The Wash Up

Clearly, we're a bit off and have been in the early part of the year. I don't think we've been horrible but the competition is so tight now that if you lose a couple of tight ones, a few things haven't gone our way, our execution is off or it doesn't look like the way we play when we're at our best, we've always known, even when we were going really well that if our level slips a little bit, the comp's so tight that if you fall back a little bit you're at risk of losing every game you play. 

There are some things that are really obvious to us, and we went in eyes wide open with a few of our guys early in the year that will get better as the year goes on and then we've got other parts of our game and some personnel that are a little bit off that are a bit hard to explain.

The Challenge

The most important point is that we pride ourselves on our consistency and the way we approach things. We haven't been tested in this position in which we've lost three in a row for a while so in a way I'm looking forward to that. It's easy to say the words when things are going smoothly but it's been rare for us to get the opportunity to show how you can respond and fix things. 

In terms of personnel ... (Tom) Hawkins will be better, there's a whole range of them, we'll get (Mitch) Duncan back next week, (Jake) Kolodjashnij back and when you fix one part of the ground, things flow from there. We've had to plug a few holes that have contributed, along with other things, to us being a bit disjointed.

It's amazing how those things can flow. If we execute a little bit better with the ball over the last few weeks we might be sitting here saying we're 3-0 and everything is absolutely fine and that wouldn't be the case either. The art of coaching, or part of it at least, is getting our coaching group together and just being rationale about how we think about things. There's very little chance that we'll overreact but you also need to react. It's not a matter of saying, 'she'll be right' there are some parts of our game that are off and we need to fix them as quickly as we can. 

The Forecast

We would prefer to look it in terms of making sure we get the next bit right. We could spend a whole lot of time thinking about what it means, referring back to last year, which I get why people do but it would be a mistake for us to do that, it's much more logical for us to think about who we are right at the moment and not reference last year and not reference what it might mean for July or August or September.

But that's not me pushing back on you. That's the difference between what you guys do and what we do and you're doing the right thing and I think we're doing the right thing as well, so that's our take on it. I won't be defensive if anyone says it's not the ideal start to the year. 

Sam De Koning 

He got taken out under the head injury protocols. Fortunately, and no one should read anything into this because they're all a little bit different, but I did get the chance to speak to him and he said ‘I’m fine’, but he was subbed out. I shouldn't go into too much detail because it's not my area of expertise but there are some situations where the protocols and the questions and the tests they put them through are just a hard failure, and it's a case of 'he's really affected here' but he came together really quickly. Not good enough to keep playing, though. 

He's a bit symptomatic of a bit that's happening with us at the moment, he's having a bit of bad luck, he's just been in the wrong spot quite a few times over the last few weeks but like us collectively we'll look after him and make sure we bounce back, and he'll bounce back too. Chris Scott Press Conference: Key Quotes