I’m sure all the Port Adelaide people, although disappointed with the result, will be enthused by the fact we played tough competitive footy. We didn’t get the result, but I thought it was a pretty good turn around from last week. But we march on and look forward to playing Brisbane.
So you see it as a step forward?
No doubt. It was a disappointing week last week. We had to come out and (show something). It was an exciting game all night. Both clubs kept going at it. Someone got two or three goals in front and the others kept going.
We’ve lost two games by less than 10 points (to Geelong and now Adelaide), which certainly hasn’t been our way. And they all add up at the end of the year, so we have to do something about it now.
Rightly or wrongly Mark, all your talk during the week was about your players’ mental and physical toughness. Did you get the response from the players that you were looking for?
We didn’t actually talk about it, you guys did. They played pretty good tonight, so it was fine.
What did you make of the last play with Westhoff and Symes?
I couldn’t see it. I thought it was our free kick actually. I think we lost the free kicks.
Will you ask them (AFL) about it. Will you query what it was?
No, we move on. We had a lot of free kicks against us. Free kicks at stoppages absolutely killed us, because I think the Crows take off very quickly and open up the ball going forward. We will consider how many free kicks were at stoppages.
Are you asking that of yourself or of other people?
No, we will just look at ourselves.
What’s the key factor in losing the close games this year?
Not kicking enough goals. That would be the key factor. I looked at the stats, as I’m sure you’ve all done, I think they kicked 3.1 from set shots and we kicked 3.4 I think. You have to kick those set shots when you get the ball. I think Vince kicked it about 80 metres for a set shot, which was not a bad effort and we missed a couple that were a bit easier than that, so we have to keep working on it.
When you talk about not kicking enough goals. You’ve had an agenda of playing with speed and kicking goals. Did you go out with that attitude in this game?
Yes.
You seemed to hold it up a heck of a lot.
We held it up in the last parts of the quarter, when they had a lot of players in front of us. All they were going to do was to wait for us to kick the ball to them and fast-break over the back, so if they weren’t going to come and pick us up, we were going to hold onto the ball, which they did in the last couple of minutes of the game.
I think the Crows were limited to about 17 rotations in the last half due to injury, I think you had about 39 rotations. How much of an advantage can that be?
Sometimes it gets confusing for the players as well, so it might be an advantage not to have so many, so the players know they have to do a job and get out there and just stick at it. We had some players that were obviously not a 100 percent, but ours played.
Did you expect your guys to run over the top of them more?
You’d like to think so. If you look at some of their goal kickers – Edwards and McLeod and Goodwin all nailed them when they needed them to. One day they’re going to be too old to play, but I’m not sure when that is.
What did you think of your players’ skill level tonight?
Inside-50 kicks weren’t very good. You can look at as glass is half full or empty. From last week to this week it was a hell of a lot better and that’s the attitude we take – we’re moving forward. We will keep learning from the experiences and get a win soon.
The Crows still had a considerable advantage in the contested ball in the second half. Is that still an issue?
I didn’t notice that. If you’re sitting there watching the game and thinking that’s what’s happening, well, I didn’t.
What would you say to your supporters right now, many of them will be driving home?
I’d say thanks for coming. It was nice to have them here. They’d be disappointed but they’ve seen a very, very competitive game between two sides that were really trying to win.
Do you feel damaged for what you have to achieve to get back in the top 8?
Who would know, only time will tell. It’s not the greatest star, but we actually looked at the draw before the start of the year and were very much aware that this could happen. There’s no guarantees when you’re playing top sides – we’ve played all top eight sides from last year – I’m not sure how many other clubs have done that. Even Geelong today played Melbourne who finished right down the bottom, and they played Essendon too (who didn’t make the finals), so if you look at the comparison of the top two sides (from last year), I’m trying to think where they finished.
It’s not an easy draw but obviously we get to play other sides soon and we look to continue to improve. Nothing’s certain in footy, you have to get over there and kick the goals and win enough ball to beat the opposition. No one gives you a game. I think if we’d won the game today though we’d have been in the top eight. So we’re one kick away from being in the top eight.
There will be a lot of talk about some of the incidents in the game (bumps and collisions). How did you see them?
One week you get told off for not doing bumps and the next you’re told off for doing too many. It’s amazing, isn’t it!
As far as I was concerned it was terrific. They went hard at the ball. We saw blokes colliding into our blokes and us colliding into their blokes, that’s why people come and put their bums on seats and look forward to the Showdowns every time we play them. It’s fantastic footy.
You got a lot of walk-in rushed points, was that part of the game plan or is that just one of those things that happened?
You have to give the players on the field the responsibility and enough understanding of what’s happening up the field. Sometimes you walk in and you get a break. I’m not sure, but I think we may have kicked a goal straight from a kick-in from rushing a point, but if we didn’t we certainly took it inside-50 a few times.
Tactically that’s not a bad idea at the right time. It’s a lot to do with what’s happening up the field, you’re not going to walk in there if there’s no pressure, so Adelaide created a little of that as well. I’m sure they’d do the same thing given the same circumstances.
Players become very equipped with reading the circumstances up the field when they’ve got the ball. It’s a pretty full-on decision making game AFL, 36 players out on the field there, you’ve got the ball. It looks pretty easy sitting in the grandstand, but we trust the players to make as many good decisions as they can.
Are you worried about the form of your goal-kickers form last year.
Daniel Motlop played terrifically well. He was actually sick coming into the game, we were unsure if he was going to play, but he put his hand up to play, which was good, and he kicked a couple of goals. Tredders (Warren Tredrea) is playing better than he did last year at this time, so that’s good. Westy (Justin Westhoff), I thought last week he was pretty good actually, but he probably didn’t do too much tonight, and Adelaide’s defence is always pretty tough. And Ebo (Brett Ebert) probably hasn’t played as well this year, but I’m sure he will get back onto it. He had a pretty limited pre-season as you may recall. He probably just fell over the line last year in the finals series, he was pretty sore, so he didn’t do much pre-season, so he might take a few weeks to pick up again based on that. As soon as you cross the line everyone thinks everyone’s 100 percent, but I’m sure no one ever is.
