Obviously we’re delighted to finally get a win on the board. I thought there were some great efforts, a huge work ethic and work rate which didn’t get the scoreboard ticking over as well as it should have. We were probably 2 goals 10 at one stage and any other given day that would probably be 5 goals 7 or 6 goals 6, which kept West Coast probably a little interested, but when we got to the last quarter we played some brilliant football for 10 minutes.
Looking back, the pride of West Coast to not give in, that was just brilliant. Obviously we had two players (Troy Chaplin - concussion and Adam Thomson - shoulder) that were injured that we couldn’t rotate and they just kept going at it. Our guys were pretty tired in the end.
It’s been an emotional four weeks I suppose, first up trying to beat Geelong, and then up to Sydney and then back against Adelaide and then that’s three in a row lost, and then being miles up against Brisbane and losing that game, there’s a lot of emotional energy that goes there as well, so we’ll try and freshen up this week with a lot of anxiety off everyone’s back, including myself, and look forward to playing St Kilda.
I thought Brett Ebert as someone who’s been kicked around a bit, I thought he played a major role in us winning today. He mucked up a few things early – dropped chest marks and kicked balls out of bounds – but in the end he probably had four goal assists as well as the four goals he kicked himself, so it was a massive effort for him, for someone who was pretty low during the week and for the last few weeks and someone that’s missed pre-season.
I thought Boak, who came into the game very sick and we were really concerned whether we’d play him or not, I thought he had an outstanding game for someone as young as he is and someone that hasn’t experienced going into a game not a 100%, that was good.
Brogan worked well in the ruck. I thought Cassisi was outstanding in the centre square, the ability to cause a turnover and chase the ball was great. And if you look at Kane Cornes, his effort on Kerr, I think at half-time Kerr had five possessions and three of them were ineffective, and Daniel Kerr is just a wonderful player for West Coast.
All in all really pleased with our group and really pleased to sing the song and get back home. We’ve got a great record in Perth and we look forward to coming over here (in Round 10 to play Fremantle) and in fact there were some discussions as to whether we could play some other games over here (laughing).
Why did you start Brogan ahead of Lade?
Coxy is just an outstanding runner and Brogan is our equivalent in that regard and always has played that role against Dean (Cox).
I know you’ve got reason to be upbeat about getting a win, but the run-ons and the way you can’t stop them, what’s the issue there?
If you listen to a couple of the things I said in terms of the work-rate in the first three quarters was massive. Secondly, having two players out injured plus Boak being underdone coming into the game, and a lot of the anxiety I think, mix all that together.
Even the great shut-down team in Sydney, if you watched yesterday you’ll see they had five or six goals kicked against them very very quickly. Today’s footy is pretty difficult to shut down and a lot of teams are finding that opposition teams are getting big runs in particular quarters. Certainly this year, the third quarter against Sydney and the last quarter against Brisbane have been terrible for us and cost us the chance to win.
Is that becoming the new challenge for coaches Mark, being able to stop the run-ons of opposition teams?
It’s certainly part of the challenge, obviously we’d like them to kick it better, make better choices, there’s a whole range of things, but that’s certainly one that hasn’t happened too much in the past, that many goals scored in such a quick time.
I think if you look at it, and it has happened to us in the past, and it certainly happened to us last week, free kicks from stoppages kill you. Now go back and look at them and see what happens immediately afterwards, people go everywhere. It’s very hard to find your player, it’s very hard because of the reaction of the players who run forward and catch you off side, you are thinking you’re going that way and all of the sudden it goes the other way. This is not just us, but yesterday if you looked at the Geelong v Sydney game…(the same thing happened)…and all of a sudden goals can be scored within 10 seconds of each other and the mindset changes very quickly - you feel that you’re in the game and now you’re trying to hold the game.
So that’s a big challenge for all of us coaches to try and do that now. Now I’m not blaming anyone about the frees, that’s not the point I’m making, but the point I’m making is that when they occur, gee it’s hard to get people who are running one way to get back the other way because you’re caught metres away from where your man is.
