On building towards Round 1:
"The win was obviously good for us but we came here trying to play a style of football that we’ve practiced all summer and we had more opportunities tonight to see that for longer parts of the game.
"The whole pre-season's about round one, two, three and four. As I said to the boys tonight, we weren't expecting perfection, we just wanted to make sure we are heading in the right direction."
On Charlie Dixon:
"The boys like him. We like him and there's a lot about Charlie to like.”
"He played 'Port Adelaide' footy when he first came on the ground – bash, crash, 'get out of my way, if you get in my way I'm probably going to hurt you if I have to, but my teammates matter and whatever I have to do for them I'll do'.
"I said to keep expectations down on Charlie before tonight. We just wanted him to get through the game and he's pulled up really well which is really important. But he does play the footy that Port people love.”
On the length of the NAB Challenge:
“There’s not a need to extend the pre-season in any way. If there was an opportunity to get another (Premiership season) game or two in, I would take that if I was in charge – but I’m not.
“(On whether he’s happy with a three-game NAB Challenge) Personally I don’t think you need that much. If you’ve got five months to get ready, I don’t think you need another what works out to be five weeks where you play three NAB Challenge games. From our point of view, we always play to the terms we’re told to by the AFL and we respect the AFL for that reason.”
On Matt Lobbe’s game:
“[Lobbe] was really strong, I thought. I did hear some people talking before I came in that they didn’t think he was that strong, but I thought as the game went on I thought he dominated hitouts for us. That’s what he does, he’s a worker, he keeps going."
"He’s not a 25-touch player by any means, but he’s just a real worker and I think in the end he had a significant win in the hitouts to advantage and that’s what we expect from him – a tough, big man’s contest."
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