Ross, are you philosophical about that or are you concerned with the decisive nature of the loss?

No I’m more philosophical, we’d certainly have liked to have been better. The whips were cracking early when the game was at its hottest. (The Eagles) looked like a team that was really tuned in and were on their game, getting the ball and spreading both offensively and defensively, and they were going around us really.

I thought our second half was a lot better than the first obviously, but in the first half out of the middle they scored and cleared the ball and we were on the back foot and we couldn’t really get near them.

You can always look at the mitigating circumstances and challenges. (The Eagles) handled it well, they’d settled into the community camp up here and have been here since Thursday I think, but there’s some reasons but we would have liked to have been better but we understand that it’s their second game, it’s our first one.

It just highlights how brutal the competition is and how ordinary you can look if you’re not playing with the intensity and the work-rate that you need at AFL level. We’ll go away, there’ll be things that we can clearly identify and we need to implement going forward into our next JLT game against Collingwood.

There’s four weeks to go until round one. Even though we worked hard we’re still in the shadows of a really heavy training load and they’ve also come off a three-day break. We went into the new facility there’s a lot going on, but again we need to refocus very quickly. We’ll have a sharp review, we’ll identify that we need to look for a greater effort and work rate next week.

Fyfe’s return, he looked to be clearly your best player?

I thought he led really well. If you think about McCarthy hasn’t played in a year and a half, Fyfe hardly played in the last year, Johnson virtually a full year. There’s some new players and there’s some young players.

Michael Johnson will get better, McCarthy will get better, Fyfe will get better and we trialed a couple of things today. Young players understand, Langdon’s a great runner but you also understand Gaff’s a great runner and decision-maker. I thought Connor Blakely went in and had some good intensity. I thought Ballantyne and Walters when we gave them opportunities looked dangerous. Shane Kersten in his first game looked good when we gave him opportunities. And in the end to see Sean Darcy back into that pack, we’ve got really high hopes for him.

We’ll add a little bit next week. Sandilands will come back in, Neale will come back in. We’ll trim the squad and we aim to sharper and to get moving pretty quickly from here. 

Ross, with those newer faces and some players coming off long breaks, do you need to be patient with this group?

We’re all a bit disappointed. We’d like a better performance and the Eagles were very strong. I think they’re a strong team. So we’ll add to it. We’ve got a dual narrative, we’re aiming high this year but we’ve also come off a full year rebuild last year. In the near term we’re aiming to win and play better footy than we played today, and that’s going to be going on from now for the next four years. But we understand what’s required to be a great team, we know the work rate, we know the hardness and the decision making, and we’ll continue to shift until we get there, but clearly we want to be a lot better than we were today.

Any injury concerns today?

We’re clear at the minute unless something comes through but we would let you know.

How did you rate the newcomers Ross?

Bradley Hill is an interesting one, he almost didn’t play today because he had some allergy reactions and we were almost going to tap him out. I think it was a tough day for him but we know he can really play. Personally, he looked sharp. I thought (Cam) McCarthy worked but he looked like a player who hadn’t played a game of AFL in two years, so that’s what he looked like. We know there’s some ability there and we know there’s work rate and same as Fyfe there’s only upside from here.

Were you concerned the Eagles were able to pick through you early?

Not really, that happens when you don’t play with intensity. They had 200 kicks to our 100 kicks. I mean there were really 200 more disposals. How good they are I don’t know? We’re not as bad as we showed today I know that. I don’t say that lightly but we’ve got a lot of work to do, they should walk away really pleased. They’re a top four team from last year, we weren’t playing mugs and we come into a different situation with a lot of new players but our expectations are higher than what we delivered today but it’s a sharp reminder to bring work rate or you get embarrassed really quickly.

After a tough first half was it a case of getting around to the younger players and giving them manageable targets just to get their heads back in the game? 

That’s exactly what we wanted to do and we thought we did that. We were taking too many uncontested marks. It’s a massive oval, it’s 180m long and 140m wide in 38-degree heat. So they were building the ball and controlling the ball. We spoke about it and a few times we did do it really good and we scored and at critical times. There were some fumbles and dropped marks and we certainly were never going to win the game like that, we would have been a lot closer than what it looked like, that’s what I thought. Ballantyne and Walters and those guys with some opportunities looked really dangerous. 

Despite the result and the weather did you enjoy Geraldton?

To be truthful we got in last night and it was only a 40-minute trip. I lost my phone on the plane, so that was a bit stressful. We stayed at the Ibis, we loved the beach but I didn’t get into town and we’re straight out, so it’s a hit and run from us. To see the turnout in the adverse weather, the hot conditions, you know the passion for footy up here is really strong and I know West Coast have immersed themselves in the community, so that can only be a good thing for football really.

You mentioned Sean Darcy do you think he’s capable of playing AFL footy? 

He’s going to play AFL football. He’s going to be a good ruckman. I think he has courage and he keeps his feet. He went to Xavier, got a really high TER and he was a boarder. He come through heavy, he’s like that Mumford model. We’ve got really high belief in what Sean’s capable of doing and he’s got a work rate to match his ability, in the fullness of time he’s going to be a really good player for us, we’re thrilled with him.

Ross you named a strong side do you stick with that for the rest of the pre-season considering there was such an overhaul last season of the list?

Just to clarify we are bringing Sandilands and Neale in next week, so they will play, they will come straight in and for a number of players it was their first game. I know they’re good but most of them need to build in to it. If you miss a year of footy it’s pretty tough. Hopefully we’ll trim the side next week. We had 18 and eight, its very cumbersome. We’ll trim it down next week and start prioritising minutes.

Ross I know it’s been a fly in visit with the reaction of the crowd would you come back to Geraldton?

I’ll go anytime, anyone and anywhere but it’s a higher station meeting at the executive level at the club, so I’ll let the cobblers do the cobbling and leave it to them.