Geelong is without doubt the best team we’ve played this year, by a long long way. They beat us in most areas of the game and in the end we had to try and shut the game down. It’s nice to think we could keep at it and win the last quarter which gave us some sort of consolation and showed a good effort until the end, but they were way too good for us.
No doubt none of our runners could get the ball and I think Peter and Shaun and Rodan and Pearce struggled to get free ball. I thought that they won the hit-outs early that set up the game. Their start after half-time really blew us away. In the end we wanted to see if we could give some other players some opportunities.
I thought that Carlile kept going and working hard against Mooney. I thought that Gray in the centre square showed some really good signs and that was good for us. The challenge (thrown at the team) for the last quarter was, ‘let’s outscore them, let’s get something in regard to not capitulating and just falling over’. It’s away from home, it’s a tough task and it was good to think that they could do that.
To play Geelong twice in the first 12 weeks was always going to be difficult. We now look forward to next week and seeing if we can regroup and see if we can get back to winning again.
Are you disappointed with the forward line? Their defence seemed more vulnerable today without Scarlett, but you only scored seven goals for the game?
If you look at the inside-50’s you’d note that we only went in about 37 times or something and the forwards are going to be under massive pressure. There’s always going to be a question whether you play six forwards against them or you bring some of your forwards up the ground and let Milburn and Mackie set up the play and we tried one and that didn’t work, so we brought other players up the ground and that really makes it difficult for the forwards to score. It was a poor game all round.
Were you happy with the discipline you showed on the field?
Discipline is always questioned when you lose like that, but I thought that we generally attacked pretty hard at the ball. There were a few instances which we weren’t satisfied with. There was a real challenge about matching them in particular areas which they’re very good at. In the end we weren’t as good (as Geelong) but we were probably better than we have been.
Was that the plan?
You can’t play nice against Geelong, there’s no doubt about that. It was good to see Nick Lower come into the side, I thought that he added some strength around the side and we are going to keep adding and building on that. I know that our supporters back in Adelaide, while disappointed with the result, they’d like to see that our players are making some physical contact, there’s no doubt about that.
Did you go too far with it?
Too far is giving away a lot of free kicks, but I’m sure our supporters and certainly I would rather them play that way then stand off and not play physical.
What about the debate about contested ball, you didn’t win that again today?
We didn’t, but we certainly put Nick in to add to that and we’re trying to build up in that area. It’s a bit like wanting to kick straighter, or win more clearances, you don’t change it in one week. And once again, we will note that they’re a very very good side at it. It’s easy to analyse it compared to Geelong but we will keep pushing it along and keep training, so we can improve in that area.
Nothing has changed in the premiership table, you’re still six points out, but is that spot just becoming one where whoever gets it is just filling up the numbers?
It would probably be said that way, but whoever gets that spot would cherish it and I’m sure that whoever has to play them in the first round, they’ll still know they have to win that game to advance in the finals and if it’s a charity position, we’d be happy to claim it.
Can you turn it around and claim it? Most people still think this club is the best credentialed outside of the eight at the moment.
We’ve got a huge battle and huge mountain to climb. The players approached the week with keenness, knowing it was the biggest task in footy. If you go back and look at the last team that’s won here it was us, no other side has won down here and I doubt that any other side has played Geelong twice already this year. When you look at that, it was always going to be a difficult task, given they were that much better than any other team come grand final day last year.
Where’s the tipping line at the moment – what’s best for Chad Cornes physically and what’s best for the team?
Half-way through the game I was happy to say, ‘that’s it for Chad’. Second half of the game he showed some stuff and I’m sure that’s good for his head as much as anything else. We were just thinking about last year, and if you look at our best players from last year Chad and Peter and Shaun really haven’t delivered what they did last year, Ladey isn’t showing what he did last year and if your absolute best players aren’t delivering, it makes it more difficult for your younger ones who are still very much in the development phase.
There are still some question marks over Thomson where you say OP (osteitis pubis) was developing and people are still curious about why he’s still playing in the SANFL. Can you talk us through that?
When you have signs medically that say OP is flaring you give them a week or two off and then train them less and then look after them. You then see how it goes and I think the medical people were happy to go with that for a short period of time. If the incident flares up again and flares up again you then say that’s it and give them eight, or ten weeks off. We’ve had some great success (in dealing with OP) – with Shaun, Brogan and certainly Wilson early days. I very much back our medical staff to make the right judgement.
