What was it like to see a lot of elements come together today?
“We’ve been working pretty hard and not getting a lot of reward. We were disappointed last week, but I suspect there’s 18 clubs who have been disappointed with a half here, a quarter there. Not many have got through with eight quarters of brilliance. I get the connection to last year and where we’re at and what we’re doing and we’re nowhere near the finished product, but I think we’re a different side. The reflection on when we have a bad game, a bad quarter, it’s easy to compare with last year and we understand it and accept it but different personnel, different side, different fitness, hopefully a different style of play. So they (players) got rewarded with a bit of effort today and it all started around winning the ball, which I’ve been talking about a bit.”
That second quarter, how much did that fill your heart with joy?
“It’s just a brutal competition. We can’t bask in the glory of the second quarter. We’ve got a lot of work to do. But they got a chance to express what we’ve been working on off the back of winning some contest and stoppages, and our good players playing well. We’ve seen a lot of those signs over summer but we haven’t really brought it together and we’re still a fair way off in a lot of areas, but it was good to get a bit of reward on the scoreboard for some of the things we’ve been working on.”
Last week contested possessions and clearances disappointed you, today in front, albeit by a couple but you won both of those and Tim (Kelly) set the standard?
““Tim (Kelly) did set the standard. I thought Bailey (Williams) lifted from a ruck point-of-view. We really respect the Giants and they are missing a few soldiers and were coming off a pretty tough game, but the boys got to work. We played four teenagers today, which I don’t think we’ve done, that combined with some good back half transition – Jamaine Jones down back was pretty good – we got some flow in our game. The first half last week was a real good reality check about what the game is telling us and then we got to turn the tables a little bit today with the stoppages between the arcs and those sort of things.”
The forwards must be excited when Jamaine Jones has got the footy, he looked terrific today?
“It wasn’t all about him but he played back a bit last year and we started him forward because we lost Junior (Rioli), so we thought we better get Jones in the front half. But with young (Noah) Long coming into the side and having some good availability in the front half we put him down back and he gave us some good run and a bit of overlap, which the Giants are very good at, and that helped set us up.”
That last kick inside 50 has been missing the past few games?
“No, what’s been missing is we haven’t been winning the ball. Contested possessions and clearances between the arcs, it’s so honest the game at the moment. It’s not quite one-on-one but if you don’t win the ball and have to depend on back half ball movement … I’ve said it a million times our biggest issue in the last two or three years is with the contest. If we get that right and are competitive in that area we can look at other things. We’re really clear about where we’re at. We’ve got a long way to go and even the last quarter I thought we got challenged and didn’t quite meet what we were hoping to do. But overall we have a win, which is great we enjoy the wins, but we’ll move on real quick.”
Did you come in thinking Waterman was going to pinch-hit in the ruck, and what did you think?
“As a ruckman, mediocre. The Giants do a similar thing. We’ve obviously got Freo next week who have got two A-grade ruckmen, so how we manage that … but I thought Bailey stepping up, he’s 23 and it’s been a real challenge for him to play out a four-quarter game and I thought he played his part today and Jakey got rewarded in the front half and pinch-hit for us.”
It seemed like a breakout performance for Waterman, what can a game like this do for him?
“He’s been around a while. He’s coming back from a knee injury and was just a week off last week and played a pretty good WAFL game. He’s been fast-tracked really and we didn’t want to just bring him straight in. We’ve got a pretty healthy list barring three or four really good players. He earned his spot and he got rewarded with some good ball movement up the ground.”
It’s the biggest week in WA footy outside of finals with the Derby coming up, is there less pressure on you now and with them being winless?
“I don’t think this changes anything from what we do. There was a fair bit of criticism and noise, which we accept, we were disappointing last week. But it just doesn’t change, every week is another audit on how you’re going. We are setting ourselves up for the longer term, so win, lose or draw next week, we’re trying to build a baseline, get some talent through our list, expose some kids and get our leaders to play as good as they can at the same time, that’s what we’re working on, that’s our plan. Next week is important but it’s not Grand Final week.”
The speed on the game with your ball movement how close is that to what you want and have been working on?
“Because the boys are a lot healthier and the profile is a little bit different with (Jayden) Hunt coming into our side, and Jones and a few of those guys have injected a bit of speed into our profile, which we needed to do. We win the ball and we get a chance to express ourselves with the way we move the ball. We’ve been encouraging that for a couple of years, so it was good to see they did it today.
Did it feel good?
“I’m not getting carried away. We executed what we wanted to today at stages and it looked sharp and at stages it was poor. Just want to find that balance of reward the good stuff and keep working on the stuff we need to work on.”
Do you expect Elliot Yeo to come back next week?
“He’s more unlikely than likely, Yeoy, the same with Nic (Naitanui), so we can knock that on the head. Yeo has done a lot of calves over the last three or four years, so it’s a long year.”
