How much of that was being better in the conditions or being a better team?
I think it gets back to having more contributors, I think we had 22 guys who executed their role for the team and committed to the contest all night, and as a result you get a team performance.

You must have been happy with Michael Walters’ performance?
Yes. I think a lot gets made of Sonny and the expectations on Sonny are high but since he’s come back from injury he hasn’t been in horrendous form like it’s made out to be during the week. Then tonight he got a bit of reward for effort but he hasn’t been in the worst form, he just hasn’t been hitting the scoreboard as much as he would like, we would like and everyone expects him to do I suppose. I thought he led our forward line very well, he helped it function a lot better than it has in the previous few weeks and he got some reward for effort which was good to see.

He said after the game that his comments towards the coaches box last week weren’t directed to you at all, what were your thoughts on how that played out and his performance tonight?
Well he bounced back really well. I just think his frustration got the better of him last week, and it’s hard to execute your game when you’re frustrated and your emotions boil over. I think he was a lot calmer tonight, he was committed to playing his role for the team which he did exceptionally well and as a result he got some reward for effort on the scoreboard. I couldn’t be prouder of the way he bounced back.

Did you feel at the time the comments were directed at you?
To be honest I didn’t see it and he got on the front foot with it after someone told him about it and that was the first I heard of it to be honest. He assured me it wasn’t directed at me, it was just his frustration at his performance and the previous play and of course I take his word for it, so we moved on pretty quick.

You mentioned the team performance. It was really slippery out there but all the big boys (Sean) Darcy and (Rory) Lobb did well with the contested ball and brought it to ground for the smaller players.
They were fantastic. I think we played with a lot better isolation down forward which gave them good one-on-ones. They competed really hard and we’ll just continue to work on our work forward of centre. We were dominating the inside 50s but we weren’t getting it on the scoreboard. We’ll continue to work on that, that’s probably the last piece of the puzzle at the moment. I’m really happy with the way the three talls (Rory Lobb, Matt Taberner and Jesse Hogan) functioned on a night that didn’t really suit them. We’ll continue to work on our mid-forward connection and hopefully get a bit of bang for buck.

Taylin Duman had nine disposals in the first quarter and had 15 at half time. But it looks like a bit of an ankle injury in the third? He showed some really good signs out there.
He did, he was great in the contest, great with his positioning. He shows really good composure with the footy and just looked like he rolled an ankle, I think early in the last or late in the third. We’ll rehab it, we’ve got a short turnaround with North Melbourne hopefully, it comes up as he had a good game.

You seemed to play to the outside of the ground a lot, did you work much on the conditions of the ground?
Not really. Not specifically that. What we want to do is be a bit braver with our ball movement. It’s something, to be honest, we’ve tried to instil in our players all year, is to play to their strengths, take the game on when the opportunity is there. We knew Melbourne collapse in a little bit from the open side and the open side of the ground would be on at times. I thought our players were brave and executed their skill and set up a lot of plays for us offensively.

It was your first game in Cairns and Cazalys. What did you make of the conditions?
It wasn’t the conditions we planned for when we came up here. We thought it would be hot, humid and slippery in that way. I love the surface, I love the ground. We’re one from one here so I’m pretty happy with that. We’ve really enjoyed our time in Queensland, earlier in the year at Metricon (in the Gold Coast) and now we’re enjoying our time up here. We’ve got a young playing group that are getting to spend a lot of time together and they’re loving their time here.