the ruck. We thought Michael Johnson in the last quarter was ok around the ground.
Really simply, from my players end and to our members, I was really pleased with our ability and attitude to compete and our appetite for the contest was really strong. We started positively. The same issue we have had for 2-3 weeks in particular is our ability once it's in our D50 to build the ball and work the ball out of there (big and slow) and kicking has reflected this. This is the real concern.
I know we will look at entries, at the end of the day they had 33 from the attacking mid and getting it off us before we could get to the centre. There was a lot that went into the mix; we certainly think we have worked hard over the summer to give them some method to get through there. That involves some abilities to hit some targets, good decision making, go to a contest, switch the ball.
It’s a bit of a common theme. We spoke as a group afterwards and put on to the table that at the end of the day as coaches we take responsibility because somewhere we thought we delivered a program that under pressure our players would be able to execute.
Typically in my tenure at the Dockers we feel we have been able to do that, regardless of what people think.
The facts are indisputable; under pressure our players know what they need to do. At the minute the program hasn’t delivered to make them instinctive to the level they need to. We need to keep working on that. It will be a simple review; we will not go to contests and defence. We are just going to look at how we can get the ball out of the D50 and defensive-mid without turning it over.
That’s where it starts and finishes. That’s all the review will be. In that review, why are those players not hitting targets, going short when they should go long, switching when they should. That’s the issue.
Do you have confidence that your players can turn it around in a short period of time?
I don’t like the world confidence. Its nice to have but you don’t need it.
For us, am I confident?
For me to be confident, I need to see it on the track. Confidence comes from action - and repeated action. Based on the evidence I am seeing, I wouldn’t walk out of here with confidence we would be able to do it. I believe in my player group and the broad base of leadership and their attitude to improve.
They are hurting and I understand they will be criticised, but that’s the business we are in. When they walk in for the review, rightly or wrongly, we’ll have areas to work out where we can improve. We will then go train and work on it and try to bring it to life in the next game. It’s a simple model. Clearly somewhere in the line there is disconnect with what we think we have taught them and what they should be able to do.
To answer your question... Confidence, its nice to have it. However, hard work and repeated action that is what is important.
Hayden Crozier played very well two weeks in a row, people performing underneath need to come in. Clearly we need better kickers. People who can execute under pressure and hit some targets. Because there is just some terrible targets and at the minute are really costly.
WAFL Watch player stats: Saturday 9 April
Do you lack enough good kickers? Is that something you need to address?
I really loathe being negative about the playing group. How much effort and how hard they work. We know we need to improve our execution. We just spoke about individuals about taking responsibility for that and improve it. I don’t want to be telling them every session.
Kim Hagdorn asked earlier in the week, ‘Are people taking the blame with shots on goal?’
That’s not what it is about; I don’t point out blame. I just want to see the players at the goal kicking session going through their routine and practising and improving their method.
Then ultimately, if you do that and your not good enough. You walk out the AFL door thinking, you have no regrets. At the end of the day we want people to work hard and try to improve.
How do you know it’s the program itself not working? Or are the players are just not lifting their game?
We have never been to these levels before of turnover. Ultimately we have to take responsibility, as coaches that we under delivered. There is some player decision making in that.
As always, the ultimate measure of your football program is your results. We have enough commitment and player talent to perform better than we are. Therefore, we need to look at the football program. That said, there will always be players that aren’t performing to a high level. We will address that.
Apart from Aaron do you have any other injury concerns tonight?
No injury concern. Unfortunately we lost Mundy in the last session with a calf. Which was disappointing. He’ll be a couple of weeks.
Talking points after West Coast loss
Did Matthew pull up ok? He played pretty well tonight given the conditions.
I think his first few weeks have been super. He was our fourth highest possession winner against Gold Coast, which was pretty good. And tonight with limited opportunity, he looked dangerous. I think its hard to judge our forwards, as much as they made some blues it was really the centre back ball use that really destroyed our team tonight. They are a good pressed team. It happens, we wish it didn’t happen.
Ross, this is the start to the season. Does that make you think more about team selection? For example playing the younger kids?
We felt Langdon and Weller played well tonight. However, there are only so many youngsters to choose from. We have lost a few of our kids over the years.
Josh Simpson, then Jayden Pitt who had some heart issues, Michael Apeness has been injured for two years and Harley Balic has a wrist injury. There are some contributing factors as to what’s underneath. The rest we have played a fair bit, Sutcliffe, Neale, Sheridan and Pearce. Basically the ones we’ve got we’ve been playing.
Connor Blakely has been the obvious one, he has had a bad big toe and he’ll return. As always we pick a team that has integrity. I don’t think the youth are missing out, contrary to the popular opinion.
Is the expectation to still play finals?
I have never spoken about finals. I only talk about winning and losing. That is my fundamental philosophy.
Is Jon Griffin the obvious replacement for Aaron?
I don’t think you have to be Einstein to work out he is a ruckman that is available.
What are you thoughts on the comments that this season is a bit of a write-off in terms of a premiership?
I have never used those terms; you can’t play finals until you have earned the right. Our aim is to go out and win every game of footy. Then we will add up the wins and losses and see where we are. I’ll continue to coach and work hard despite the headlines.
How do you rate the three opponents you have had so far?
I don’t think it’s my job to rate the opposition. In saying that, we would like to be better.
There was talk going into round one as to whether Pav should be playing at Etihad because of the conditions.
I haven’t turned my mind to it. But you were right, that was on our agenda.
Your summary?
It’s been a disappointing derby; we will lick our wounds and butter up. We will butt heads and keep going. All I can do is work hard and stick with my players. And try to improve.
To get within 5 points, get butchered so much and make so many mistakes I was very proud, the way they fought on. At the end that opened up a bit but that doesn’t faze me. We just need to fix everything I have identified tonight.
