Do you feel like there were some wasted opportunities?

Firstly it’s really important that we acknowledge the premiers, they have been the best home and away team for the year. We knew that they were a really top shelf team, we understood the challenge. From our end there are couple of things we wanted to do, particularly structure in front of the ball was really important and for whatever reason, it was really costly in the first quarter, but once we fixed that I felt we were in the game.  At the end of the day against quality opposition, off turnover in the midfield they’ve kicked five straight and we’ve kicked 2.9 , and a lot of those were set shots in a tight tough contest. In the conditions that were there today we all know and we’ve seen it, it’s occurred again today. Would we have won? I’m not sure, but hopefully we would have been able to put a little more pressure on them, particularly early and not as much effort to come from behind like we did. There’s a lot to like with the mechanics, reduce their marks inside 50. There were plenty of opportunities with almost equal entries, It’s a great lesson for our club, it’s about the basics: dropped marks, missed targets, missed tackles, missed shots at the end of the day separate quality. To the club, particularly our playing group, led by Matthew, I’d like to acknowledge their work ethic and their growth and the effort that they put on today. It wasn’t perfect but there was a lot to like and hopefully for everybody it was a great grand final, but we sit here frustrated and disappointed that we weren’t good enough to take an opportunity.

Were there nerves?
It’s really hard for me to answer that. I think you’d have to speak to the players. I’d be disappointed if we didn’t handle it. On the surface, we didn’t execute with the aplomb that we can and should have.

Ross how hard is it to lose your third grand final?

You don’t feel them as a collective, I certainly don’t. Personally, I’m disappointed but I’m disappointed for the club and the players more so. I understand how hard it is to get back. Our whole attitude is, take the risk, do the work, keep turning up and keep improving. I think I read Malcolm Blight lost his first three and he went on to win it back-to-back. He had the fortitude to keep working and keep backing himself in. I certainly see that I’m not going to crumble. My job is to lead and to work with the players and that’s what I intend to do. So, bitterly disappointed, but proud of the players efforts. I take no satisfaction, we’re here to win premierships. We fell short, they were a bit better on the day but I thought we were right in it. There were plenty of opportunities once we made some adjustments and got it right.

Did you feel like you had the momentum in that third quarter?

I felt there were times in the first quarter where we had plenty of opportunities; they took theirs which is fair enough. I think both teams kept oscillating between quarters. In the second we certainly had plenty of opportunities and in the third we were really coming and they got one late. We turned around four goals and got to three points. Those misses early made them a bit more comfortable. I said we’ve just got to put one through and we’ll come and that’s exactly what happened. They really started well in the last, but I thought we fought on like caged lions, I don’t think at any stage did we give up. We’re pretty resilient, but it’s feedback about the basics isn’t it, everyone wants to complicate the game.

Brian Lake?

I know how it happened, there’s certainly no witch-hunt here. We had a structure in place that should have been adhered to and it wasn’t and we paid the penalty. Those guys know who they are, we’ve spoken about that already. There’s no witch-hunt, what’s the point. It’s about discipline under pressure to do what we want and he’s a pretty handy player to suck into congestion and leave him rolling off. But that’s just feedback for the guys that were involved in that.

What did you say to the players after the game?

Basically, what I’ve said to you. First and foremost you’ll look back on the first quarter and our inability to get what we wanted cost us and missed opportunity cost us any opportunity, if that makes sense. I thought our ability to give great effort and fight on on the big stage should stand the club in really good stead and I thought Luke Hodge’s speech was of note. It’s what Alastair Clarkson said to them last year, there’s some modifications we can make, we can improve and aim to be back up here next year. Not congratulated, but it was a pretty big year. We walk away disappointed, understanding we need to improve to get what we want.

Are you confident your group can go the next step?

It’s pretty difficult to extrapolate it out as we sit here today but they’re a really impressive group. We’re a list that can grow, three of our leaders are our oldest. Luke, Matthew and Aaron are significant, I think they’ll all go on next year. I hope so. There’s going to be some change coming pretty quickly as well. Injuries and form and attitude all goes into the mix, so there’s no guarantees here. I’m really expectant that they’ll commit to the work again. We have got some belief and momentum. There’s some great teams out there. What cracked disappearance open was our ability to go down to Geelong and beat a great team in the finals and throughout the year against adversity and with injuries to our key players to be able to win. That was significant as well. Cam Sutcliffe really stood up today, Lachie Neale’s going to get better. We’ve got Tom Sheridan, and Nat Fyfe’s going to grow, Stephen Hill’s going to grow, Michael Walters is going to grow, Zac Clarke will grow. We think we’ve got some real growth in us, but everyone’s saying that. There’s no guarantees, but the aim is to do the work again. That’s a critical mix. Do the work.