Ken Hinkley on the Scott Lycett omission:
“In the last couple of weeks Scooter has been down on his own performance and what we expect and need from him.
“We feel like he’s been working out there pretty manfully and carrying his body around a little bit. We gave him a freshen up not that long ago and he came back and played pretty well.
“The overriding point here is that Pete Ladhams has been playing such good football in the SANFL - as we’ve said all year, if you play really, really good football we just got to give you an opportunity.
“If you’re off for a week you leave yourself open to that opportunity and that’s what has happened here. Scott is obviously disappointed and totally wouldn’t agree with our decision, but from our point of view we have given the opportunity to Pete who deserves that chance.
Hinkley on Ladhams’ SANFL form:
“Pete can’t be doing any more. He’s been killing it at Magpies level.
“I think everyone would appreciate his last game was quite special, and Scott’s form has been ok but there comes a time when the replacement has got to get a chance.
“I think we’ve done that pretty well all year, we’ve rewarded pretty consistent form below.
Hinkley on Ladhams’ AFL role:
“He will play a lot of ruck time.
“He has been selected as a replacement for Scott - who has typically played 60-70 per cent in the ruck - and that’s what we expect from Pete.
“We have also got Paddy in the side who can go and play in the ruck as well, and we often use Paddy a little differently, even with Scott in the side.
Hinkley on the challenge of finding more scoring options:
“That’s one of the challenges.
“We are trying to find how we can get the opportunity to score a little bit better. Some of the decisions we have made this week (at selection) are around that.
“We are doing our absolute best we can to give ourselves a chance (to score). It would be foolish to sit there and say we are getting it right and not do anything about it.
“We are continually making some movement in that area to try and fix it.
Hinkley on responding to media speculation:
“We appreciate that we haven’t been performing as a football club the way we need to be.
“That’s why all of that attentions comes on to us. If our performance was better, we wouldn’t have this situation that we have now.
“I’m not feeling any added pressure. I’m feeling the heat because our side isn’t performing at the level we want it to perform at because it’s a pretty important part of the year.
Hinkley on Essendon and the challenges they bring:
“We’ve seen their rebound game.
“Everyone is aware of their speed through the middle of the ground. They’ve got a great group. They’ve won seven or eight of their last nine games.
“They are a pretty good package overall. And as I said, their speed off rebound and their speed around the middle of the ground.
“They are a pretty dangerous side.
