How do you rate that? You obviously fought back well (after quarter time), you got six of the next eight goals and even when (Nat) Fyfe kicked the last one you were a sneaky sort of chance, how do you judge the good with the bad?
I think that’s it. We’ve got to show our players what our good footy looks like. It has been a bit of a theme for us across the year, we haven’t been able to string it together for four quarters. I don’t think you are going to control a game of AFL for four quarters, I don’t think any team really does that, you just need to hold up when the opposition has control. We were getting beaten in the midfield, and our backs weren’t holding up at all, and more or less contributing to the issue, rather than trying to fix the problem. You’re right, (Fremantle fought back in) the middle two quarters, and we put some pressure on them in the last. Fyfe nails that tackle and gets holding the ball, and for whatever reason we take advantage and miss it. I think that would have been 15 points if Fyfe goes back and kicks it. We did a good job, and then we unravelled a little bit late when the game got out of reach. We need to review the start and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
What was the catalyst for the fightback in the middle two quarters?
First of all, we evened up the contest and got on top of the contest which allowed us to control the speed of the game. In the first quarter, (we were) minus 20 contests, we allowed them to get speed in the game and it was very difficult to defend. Whereas in the middle two quarters, and towards the end of the first quarter, we had some shots on goal that we missed. We were able to control the speed of the game through owning the contest. I didn’t think our ball movement was an issue at all throughout the night, we were moving the ball well. We looked dangerous forward of centre but we just couldn’t get our hands on it early. It always came back to the contest. We got that right in the middle two quarters in particular.
Was it that you got some of the match ups right in defence?
It was. We lost too easy on their high half-forwards, in particular (Sam) Powell-Pepper. We got that match up right as the game went on, we changed that up. (Charlie) Dixon was the other one that was giving us massive headaches early in the game. ‘Coxy’ (Brennan Cox) changed his positioning up a little bit and changed his mentality up a little bit. I thought his game after quarter time was really strong. So a few match ups, but probably just an attitude change. We probably put a bit more pressure on the ball which helped those backs.
The inaccuracy has been an issue. Are you working your way through that?
The scoreboard would say no, we haven’t improved. We need to continue to work away at that. We are creating enough opportunity for ourselves ahead of the ball. Today we weren’t able to catch up because of our inaccuracy, but in other games, it’s not being able to make the most of the momentum through poor accuracy. It’s a hindrance to us at the moment and we have to continue to work away at it and get it right because it’s a really important part of the game, as we all know.
The skipper has been emblematic with that struggle, what do you make of his struggles? He was really important tonight but again a bit inaccurate and seems to be a bit frantic when he takes the ball.
I’ve got no issues with him trying to snap that ball, I just think he rushed it, so he just has to make sure he does the right thing by the team in that moment. Slow the game down a little bit, allow us to set up before taking that snap. I don’t think that’s been the issue, the snaps on goal, because he kicked a couple of nice goals. If he goes back and has that shot in the last quarter when he laid that nice tackle, he’s four shots on goal and hopefully three goals, so I think it’s a team issue rather than just his issue. He’s working hard at it. I would just like to see him back himself in that moment in particular, but it’s a team issue, not just his issue.
(Sam) Switkowski’s injury?
He has some awareness in his hamstring, so he tried to test it out and just had some awareness there. There wasn’t any point taking a risk on him. He’s had some issues in the past with that so we will just have to get him scanned and see what that scan shows us first, it’s not overly serious.
Is there any clarity on what happens next week?
No, we haven’t had any assurance on what happens next week. We would assume that with Western Bulldogs getting out of Melbourne that they will come to Perth at some stage during the week and play us there.
You turn at 5-6 Justin, are you confident there’s more games to be had in the second half of the season?
There are definitely more games to be won. We’ve just got to make sure we really focus on the process and keep working on our footy. I don’t think that anyone has got any doubts that our best is good enough, it’s just our ability to sustain that. We have still got so many things in our game we can work on and get better at. I’m excited for what we can do in the second half of the year.
