Thoughts on the game?
I thought we had a real go, the third quarter was critical. We jumped out of the gates really well. Last ten minutes of the first (quarter) hurt us. I thought we were really solid in the second (quarter). We spoke about the third quarter, we learnt some lessons against Hawthorn playing in the conditions. We didn’t want to come up the corridor or finesse too much. We got beaten around the stoppages, about four free kicks around there, we gave them ground position, they put it in, we didn’t defend that well and we tried to force it up the corridor a bit when really we were instructed not to. That was really costly, they dominated the third. We’ve got to give them credit for that… we were disappointed in the context of the whole day about that third quarter. I thought our last quarter was really solid. It was always going to be tough but some of our young players are really showing some promise and look we’ve had worse days down here but we really thought if we got the third quarter right, we can really win this game but we didn’t get the third quarter right, it was really disappointing.
 
Do you feel like it’s turning?
We have moments and longer periods, but I suppose I’m a coach that is used to a lot longer periods. No one is walking away saying 'we’re not having a go'. People talk about squeezing this and squeezing that. Our spirit is really good and in our young players, a lot of them second year players. I thought there was some real growth, we’re seeing (Matthew) Taberner continues to grow, Lachie Weller is going harder and understanding it more, Ethan Hughes made a couple of blues but he’ll roll off and understand when to roll off and when to punch. Connor Blakely showed more promising signs again today. Our midfield in particular, if you think (Aaron) Sandilands, (Nat) Fyfe, and (David) Mundy currently out of there, (Michael) Barlow obviously got dropped, (Harley) Bennell who we’ll have, none of them were there and we’ve got Connor Blakely, (Michael) Walters and (Stephen) Hill, we’re really quite thrilled with that. We’ll continue down this path. We don’t like losing, but you’re right, it’s turning, it’s turning slowly, but we’re really firm in what we want to do with the opportunities. We have 14 games left, we don’t want to gift them but if Connor Blakely does everything right, he should play the majority of those. So if they go to a summer with 15-20 games under their belt, their nostrils flaring about the work they have to do and the body they have got to build and how tough it is, we’ll be in better shape than we are now.

Freo fail to match Hawks' mids

Did you get a glimpse of the future with Pavlich out and Taberner up forward?
I thought (Chris) Mayne really led them well. (Michael) Apeness will play his first game for Peel today, he’s a real competitive animal, he’ll be a ruck/forward, he’s a real beast. If he plays 4, 5, 6 games we’ll put him in and he’ll play. So that’s the path we’re on for a period and in saying that, we’d like to win. Zero-8 doesn’t rest comfortably, you can lose going forward and in a lot of ways, the wheels are turning and even though we lost I feel we went forward in a lot of areas, but it is still disappointing. 
 
What was Stephen Hill’s injury?
I think it’s an adductor. It didn’t look good, looked like a calf or a hammy. That was sort of critical when he was coming out. He’s really growing inside, we know he’s a top-flight winger. We’re giving him an opportunity inside and he’s enjoying it, we’re enjoying it and hopefully he’ll come up but I’m not too sure.
 
Tommy Sheridan was a late withdrawal. How is he?
He still wanted to play today. He was fine getting on the plane and then he got the sweats and all that overnight. Then he woke up and didn’t have a few meals, so when we landed we flew Tendai Mzungu over. Just to clarify our banner did have Tendai’s hundredth on it, but they were prepared because he was an emergency and had it tacked on with 90 minutes to go. So there were no shenanigans going on. He just had a bit of a flu, not a cold, he was quite crook. He wanted to play but we wanted to look after him.

Third quarter cost us: Neale
 
What do you want to see with the Richmond game?
Same thing. Effort and growth. It is not complicated here. Both teams aren’t flying. I don’t know what their results are and whatever they are doing. Both teams have got their challenges. But I am really just concerned with us. It’s all about improving your football and I’ve always had teams that have plugged a good system and effort.At the minute our effort is pretty good but not exactly where we want it to be. Obviously we are making some changes and when we get it right, it looks good. With (David) Mundy going back, we are going to stick with that. He has the ability to transition but obviously he has got to get his head around defending again because he had a couple of moments. We look better out the back with him there and we are going to continue with that. We want to build a younger midfield and he is 31 and not getting any younger and we will just throw him in like we did in the last quarter at different times. We want him to become an All Australian third tall defender now, he’s done it as a midfielder and we’d like him to go back and do it as a defender.
 
Reasons for dropping (Zac) Dawson and (Michael) Barlow?
For all those reasons, we want to distribute the ball better. Zac’s defending form has been fine but clearly we keep doing the same thing and keep getting the same result, it doesn’t stack up. So it was bold but we want to stick with that, we want a bit more bounce there. Alex Pearce is defending really well and (David) Mundy is 193cm/194cm so he can play that sort of role as well. Mick Barlow has been giving pretty good effort but we wanted to have a bit more pace around the ball. Mick (Barlow) has been terrific for us and he is hurting and he has already had 24 at half time at Peel. He’ll keep knocking down the door, if Mick is there it’s hard to get Connor (Blakely) in and we wanted to have a look at Clancee Pearce inside. That’s where we are at. It’s quite difficult, we want to keep our integrity at selection and keep the dynamic and the spirit high which it is, but you know if you just churn people out who are giving great effort and bring people in who aren’t, that’s when morale can drop. It’s really important for our young players that they come, train hard and compete hard so we can pick them. If they think ‘they’ll just pick me’ that will destroy morale. But that’s not happening and we are really pleased with our younger players efforts.
 
Pav straight back in?
Yes.