Senior Coach Craig McRae has spoken to the media ahead of his side’s Round Eight clash against Carlton at the MCG this Friday night.
McRae touched on a senior pair who will miss the game, the learnings from the ANZAC Day draw, and the players in the frame to come into the side.
The positives from the draw
“I said after the game I wanted to give permission to the group to celebrate the positivity of what the result was,” McRae said.
“As a coach going through the tape there’s always little things and you go ‘awh’ and there’s a couple of little things that we want to improve on which ultimately you think would’ve changed the result but I’m sure they (Essendon) did the same."
De Goey and Mitchell ruled out
“Unfortunately Jordy won’t play, he’s got tight groins so we’re just going to back him off for a little bit and hopefully get those things settled down,” he said.
“Tom won’t play either – he’s got some plantar fascia stuff that’s been grumbling for probably a month now.
“It’s just got to the point where we know we can do some stuff that can see a huge spike in that and hopefully rid that in that week.”
Players ready to step up
“What presents in front of us is opportunities for some or someone,” he said.
“You look at the VFL and Oleg Markov’s been playing great footy the last three or four weeks.”
“Then you’ve got Lachie Sullivan as a name that will get mentioned I’m sure as an inside mid that’s been working hard to get an opportunity.”
“Obviously Fin Macrae is one of our core VFL strong midfielders so those names will get mentioned, and Harvey Harrison did a great job as sub too.”
Matching up with the Blues
“It’s very difficult. They’ve got two big guys and they go to them regularly and you know where the ball’s ideally going to be targeted,” he said.
“We’ve got work to do but if it’s a one-person job, it’s going to be hard for someone. If it’s as a collective then ideally we can support those things around stoppage (and) around how we support the defence.”
Billy Frampton’s rise
“He’s significant, with the loss of Murph in particular,” he said.
“We haven’t really had someone who can play on the 200-plus (cm) guys and Billy’s been able to do that.
“He’s had some good scalps this year and he’s going to need to get his hands dirty this week.”
