It must be great to be back on the winner’s list after a tough couple of weeks. What was the overriding feeling – satisfaction, relief, or joy?
We’ve mentioned previously that we do tend to travel well. Maybe getting away from Melbourne and the scrutiny that you’re under here is good, and the bonding and instructions that come with going away was really good for us.
You’d been written off by many in the last couple of weeks, and with the team you took across not many gave you a chance. What is it about this side when it has its back to the wall?
Blind Freddy could see that we’ve had some injuries. When any club gets some injuries, your performance isn’t going to be up to where it was. It disrupts the balance of your side and, no disrespect to the guys coming in, but they might have been playing reserve grade footy and there’s quite a big jump from reserve grade footy to seniors. We had a couple of guys come into the side that helped in our forward line and from a defensive perspective as well. We still didn’t manage to kick a huge score but we kept the opposition down.
There were some really good signs. What was the coaching staff most pleased with?
It was like the shackles were taken off the boys … to play with a bit of confidence and to take some risks. We put huge pressure on West Coast, we didn’t allow them their free-running game, we closed the game down and we were able to hurt them going back the other way. Tyson Goldsack, Brad Dick, Steele Sidebottom and Sharrod Wellingham were great in that area. They’re just young kids but they’ve been in the side for a couple of weeks now and that helped them. We were also starting to get goals from midfielders either playing in the forward line or coming down from the midfield.
You mention those goals from midfielders. One of those guys was Leon Davis. He’s having a pretty standout year isn’t he?
Yeah he is. If you were to have a look at his positioning in all the KPIs, he’s right up there in all of them, whether it be inside 50s or rebound 50s. He’s taking marks and he’s our second-highest goalkicker. So he’s just getting involved in all facets of the game.
What were your impressions of Leon when you were at Brisbane as opposed to now, when you see him up close and his ability to have an influence on a game each week?
His consistency over the last year or two [has been great]. When you’re at another club, you’re not watching other sides that closely other than maybe in the lead up to when you’re playing those teams. If I was to make a judgment when I was at Brisbane it probably would have been that he was in and out of the game previously, but not having been here the last couple of years I probably am not qualified to comment on how consistent he was in previous years. From what I’ve seen he’s just playing four quarters and if any he’s probably only had one down game this year, and he’s been really consistent in all the others.
Being in charge of the forward line, you haven’t had anywhere near your normal, full complement to work with for a few weeks. Are you salivating at the prospect of having a few guys back this week?
Yeah, it’s quite easy to get a little despondent or disappointed with your area and what might be happening but you’ve got to be realistic. When you take out your main goalkickers – and we lost Jack Anthony there for a week as well – and we were pretty depleted when you lose Anthony, Didak, Medhurst … but injuries provide opportunities for others and although they mightn’t be ready it has hopefully given these other guys a chance to play up forward.
This week’s opponent Port Adelaide has been up and down. Do you even bother looking at their game at the weekend or do you watch replays of when they’ve played their best footy?
We’ve got guys who look after that area and Blake Caracella looks after that in relation to the three or four weeks prior to playing them. But we’ve all watched the game over the weekend. Our planning started with watching that game. You tend to move on as coaches and get straight into the next game straight away … we’re not going to take them lightly that’s for sure, because like us Mark Williams knows how to get sides up when their backs are against the wall.
