Justin you must be really disappointed?
Absolutely, we got taught a lesson tonight in a lot of different aspects. We got beaten badly around the contest, we got a lesson in how to handle the basics under pressure but also in those conditions, so a lot to learn and a lot to take out of that one.
Given you just jumped into the eight and all of your fans were a bit excited about things, was it a reality check when you come up against a team like that and you realise how far off you are at the moment?
Yes absolutely. I feel really disappointed for our fans that would have come with high hopes tonight. We just got taught a lesson around the contest, we got taught a lesson on how to stick to the game plan and execute the basics under pressure. This could be one of our greatest lessons and learning curves and we need to treat it like that. We need to be better, this is not the first time against good opposition we’ve faulted. So yeah, we need to take the lessons from it.
Your record against top eight teams is poor, what’s the number one thing you need to do to bridge that gap?
Well it's not just one thing, ever, we need to be better in the contest. We have a number of our players who were shown up in the contest tonight. We didn't have an even contribution when it comes to the little things like putting your head over the ball and taking the ball cleanly. As far as the patterns, the pattern has probably been not holding up under momentum. Against better sides, when the momentum is against us, they score heavily and that was the case again tonight.
How is Sean Darcy?
Fingers are crossed it’s not serious, it looks like he's done a bit of damage to his MCL. We'll get it scanned tomorrow, but fingers crossed it's not a serious injury.
He's had quite a few issues with that knee and it was heavily strapped. Is that something that he has been carrying for a while?
No, not to my knowledge. It is a new injury, I think the reason why he straps his knee is because of an injury he had maybe three, four years ago.
Did you know in that second quarter that he'd already done the MCL or was it later in the game?
No, it was the last instance. He did it early in the fourth quarter. We aren’t going to take any risks with something like that so we will get it scanned.
He was so good up to that point, how did you rate his game?
He was good, he was one guy who can hold his head high. If it wasn’t for him, I think the scoreboard and the game would have looked a bit different. He is having a super year, he is super competitive, his work in the contest is as good as we’ve got at the moment so he can hold his head up high.
What can you tell us on Rory Lobb’s injury?
He has an ankle injury, we will have to get it scanned as we are a bit unsure. He has some pain in his syndesmosis, I am not going to guess, it is not the right thing to do, we need to get it scanned.
The contest issue, that you just spoke about? How do you go about addressing that?
Well, the conditions highlighted it. They would train and play in those conditions a lot more than us, and obviously bigger bodies. We just need to understand that Geelong are the level, they are the level in that area of the game in those conditions. Their composure to not only to win the contest cleanly, but to give it to a teammate in a better position…it was almost like we were playing a wet weather game and they were playing in dry conditions, and that's the level we need to get to.
What about your inability to take a grab inside 50?
Well, once ‘Lobby’ (Rory Lobb) went off, we lacked a taller target down there, but it was definitely a by-product of the work we were doing up the field. I mean, if you're not clean and you can't string chains of possession together, it's hard to connect going forward. It’s something we’ve been pretty good at but we came up against a really strong team defence, and a really strong backline tonight and it was just another area of our game that faulted.
How do you go about replacing Darcy and Lobb?
I'm not really going to go into that because I'm not going to declare that Sean (Darcy) and ‘Lobby’ are going to miss next week. So we’ve got a 10-day break, we'll get them scanned tomorrow, we'll let everyone know the significance of the injuries, but I'm not going to rule them out for next week.
What about Nat Fyfe’s shoulder?
He got through the game, he's going to have those moments, we'll just keep in constant dialogue with ‘Fyfey’ (Nat Fyfe) and make sure that we're not putting him at further risk and he feels that he can get out there and compete to a level that he's happy with, and we're happy with. So he had those moments last week as well, where he felt he shoulder and had a few tonight. So we'll just keep monitoring that.
Josh Treacy got reported early in the match. What did you make of that?
I haven’t had a look at it. The game has going pretty quick. I actually didn't know he was reported.
Stephen Hill, is he playing league in the WAFL this weekend?
Yes he is. He's still on restricted minutes though, so he's got a couple of weeks to get under his belt before he's available for AFL selection. He's done a mountain of work to get to this stage. He's had a lot of setbacks along the way so I'm really pleased to see him out there and now he can start building his form and get some continuity, so it will be great.
Luke Valente wasn’t announced in Peel’s team today, is he injured?
No he isn't. He's going to take a leave of absence from the club for a couple of weeks. He's got some issues that he's dealing with off the field and we'll just give him some time and space for a couple of weeks.
It’s obviously important for the Club to get around him and help him through whatever is going on?
Yes absolutely, we will support him as best we can. Get him around friends and family and that's all I can really say. As a club, we’re fully supportive of what he's going through and we're going to support him to the best of our ability because we want him back at the club and we want him playing his best footy.
