We really disappointed everyone today. I thought we probably played all over Carlton for a fair time of the night without getting any return. We missed too many goals there for a while and kept Carlton in the game, but to their credit, they kept coming.
We’re getting into a bit of a routine of being up with three minutes to go and then losing those games. We challenged ourselves about mental toughness tonight, without any doubt, and we certainly can’t stand up and say that we are.
It’s a disappointing thing at our club but we will continue to push and get back. I know people will consider as an excuse that we’ve come back from Perth and all that sort of stuff, but we’re not looking for excuses at all.
The game was there to be won. It was a really important game for our club and right now we’d be kidding ourselves if we think we’re going to be playing finals.
You mention being mentally weak. How do you overcome that, or how do you instil mental toughness in your players as a coach.
Some of our decisions that were made under pressure were just shocking and nothing like what we’d like to think our players would do. They’ll need to look at it, and reassess what they’d do in that situation. All you can do is get in that situation and see if you pass or fail. It’s very difficult to recreate those situations. In the end I think Robbie Gray if he’d kicked the goal and not hit the post, we would probably have won, so it’s as close as that.
We were anticipating that Carlton would be a very credible side to play against, as I said during the week. To be in front and to lose is hugely disappointing for everyone.
You said on Friday that this game was about shaking off tags. Which one have you put on yourself now?
I’m not sure. We certainly don’t win last quarters I guess.
Does that fit with the other ones – chokers, you’re soft, you’re mentally weak, fragile under pressure…
Certainly tonight you could probably put a tick next to all of them.
The term choker, does that hurt, because it’s not really the tradition of the Port Adelaide Football Club.
Over the years we’ve been winning lots of close games, this year we haven’t, so as I’ve said, it’s ticked off pretty easily this year.
You’ve tried a few things. You’ve tried basketball, golf, indoor cricket. Are you at your wits end as to what you can do to inspire this group?
No. Not at all. They’re a group that’s pretty resilient. Things haven’t gone to plan particularly, but we keep working hard.
Hopefully (Brett) Ebert and (Shaun) Burgoyne will be back next week. To be missing our best clearance player and our one and two goal-kickers is a big challenge for you at any time. When they come back, you get on the plane, you play someone else, it’s really important for us. Chad had one of his worst games ever and to be fair Chad’s injured, and we’re playing Chad injured, so we have to reassess whether we do that.
The dropping of Jacob Surjan, was that symbolic in a sense that maybe some of the younger players just expect to get a game regardless, and maybe something like with Jacob going back to the SANFL it sparks the group to say that he’s not a lay down every week, and could that stretch further across the side?
Well we thought that Paul Stewart went okay last week and we were happy to give him the role. He got cleaned up tonight, but we knew that Paul would drop off and help out. Surj does that but it was just the match-ups that we were looking for. We’re happy to say that no-one has gold passes, but at the same time we’ve got a long developing list and there will be some inconsistencies and we will go with players for so long, and if someone else is up and running and playing okay, we will give them the opportunity.
One of the things you said last year was that there was a lot of blue sky. Where is it now?
The blue sky is still there. That’s the truth. I believe that the group has a lot of improvement in it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come perfectly like people anticipate or hope for.
It’s a hard struggle and I suppose some of the greatest players, who have been through ups, downs, struggle, hurt and loss, if they can get through it they recover to be a much stronger and more resilient player.
Do you accept the debate we had here in the room a few weeks ago that you’ve actually gone backwards and you’re behind where you were?
We’re behind where we were last year in terms of wins and losses, but there are a lot of young players (improving). I thought Alipate Carlile was terrific tonight and Travis Boak has been playing very well. I thought (Justin) Westhoff’s first half was probably the best he’s played for the club. (Danyle) Pearce is getting back into some form and (Steven) Salopek’s has had a brilliant year. We look to those players and you think that they’re coming on. I thought Pettigrew played pretty good tonight and Chaplin played pretty good, except for a few things.
The young players that you’re talking about, we’d say, ‘they’re moving along’. It’s always a challenge to get them all to play well on the same night and obviously it didn’t happen tonight.
Is the issue of contested ball a real one, you lost it again tonight?
It’s a very easy stat to throw out, but I’m pretty sure at half-time it was 18 to 28 (Carlton’s way) and we were up by a fair bit so it’s only significant when we lose, because I’m sure no-one talked about it at half-time.
Do you think you’ve done damage to yourself now in that teams, if they’re close at half-time, they know they’ve got you, or even if they’re not close, apparently?
Well last week we won, and against St Kilda I think we were close and won that game, so at times it has, but we weren’t close against Brisbane and loss that. Right now, tonight, it will make a lot of sense to some people.
