The Evolution of the Team

“I don't think there's much merit in going back 12 months ago because we were different them and we knew we were being deliberately different, one in terms of personal that we've proactively brought in. Young guys that, when you look at it, I think they were good decisions to get in those guys in, they're going to be really important for us even in the short term, but long term they're really promising.

“But in terms of our overall game it's hard to tell early in the year. It depends how you rate Carlton and Collingwood. If you take the view that they're good teams, you could lose to them in Round 17 or Round 2 and it doesn't really matter. I get that negative momentum can throw you off a little bit but we're miles away from that. I thought we were a work in progress mid-way, three quarters of the way through last year as well and got our game going.”

On the Midfield 

“I thought we were really average early and good late. We try to make sure that we try and take a step back and look at it from a few different perspectives and try and see the whole picture rather than just getting caught in, 'we were really smacked in possession early'. We thought a lot of that is an easy fix, we contributed to that a lot, we gave the ball back and rushed the ball into positions where they were set. It looked a little bit like last week to be honest. It would have looked super if it came off but it's a disaster if it goes the other way. A lot of those 50/50 calls or plays hurt us, but we've got some players in there that we're certain will get better and we've got new guys in there where the chemistry is not quite where we think it will be later in the season. 

Injury Update

Yeah (Sam De Koning’s) in the wars.. and there’s been a few that are a bit like that. It’s like Murphy’s Law a little bit. Last week is a good example. Four defenders we’d love to have in the team, but we lost De Koning for half an hour and we lost him for 20 minutes tonight, so he’s just had a bit of bad luck but the good news is he’s ok. (Zach) Tuohy is ok, Tom Hawkins will get better, and again, it’s a really good example. No one was sitting in Geelong colours thinking he’d be at his best in Round 2, he’ll get better. And there are quite a few others that will get better as well. 

(Jeremy Cameron) was in the wars as well, he copped a few unlucky ones. (Rhys) Stanley was a bit the same, that’s footy. (Jake) Kolodjashnij will be back and Mitch Duncan will play in the next couple of weeks I reckon. 

The Positives 

We were a little bit off for a few reasons and guys that have been high level players for us are a bit off and it resulted in a game that I thought we played poorly early but we were still in the game. It's a pleasure to coach a group of guys where you think - a lot of teams would think, 'this game is beyond doubt now', but they give us a chance to win. In the last quarter I thought some of the shifts we made, and some of the guys who came into the game gave us a chance to win and you kind of argue the toss a little bit, should you, shouldn't you've, but eight points, a couple of shots, a couple of inside 50s.. 

I'm sitting here a bit more positive and that's the approach we’ve taken for a long period of time. Just don't get confused and react in a poor way based on the scoreboard or the win/loss. That's a hard sell if your players think your best isn't that good but our guys do know it. Don't mistake that for saying, 'don't worry about it, we'll be fine', we're not that in love with ourselves but we knew it would be a hard year and we knew we were going to have periods where you'd be playing against good opposition, and it doesn't quite go your way but we'll bounce back.