Where did the game change, where did it go wrong?
Yes, we wanted to jump into the game and clearly thought we were really strong in the contest. Our pressure was good early, the second quarter we just lost some critical contests, they got their ball movement going a couple of times and we just put our backs under too much pressure. I think one of the first goals they went from one end of the ground around us and from there they got on top of the centre bounce, so it was probably around the contest they started getting on top. We knew if they got quick supply to their forwards it was going to put our backs under a lot of pressure, and we did that in the second quarter unfortunately. So it was starting to slip around the contest more than anything I would have thought.
It would have been nice to have some more options down in defence for you up against Josh Kennedy?
Yes but that’s our situation at the moment. It’s great experience for Brennan Cox, I think he’s played maybe five or six games as a back in his career and he is playing against a 250-gamer so it’s great experience for him. There’s times when we should’ve helped him out, there’s times when he could have done better but he is going to have to take his lesson tonight. Clearly beaten but hopefully he can learn from it, improve on it and get better. It was across the board tonight they we played against a more mature team, with a team that’s played the same system for a number of years and it’s a good system and it’s proved successful. We are seven weeks into ours (system) and we’ve got some young players but they need to learn, and they need to learn quick because we’ve got another challenge next week.
Matt Taberner looked like such a threat early, was it a lack of supply that helped dry him up? That seemed to be the big change when he went out of the game.
It’s based on the back of field position. I thought they defended a lot better as a team. They stifled our ball movement. Early we were able to get the ball in quicker to one on ones and as the game when on they were able to stifle us and force us to go long and skinny a bit too often and that allowed them to support each other. I thought Tabs and Lobby both did a pretty good job down there and took some marks inside 50. They would’ve liked to finish a bit better in the last quarter, but I thought they provided a pretty strong contest and nullified McGovern and Barras’s aerial threat as well.
When Tom Cole ran down Matt Taberner in the goal square did you see that as a significant moment and is that a mistake Matt won’t make again do you think?
Well clearly he’d like that back, I don’t think it was a significant moment in the game. We were in front early in the second quarter so it’s just one of those things in the game, it’s one moment. I thought Tabs moved on really well though and kept on providing an option and was probably one of our better players in the end.
What’s it like as a coach knowing Taberner was in such good form early, but the supply has dried up.
It’s disappointing. As I said I thought once we got it in long and gave both Lobby and Tabs an opportunity one on one, I thought they looked really dangerous. It’s just we couldn’t get it done at ground level often enough on the back of some of their good contests and I thought their defensive system and their ability to find a mark and take the sting out of the game was a highlight of their game and something that we could never really get on our terms.
Michael Frederick, he looks like a good get. What did you make of his debut?
I thought he was great, he played his role, held width, he looked really good when he had the ball in his hands. Clearly, he’s got some attributes that are going to hold him in good stead at AFL with his speed and ball use. It was a good debut and he’s only going to build on that.
What did you try with your young midfielders today with the skipper out, did you set any challenges for those guys?
Not really to start the game, we just wanted to go head to head and see how we matched it. As the game went on, we thought (Tim) Kelly was influential in that first quarter I think he had eight or nine possessions so we sent Caleb Serong to him just to give some experience on a really quality AFL player and I thought he did a good job and it brought him into the game. They have so many stars all over the ground, haven’t they? So we’ll take some lessons out of tonight and look to get better with another good challenge next week.
Taylin Duman’s injury looked like a wrist injury at one point, what can you tell us there?
It looks like he’s sprained his thumb. He got it strapped up and went back on so were hoping that’s going to be okay. No other injuries that I know of at this stage, it looks like there are a few sore boys, but it looks like we’ve escaped anything serious.
Is there anyone you’re hoping to get back for the next game?
We’ll have a look at it, Sam Sturt will be close, Reece Conca will be close off that hamstring, so we’ll just have to see how they get through training. We’ve got an eight day break again so it gives us a little bit of time, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
It was a tough time for your fans tonight, have you got a message for them?
It’s just stick with us. They’re a lot more experienced than us, they’ve been playing their system for a lot of years now, they’ve returned to some really good form, we just need to improve. I’m not really worried about the next Derby, I’m only worried about next week and I just spoke to the players then about making sure we learn from these experiences and we’re about growth and making sure that we build week in, week out, so we’ve got a challenge against Geelong here next week and we need to improve on what we dished up tonight.