Does this result and the one you had against Brisbane earlier this year, does it create mental scars that take a long time to heal?
You do carry games where you’re up considerably and lose, you do carry those games a fair way. But there’s been the opposite happen as well quite a lot, but you don’t probably carry them as much.
You were in the rooms with the team for around 50 minutes after the game, can you elaborate what you actually said.
We talked about some of the things we didn’t do. The players were pretty open and honest with each other saying ‘didn’t think that was good’ and questioning ‘why were we doing that when that’s not what we normally do’ and people like Chad thought that it was his worst game ever, so don’t think that they’re hiding, they’re very much being honest with each other, which is a fair start to getting it better.
Does it open up the possibility with Chad to take a week or two out to make sure the finger is absolutely right?
It’s not his finger.
Do you think you and your assistants make any coaching errors tonight?
Honestly, we continually assess what we do. We will assess it tonight over four hours when we watch the tape, and then we’ll assess it when we get together (tomorrow) and with the leaders. We continually assess it. We thought we had the match-ups pretty right to three-quarter time and I would think most people would agree. The message at three-quarter time was nothing more than ‘let’s keep what we’re doing’. It was very much an acknowledgement of a winning third quarter. We set them the challenge of winning the last quarter.
Were you aware of the possibility of folding at three-quarter time?
I’ve been in footy a long time and there’s an amazing amount of possibilities in the game. The possibility of someone getting injured and coming off on a stretcher, well it’s there, but I’m not thinking too much about it. At three-quarter time we went out with a very positive message, it wasn’t warning them about falling in a heap. I certainly couldn’t see that prior to three-quarter time. As a team, having come back from Perth a lot of times, we understand it’s going to be a challenge for us, especially when one or two of your midfielders aren’t playing as well as they might. So it’s there somewhere, but we certainly didn’t highlight the fact.
Did you have any understanding from the players at all that any of them thought the game was in the bag?
No, no, no. That’s completely wrong. They were very animated and very focused and saying all the right things. I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard our players talk about the game being in the bag at three-quarter time, ever.
Does it create a puzzle for you when at three-quarter time of the Brisbane game you admitted that the players might have thought you were a bit negative, where as this time you say you took the other approach, you were positive and all of that, and neither of those approaches worked.
Each game is completely different. You can join them together if you like, but they’re not relevant to each other. The situation was that we knew what was in front of us and we approached the last quarter with all of the resolve that would get us the win. Without doubt we fell in a heap. There was not much run in our side in the last quarter.
If finals are kidding yourself, what do you do for the rest of the season?
We keep improving. We keep trying to improve. It’s a long journey to get back to where we were, but it’s a journey we’re willing to continue with.
You built it up last year as getting from premiership to premiership as quickly as possible. Is the reality that there is no quick fix?
It’s very difficult. Things have to go right. Last year, you’ll see that we acknowledged that we won a lot of close games last year and that we were probably ahead of schedule, but things went well and we certainly take the opportunity and if you look at the games, we actually beat all of the other teams, we actually beat them. I think we won 18 games last year, so it’s a fair record. This year hasn’t worked as we’d like. All the close games have probably gone the wrong way, except for last week which doesn’t read as a close game because we kicked away.
Is the reality that you haven’t been able to deal with the expectation? Last year there was none.
Last year, you’re right, no one expected anything, but we did. We had expectation on ourselves and we kept pushing them and raising the bar each week, to do better and see what we can achieve. I think from when we made the grand final in 2004, you can probably compare us to Brisbane who played also, and our form has been a lot quicker to rebound than Brisbane, and having got Bradshaw back and a few of their young players going, they look like they’re on the rise now. You’ll only be able to compare in two or three years time.
After this performance tonight do you have to admit that you’ve got the wrong mix of players out there?
Well, we’d have a better mix with Shaun Burgoyne and Brett Ebert, but you have to make do with what you can. The draft is a thing to go through. If you look at the mix that Carlton had out there – they’ve got lots of first round draft picks, Stevens for nothing, Judd last year, so they got some free kicks along the way and some players from being down the bottom. It’s difficult when you’re up near the top and playing finals all the time to get those good players and the fact is you have to work even harder to develop the players you have.
Are you concerned with the way your players handle we weather?
Maybe we are. It did rain for the first three quarters probably and we were in front quite considerably. You lose the game so you say it’s a wet day, but we were in front for most of the day.
Carlton seemed a lot more direct in the last quarter than perhaps you guys were.
Our run on ball and our run around the packs didn’t seem anywhere near what it was. I think we lost stoppages 14 to 4 in the last quarter, and that’s going to kill you.
