Did you run out of soldiers or did you run out of gas?
That would be a bit unfair to Melbourne, it was certainly challenging. We lost Jesse Hogan relatively early with a foot injury, that is to be assessed. It’s not his navicular but we are uncertain as to what it is. Hopefully it’s on the lower range. Stephen Hill lower end hamstring tightness or a little knick, we are not sure yet. It was certainly challenging, but I don’t think we played to the conditions that well. We spoke about it at half time, we over used our handballing, we should have been surging and kicking longer in the conditions. I thought we improved that a bit but not as much as we would have liked. All year we have got it done around the ball as in clearances, in the last quarter we couldn’t get it done around there. I thought (Max) Gawn and his midfield consistently won the clearance and got ground position so that was really a challenge for us all day. It’s disappointing but our midfield has been so good all year about getting it done. So, we need to learn our lessons on over use and the conditions and improve our stoppage work a bit and move swiftly onto Carlton.
Are you concerned about Jesse Hogan’s injury?
I’m concerned, but our doctors speak to us and they say it isn’t the navicular area it’s something else. That said I think Jesse was really concerned as well. It’s always going to be a tough day, playing your old club. It’s always tough whether you’re a coach or a player but in particular for a player to play a team he was at since he was 17. It didn’t pan out well, but it’s done and dusted now. He is a Freo Docker and we all move on.
How was he after the game?
He seems okay, we had a good conversation. He’s in pretty good shape.
Sean Darcy looked like he had sore ribs?
I think he’s okay. He’s a good story, we really value him. Every week you get a different challenge and he got a big one today. I thought his centre bounce work particularly early was really good and gave us a look. It was a big ask for him, he will learn from it. I thought Gawn’s ruckwork was solid but I don’t think that’s why we lost the game. I think it was more at ground level they got it done a bit better than us. They have great capacity, their ladder position isn’t reflective of their capabilities, we knew it was going to be tough. It was tough, I thought we gave ourselves a chance. We’re disappointed but it’s very hard to be critical of a group that has given so much all year.
How big a setback is today’s loss?
We would have liked to bank four points. We know it’s an incredibly even competition so what’s the percentage if you’re not near your best? Are they near their best? I don’t know, but if you’re not humming in some areas you are going to be under pressure. I think we are seeing that everywhere in the competition. We are a team that is trying to rise up the ladder, we’ve worked really hard. I’m proud of their efforts, we never gave up today. But, are we disappointed? Yes, bitterly disappointed.
Michael Walters got reported in the third quarter, what do you make of that?
I didn’t see it because I was coming down in the lift. Good players always get targeted and great players get targeted a hell of a lot. I think he has been reported but we’ll represent Michael and step through it and see what happens.
You are losing tall players, is that becoming a concern for you?
It’s not ideal.
How do you restructure?
It’s hard to do it on the run. Hopefully Jesse might be able to get up. Players do get up. Hopefully we can get him up, if not we will look at Peel and have a look at it. There is always someone ready to grab an opportunity and hopefully there is a couple on the not too distance horizon ready to return in Rory Lobb and Aaron Sandilands in a few weeks. You have to improvise and accept the challenge.
Is there any early prognosis on Stephen Hill?
It was a tight hamstring or maybe a little knick, they will take him to the MRI machine and give us a clearer picture.
It’s been suggested that Bradley Hill requested a trade last year - any comments on that?
The real simple comment is I’m here to talk about the game and I’m not the list manager and I don’t do contracts. As always, it’s inaccurate, there was no request for a trade last year. There is a lot of backstory to everything that gets reported. There is a lot of stakeholders involved in contracted and uncontracted players. There’s other clubs, player managers that play a big part. I think when you’re on the inside story it’s just part of the industry.
