How pleased were you with the first three quarters?
I thought our first three quarters were super. There were a few mitigating circumstances in the last. I'm not worried about it. We just really wanted to spin our backs. We lost them in the third quarter in terms of giving them a rest, so we started two on the bench and we had to muck around with them a bit.

Then they started winning the ball. The way we were rotating two forwards off, two backs, it just left us structurally a bit all over the shop, which didn't help. They won the ball pretty well in the last quarter and then I thought we slaughtered some easy opportunities. We did have a few that should have been nailed.

So the focus in the first three quarters was we really wanted to stop it in the midfield. The last few weeks we focused on turning the ball over centre forward. We've really lifted in that over the last couple of weeks. We didn't capitalise on it all but it was pretty difficult conditions early. I thought a few of our blokes could've had different boots on but it's so hard to know what they need to wear, it was a bit slippery.

So the longer the night went there was a lot of due and greasiness. I know it looked pristine but it was quite difficult at times. Some of our ball movement was really quick and strong, and our tackling, I was really thrilled with the first three quarters.

The last quarter there's some reminders if you back off or if you fall down in certain areas you come under some pressure so that was okay. Off a short break, travel, strong opposition, they've been put under pressure, they're a really quality team. I think if you go through their team, their levels of talent in front and behind the ball and through the midfield is very, very strong. I think if you threw Hocking in and Myers into that midfield, certainly, their best is very, very good.

We've been happy with the way we're going but we're certainly not satisfied and we didn't play football that we're satisfied with tonight. We've got an edge about us, we're hungry and we're keen to improve so in some respects we really improved tonight in the areas we wanted to, albeit we could've been better. But we know what we're working on, we liked it. I sat at home today and watched all the Bulldogs game, in awe of them in the first half. They were pretty special. The young group were probably fatigued a little bit and the Saints really got going and I sat there and watched it to the end.

So I understand their very, very best and I also saw some vulnerabilities and some lessons learnt. In a sense we've already spoken to the players about that. We get eight days to prepare and we're coming up against a fierce opposition and I think I'd focus on their first five and a half weeks, not their second half although there is some learnings out of their second half. We come through unscathed tonight.

You say your not satisfied yet you're two games clear of everybody?

What does that mean?

Obviously things couldn't be going better for you?

Clearly they could. Alex Silvagni could be available, Zac Dawson could be available and Luke McPharlin could be available. But guess what?  It's round six. I think it actually means nothing. Sydney were 2-3 last year and played in the Grand Final. So lets not get ahead of ourselves. We're pleased to bank four points but there's plenty of challenges that lay ahead. That's league footy. There's no complacency, there's no breathing out. We'll enjoy tonight and we'll really squarely focus tomorrow.

You mentioned mitigating circumstances was that just resting and rotating the backs?
Yes, it was quite difficult to do what we did. It's hard enough with backs anyway. Look, they started to win the ball more but structurally you could just see at times we had three forwards when we'd like better than that, and some sloppiness, but we did the right thing. McPharlin is actually okay, but there was some precursors to his last injuries. Luke made the call to be truthful. I had the media conference on Thursday morning, then you come out of that and we were warming him up slowly and he couldn't get going and he said, “no, I'm out”. So we just backed Luke's call in. We were thrilled with Alex Pearce. We knew he could deliver that sort of football. We know we've got one there and he'll continue to grow so that's exciting for us as well but the challenges keep coming.

Will Luke come straight back?
I don't know. He may feel the same. But if Luke was really confident it would be nice for him to play. Zac Dawson should play at Peel next week, so that helps.

What did you make of Alex Pearce?
I liked his performance. I thought the team really helped him with great pressure. We've watched him at Peel. If you play really good football in the WAFL at a really high standard, which he has been doing, we know that you'll stand up at AFL level. You won't be perfect, but you'll be ok. I thought he played with confidence. He went for his marks, got a fist in, ran off. Above all, he's a great athlete who competes fiercely. We know he'll continue to blossom. He's a second year player, 196cms tall, and it's a credit to our recruiting team and developers, but one swallow doesn't make a summer does it?

Are you now premiership favourites?
That's not like you…throwing around platitudes like that and big statements.

That's ok though.

Are you the team to beat now?
So you're basing that question on the bookies' market, is that where we're at. You're really quite funny. I feel like I've answered it. It's round six. That's all it means.

Last quarter, seemed not to be about self preservation?
No what I said is we rotated when we needed to, and it disorganised us a little bit. So clearly we have got an eye to - we're in a position to take some liberties, and we took them, but it can make you vulnerable quickly. That's what I felt I said. Was that clear earlier.

Were you impressed with how the midfield adjusted after quarter time?
I think you make a really good observation of Essendon, they weren’t ambushed, they really turned up. They were right in the game, they had the first five entries but we just grinded our way with fierceness to get back on top. We had some challenges, but our leadership on the ground worked through it. I think that’s a sign that highlights how difficult the opposition are.

I hear bookie’s markets and people were writing different stories for us at the start of the year. The stories change externally from week to week, we don’t get caught in that yo-yo. What we get caught in is working hard and preparing and hopefully by playing really good footy, you’ll write really positive stuff. At the end of the day our motivations are to improve our footy and pursue benchmark teams and that’s what we are about. If you look within the competition you can be 47 points up and loose, you can be a back to back premier and play an expansion team and have some challenges, have the same amount of shots and loose. I think you just have to look around you, it’s not our job to commentate on bookies markets. I just find that not quite deep enough for me.

We’ll continue to write our own story, we pursuing four points every time we play, but we know that’s not AFL footy, we’re going to have some challenges and some lapses and some opposition that get hold of us. At the minute we’re healthy, we bank four points we’ll breathe out tonight and get to work tomorrow.

James Hird said Freo are the yardstick of the competition. Are you happy with that?
We focus on, and respect everyone we play. The reality is it’s round six, nothing has been achieved, it means nothing. We’re very level, we know if we loose two or three in a row what the headlines will be. We’re all big boys, we understand the industry we’re in and that’s about ‘w’s and ‘l’s and the only way you get the ‘w’s is just to work really hard, stay level and work together as a team. That’s what we are about.

What did you think about Matthew Pavlich’s performance?
It was a really good effort. Matthew made the call after all the testing, he is a very good captain. He leads very well, I think him and (Michael) Walters looked pretty fresh tonight. That means they were handled pretty well and it was the right decision and it just shows if you can freshen up in league footy you get to pop a little bit. In eight days we’ll look to freshen all the players and we’ll look to pop as the Bulldogs will.