How would you assess that?
We let it slip in the third quarter. I thought our contest work in the first half was really strong. I thought our pressure was really good around the ball. The third quarter they just got going with a bit more momentum at stoppage. We weren’t as decisive as we needed to be behind the ball. When you allow soft drops and them to speed up and get goal side, I thought they were really able to capitalise on a few of those plays. To me it felt a bit like the Brisbane game, missed opportunites. They just had a bit more class in their front half to be able to finish off their work and we just missed critical opportunities to peg them back in the second and third quarter. But also in that first quarter, we missed a couple of set shots which probably deserved to be four goals at quarter time and we were two goals from the dominance we had from inside 50. I thought they just had a bit more class to be able to finish their work.
Their ability to hurt you from stoppage and centre clearances and score goals from there, is that where your midfield needs to get to from a damaging point of view with the clearances you are winning?
Yes we’ll continue to work on that. They probably had a bit of ruck ascendancy in there as well which they crave on. They play with a lot of momentum, a lot of movement and if you let the contest slip, they hurt you for that so centre bounce was an issue. It was probably a bit more widespread in that third quarter. We were minus 14 ground ball which allowed them to generate a lot of momentum. Like I said, they just had a bit more class to finish off. Overall I thought the midfield battle was pretty even. Our mids probably didn’t capitalise on their opportunities. I think a lot of the stats would say it was a pretty even game and they had a bit more polish.
We saw Cox go forward late and look pretty good when he took that mark and kicked a goal is that something you might explore?
It’s just something we do when we want to win the game. Left us probably vulnerable with height behind the ball but we needed to take some risks in that last quarter and throw a bit of caution to the wind. He took a good mark and I think he surprised himself with how far he kicked it.
Do you look to experiment much in the final round?
Not really. Probably not. There’s a few little things we might discuss as a match committee but if you throw too much at them, they’ve already got a lot of distractions when you’re heading into the last game so we just want to make sure we finish the year off well. That will be our main focus. We’ll talk about what we do next week, next week.
You mentioned the Brisbane game. How do you think the two matches today and that game – what do you think it shows about how far you are off those top four teams?
It shows we need to get better at executing under pressure for me and finishing our work off when we get the opportunities. We won the inside 50s – after quarter time the inside 50s were pretty even but we just didn’t quite execute the basics a couple of times behind the ball which gave them good looks and allowed them to capitalise. Then in front of the ball, we just missed our set shots. If you want to look at a basic stat, we kicked 5.6 from set shots. I think they kicked 8.2. That’s the game. But it wasn’t all on our set shots and our goalkicking in front of goal, it was probably a little bit on our finish as well. I think an area we need to do a fair bit of work on is making more of our entries, I think it’s been an issue all season. I know we’ve got a young forward line but I feel like we just go for the wrong decision going inside 50 a bit too much. We try to pull kicks off to the junction 50 out when you could drive and get it to 15 metres out, then go to work aerially and at ground level and play the game in our front half. But we’re going for these 15, 20 metre kicks into shots where it’s marginal whether you kick them anyway. So trace back to the very start of the season, it was more our work going inside 50 than anywhere else on the ground. I feel like the Brisbane game and Port game today that was an issue as well. The good teams, they finish their work off. That’s all something we can practice though. We’ll just get back to training and do the reps and get another summer of execution under our belt in the right scenarios and we’ll chip away at that.
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One guy who finished his work was Tom Emmett. What did you like about his game tonight?
I think he already had the bandage around his head at half time or maybe quarter time and that sums him up. That’s why his teammates love playing with him because he puts it all on the line. Not only every game but every contest. I thought he definitely showed he’s up to the level. He finished his work off from his opportunities and I think we got a taste of his application to the contest and his pressure. Like I said in the lead up, he’s been in really good form for a while and he’s just been waiting for an opportunity. So one came up for him today and he took it, so good on him.
Just talking about your inaccuracy, do you think that’s a mental thing rather than a skills thing because there weren’t a lot of really hard chances – some were 30 metres out on a slight angle?
When you’re chasing the scoreboard it becomes more mental than anything. I think our set shots and our goalkicking in general has taken a big step forward this year. We’ve had probably an average day in front of goal today but it doesn’t mean that’s a trend so we shouldn’t lose any confidence from the work we’ve done. The other thing was we just lacked a bit of trusting ourself and composure inside forward 50 to find someone with our hands in a better position and then deliver that handball so we could have a better shot. The basic one is Sturty did such a good job in the second quarter to break a tackle then charge towards goal then he didn’t quite execute. Then we get the next ground ball and we don’t quite execute the handball back to Tommy Emmett and if we do, it’s just an easy snap from the top of the goalsquare. We just probably rushed ourself in a few of those moments so it comes back to doing the work and trusting ourself. We’ll get better at executing that.
Last home game for the year. Three and seven at home if you exclude derbies. Any idea about why it hasn’t gone right for you in what is normally an advantage?
Easier to probably talk about the last three weeks. We’ve been sloppy forward of centre in all of those game including back to the Sydney game. Our execution forward of centre hasn’t been up to scratch. We need to go to work on our team D (defence). I don’t think we’ve defended our front half as well here as we have on other grounds interstate. We’ll have a deep dive on that in the off-season and try and fix a few things there. I think it comes back to execution. We’ve played some really good teams in really good form the last three home games. We need to pick up aspects in all parts of our game to be able to compete with the best teams.
What’s the difference in defending here – can you expand on that? What’s different about here than elsewhere?
Look at Geelong for instance. It’s a bit smaller, skinnier – we defend that ground really well. Here there’s a bit more space and against better teams you only have to get a couple of little things wrong and they’re at halfway. When we forced them long to a contest today we got the game played in our front half – when we allowed them to find forward marks, they were able to get field position so we just need to be really clear to the players with what those aspects are. A little bit of the last three weeks is the fact that we’ve played really good offensive teams as well – if you’re talking about the games that you’re talking about. We’ll get to that in the off-season.
How much did it hurt being one man down in that final term having obviously Banfield and O’Meara out.
They (Port) were having their injury issues as well so I don’t think that was a factor in the game.
What do we know about those injuries?
Looks like Jaeger’s done a little calf and Banfield’s hurt his AC joint. We’ll probably get it scanned tomorrow and see what grade it is.
Do you expect Jye to play next week, he looked a bit sore?
He got a hip pointer – I think he’ll be right.