Are you giving away more frees than ever before?
Yes, I think we are the worst in the AFL, so maybe we’ll have to get Jeff (Gieschen) over and have a chat to him again, we might have one chat per year and we haven’t had that chat yet, but I have a look at the stats and I think we’ve had the most, the differential of free kicks for and against again today.
… did you hold the ball up more today?
In 2004 when we won the flag we thought we were very good and if you look at our record of winning close games it’s been outstanding. This year we’ve lost two close games and we’re not very good at it. We have an inexperienced backline and a lot different team than we had in 2004. If you look through the names there’s not too many there, so it’s a process of teaching, and understanding and reading the situation.
The one person with the ball is only one, there’s another 17 people who should be doing something depending on where the ball and teaching all of those people under a stressful situation is tough. Did we do more? Probably no. In a good situation we will say ‘that’s enough, we’re happy to go in five goals up and not let them have the last two or three goals’. It just depends, there’s no set distance apart, it’s just when it feels right.
Is this something you will address with the team, because two times in a row you’ve let a lead slip?
No, we won this one. That’s a fact, we won this one. We won by four goals in Perth against a West Coast team that came, where did they come last year, third, so just understand we’ll wrap this as a win we really savour and we don’t underestimate West Coast at all. You can do it and you can do what you like and write it up as a non-event. When we lost by 9 points against Geelong everyone called that a non-event as well, but if you look at the results since you’d say it was probably a pretty good game.
In the context of the season, what does this mean?
We thought we were the best 0-4 team ever and we’re taking that on board and we’re moving forward. We’ve had a pretty tough draw if you look at who we’ve played, I think four out of the five teams we’ve played, played in the finals last year, I’m not sure how many others (have had a similar draw)…we’ve played the premiers, the team that finished third, Adelaide are a very tough team, Sydney won the premiership about 2 years ago, there’s some pretty solid teams there and obviously Brisbane are a very proud team that got their forwards going, you know a year ago Bradshaw didn’t play, he kicked six against us I think.
So if you did a ranking system without premiership points, where would you be?
Exactly where we are at the moment. We’re not over-emphasising it, but we’re probably not going to talk ourselves down as much as other people will. We’ll be measured in our analysis and certainly understanding that we’ve got a very young side, that we’re progressing. A lot of them are playing their second year having come from a very short pre-season, you know there’s a lot of factors that we factor in that others may dismiss. We are where we are and we have a hell of a big game against St Kilda, they played pretty well last night.
Is that a difficulty from backing up last year, because it was such a big turnaround from 12th to second?
That’s part of it, but the other side of it is that we had five or six weeks less pre-season than nearly everyone else as well, not Geelong, but we probably didn’t have 13 or 14 players in the All-Star game coming up like Geelong either. I was looking, good to see Mackie back in form, and Stokes, good selection to put him in the team.
How about Adam Thompson, how did he play?
I thought he played particularly well. Unfortunately he got smashed in the arm, but luckily it’s not broken, so I look forward to him playing next week.
How do you see West Coast?
West Coast are a team that’s building, they’re giving opportunities to younger players – there are for or five that I don’t really know – which is good for them. Judd and Cousins aren’t there, and they’re superstars, and if you think you can just replace them by putting someone else in there, well it just doesn’t happen. After 2004 everyone wondered what happened to us the next year, Carr didn’t play for us, and Hardwick didn’t play, and there was quite a few, Schofield come over here, things change in your line-up and you have to give other people time to take those spots.
They’d be very impressed by McKinley in the forward line, obviously he took some marks there late. I know Brad Ebert played terrific yesterday so they’d be happy to get him in the side as well. They’re developing and there’s inconsistencies with young players and I’m sure they’ll get it back together. They had a huge whack from everyone last year and to their credit and John’s credit, the way they could keep going with all that stuff that was happening, was just brilliant. You know maybe that took a toll as well that everyone underestimates.
Why can’t defenders get free kicks for hands in the back?
I’m not here to umpire the game.
