Justin, congratulations. We don't see you emotional too often. After the game today you were emotional, that really meant a lot to you didn't it?
Absolutely. It's been a big couple of weeks. Obviously, not just our form for the last couple of weeks has been disappointing, but as a club, we have been through a lot over the last five weeks, three away games or four away games in those five weeks. We are in quarantine at the moment where we're short on staff. I just thought that it was a great Club effort, not just to prepare the players during the week, and then obviously, the players commitment was just first class. I was really proud, really proud of the Club, really proud of the playing group, really proud of how they embraced the challenge, and responded in that last quarter.
As we're speaking you're in the eight right now. What does the ladder position mean to you at this point of the season?
Nothing really, it’s great for our fans at this present time. That's an outcome. I'm more proud of the way we played. We got back to playing our footy, it probably wasn't the prettiest game but we played to the conditions well. I thought it was a much more rounded team effort than we have dished up the last two weeks. We have been relying on too few. I don't think we carried anyone today. It was just everyone did their role. Everyone was really committed to the team, a team performance. That's what I worry about over the process. What will be in ladder positions will be. If we get the process right, we'll stay in the eight, and if we don't we’ll drop out.
You mentioned going through a fair bit in the last five weeks. How did you harness that in the build up as a way to get what you got out of the players?
I think it's a little bit about having some fun during the week. So we've found some moments to have a bit of a laugh. One was at Belly’s expense, which the players enjoyed. But it's really just about making sure they're focused on the plan and making sure we simplify the plan. That was a pretty simple plan we went in with today but I thought players had a good knowledge of it and executed it well. We didn’t get the game going our way the whole day but thought they stuck at it and responded really well when under the pump. Like I said before, I'm just really proud of them.
You spoke about replacing Nathan by giving your young midfielders just more time in the centre. Are you proud of what they produced today, particularly Andrew Brayshaw?
I thought it was a really solid effort from all our mids. They all had their moments throughout the game. I was really, really pleased with Andy. He's been working on a lot of areas of his game. He's had a very, very good season and I just thought his last quarter, his leadership, he had a will to win and he never stopped trying. And that's not to take any anything off anyone else, I thought we're all in the same boat. I thought it was such a team effort. But he probably stood out in that last quarter just with some of those efforts defensively to win the ball back.
What was going through your mind those last two stoppages that he won?
Get rid of it, because I thought we were a bit casual with our D50 stoppages all day. We got done holding the ball once or twice and didn't really clear the ball long and wide, like we wanted to. So I was really nervous, but he was able to take 10 seconds off the clock on both of them, which is really important. It was critical to the result and I thought we did the right thing at the right time, a lot of the time.
Obviously, without a lot of leaders, this is the first time you had just the next generation playing without a lot of those guys there, is that the greatest indication of what this future has for this club?
That’s what I've been saying all along. I mean, a lot gets spoken about injuries, but injuries create opportunity, opportunity that some of our players wouldn't have got this week. We’ve just got to make sure as a coaching group, we can simplify the roles, allow them to go out and play on instinct. The stats sheet might not read great for some of them, but they all had their moments in the game where they had to stand up and I thought largely we did. Some of the other guys like, Adam Cerra, Caleb Serong, Sean Darcy had another good game. So some of those players who probably in a sense are in the shadows of the leaders at times took the next step and the responsibility was on them today. So it was great to see them stand up as well.
Were you tearing your hair out at the goalkicking?
Unfortunately, I'm getting used to it. And getting a little bit greyer because of it. The conditions were really ordinary out there and watching it on TV or watching it in the stands, you probably didn't get a sense of how windy it was, and how difficult it was. I wouldn’t have been able to get the ball to hit my foot let alone through the big sticks. We missed our fair share early on, they missed some they should have kicked as well. I think that evened itself out.
When Richmond got to nine points in front of you, you came back and won, do you think this is something down the track that you'll be able to call on again?
This is another great experience and I thought last week we had our opportunities early in the game, didn't quite take them and then when Sydney came we went a little bit insular. That was a large part of our review, the players really embraced that. I thought once Richmond got nine points up, we actually got to work rather than going insular and internalising and thought we were well connected. Then from that moment on, we got the game played in our front half. I was really proud of that, it’s the experience sometimes you need to go through to justify what we're trying to work on. Today it was really positive.
How's Bailey Banfield?
He's obviously got a concussion. He is moving around the change rooms really well and able to talk to everyone. He was a bit groggy there for 30 odd minutes but he is coming to now and is in good spirits.
Did you like the jumper out there Justin?
Loved it. And I think that actually helped our week, the players really embraced it. They love wearing the anchor again. It’s only a one off, but it’s something different. Allows you to break up the week and they just really embraced the week. Really enjoyed wearing the jumper, so I loved it personally.
How important was Lachie Schultz’ mark to turn the momentum?
It was massive. ‘Shooter’ played a really disciplined team game. He was really unselfish and it's funny as a forward, if you go into a game being really unselfish and you do the right thing for the team some of those moments land in your lap. He's always been a pretty good overhead mark and puts himself in those situations. It was critical, obviously. I don’t know whether it put us in front or got us back to three points. It was critical. I thought he played a super game all round.
You mentioned you guys had a bit of fun leading up to the game and the joke at Belly’s expense. What can you tell us on that front?
Sometimes you get so busy in footy and one week rolls into the next, sometimes you just need to take a little bit of a back step and have a bit of fun. It’s been grueling. Like I said, it starts being grueling last five, six weeks, and now we're down on staff and half the playing group or some of the playing group is not with us. They're out of quarantine. So you just have to have some light moments. Our players are pretty good at that. But yeah, coaches can get better, not saying my gags are any good, by the way.
If the AFL was to ever reconsider the pre-finals bye and put in a wildcard round for seven to 10th is that the sort of game that fans could see, do you think?
I think that's the sort of way it would probably go (type of game). When you play teams around you on the ladder, you're usually evenly matched in terms of the win loss and that was reflected in today's performance. I thought it was a really even contest. I thought both teams were really desperate. It could have gone either way. They are probably the sort of games you'd get in a wildcard situation.
