What are your emotions after that?
They’re at a high level. The adrenaline was rushing. I thought we dominated the last quarter and we were just trying to convert. Overall, I thought it was a great contest, two exciting teams. I thought our ball moment was, at times, electric out of our back half. I thought it was exciting, I thought they were exciting. Coaches and fans I think enjoyed it and we’re rapt to get the result. In the end I think we deserved it, we dominated the last quarter, dominated ground ball, dominated entry, we just (needed) a little bit of composure at times. But they were very good, they never gave up. We feel we have played incredibly consistent footy. I think on quarters won, us and Brisbane were fourth in the league. Not that it’s just about that but it’s not a bad indicator of consistency – I think it was Geelong, GWS, Brisbane and us. So we know we’ve been consistent, our contested ball’s been strong (as has) our stoppage work and our defence. Our attack’s been a bit inconsistent, but we learned some valuable lessons, particularly out of last week, we were disappointed as a coaching group we didn’t help the players on the run but we learn and we implemented tonight and I thought it was a big step forward for us, so the challenge is to keep going.
What did you think of Walters’ shot on goal after the final siren?
Well he’s a pretty special Aboriginal player isn’t he? If we want to drill in, and we want to segment our players – it was the Sir Doug Nicholls round – first and foremost he is a proud Aboriginal man. A Noongar man. The Sir Doug Nicholls Round is an important recognition of the struggles and also the contributions Aboriginal and Indigenous men bring to our great game. And Australian Rules… there’s no greater vehicle in Australia for equality and learning and growth. We don’t always get it right in our game but our game gets a lot right. So to be able to express themselves, I thought all our Aboriginal players tonight were outstanding. I thought Wilson was incredible, Brad Hill, I thought Joel Hamling got to work, Alex Pearce, Brandon Matera and Michael Walters - who is a consistently great player. I thought it (his shot on goal) was a bit of a pop-gun at the end, but in the end it went post high – we never doubted him. And really I think we acknowledge (Charlie) Cameron was electric as well.
Did you sense they all wanted to have a big game on such an occasion?
I think our Aboriginal players always do, they always want to play well. They are part of the Dockers. You can’t get caught up in the emotion, you need to honour the respect by giving great effort and I thought we did that as a group.
How significant was Bradley Hill’s run today?
It’s significant every week, he plays like that every week really. He has always been running, we just haven’t utilised him in the manner we should. Now we’re utilising our runners and we’ve always wanted to play with penetration but we’re using our runners now. We have a big test next week against Collingwood, they are an extremely talented team. I think they are eight and two, we go to the MCG off a short break. We’re really looking forward to the challenge and testing ourselves against another quality team.
How much faith do you have in your group? You are the number one last quarter team in the AFL.
I thought we started really well, we still have a lot of growth. Jesse Hogan is still coming to hand, it was a tough night for him, I didn’t think we delivered it well to him. In the last quarter we brought him higher up the ground and he got involved and had some really significant moments. We’ve rebuilt a backline and a front half, we’ve sprinkled around Fyfe and Mundy in the midfield with Lobb, Bradley Hill and Ed Langdon. We’ve got to keep building our list and adding the exact quality that we want. Brett Bewley debuted tonight. We’re going to have challenges but the growth is undeniable, our consistency of effort, our losing margins are low and quite easily with some better ball movements or conversion we would have another win as well. The reality is we’re 5-5, probably sit about seventh. We’re a team off a rebuild and we’re going forward. There is great dynamic here, it’s really exciting. It’s exciting for me.
Are you happy with Jesse Hogan’s effort?
Yes, I am. It’s tough being a key forward, it’s really tough. It was a greasy night, I thought his contest was strong. I thought Brennan Cox’s second half was better, Adam Cerra forward was a win for us. Walters always goes forward to kick goals. It was a tough contest, all credit to Brisbane, they really challenged us in a lot of areas but in the end we found a way out of the middle in the last quarter, they are a great clearance team, I think in the end we probably won that battle around the ground. We were exciting from our back half using the ball, but there are plenty of things to improve upon. I thought Nathan’s leadership was unbelievable tonight.
It was the first time in Hogan’s career that he hasn’t had a kick. What can you do to get him more involved in the game?
It is probably on us as coaches, we had to bring him up a bit earlier, but I thought sometimes as a key forward just bring it to ground and then we will continue to pat you on the back. He will come…he kicked one-four the week before and we could’ve hit him a few times. For minimal pre-season where he is going to end up in eight years is going to be unbelievable for this club, I have no doubt.
The electric ball movement, the running bounces, and the courage to take the game wide is that what you want to see from everyone?
Yes, it doesn’t always unfold that way. We have been trying to do it and sometimes if you want to play with penetration sometimes you can get a bit ‘bombie’ and that’s what we got. We thought it was a horrible defeat last week, we did a lot right, but if we had of used the ball like that in those opportunities we think we would’ve won the game, but if your aunty had whiskers she would be your uncle as someone used to say.
