As it happened: Sensational Bulldogs obliterate Power to book grand final berth against Melbourne

It’s probably not the perfect time for me to talk about what happened this early because so many emotions are going on and what you need and hope and what you want and wish for at the end of tonight. We got nowhere near that. We need time to digest and think clearly through it. We have no excuses. We have no reasons that were outside of our control. We had what we need and we just didn’t perform.

Q: Is there a reason why you chose that starting midfield rotation with Boak, Gray and Wines and whenever expected Willem Drew to be in there from the very beginning?

That is what we start with both weeks. Willem Drew starts on the bench for us every game. It’s not an unusual starting line-up for us.

Q: There was a disparity in early contested possessions and ground ball gets where you’ve been so strong all year. Can you put your finger on a reason for that? I know you just said you need time to digest it, but what is your gut feel about why there was such a disparity?

Again, give us some time to go through that and look through that. You are right with the numbers, our contested possession is critical to us but what we have seen and when we’ve been beaten is that is the number that causes us the most grief without going through it in detail. At the moment it’s clear when we lose our spot in there it becomes a damaging part of the game for us.

Q: You used the word “disaster”, Ken, have you got any explanation as to why it was a lack-lustre performance?

I’m not being disrespectful. That is the third question around why and as I said in the very first answer at the moment is probably not the right time for me to give you clarity on that, other than state that the numbers that were important to us went south very quickly and the Bulldogs put the scoreboard pressure on us. They have done that in the three games we’ve played them. They got starts each time. We know and we expect, we look at every part of that leading into it. We have preparation time, we had great preparation time to have it right. We needed not to fail and we did.

Q: What does this group have to do next? How do you deal with this one where we know these results can bring teams down pretty hard?

Yeah, they do. They can because there’s such a big outcome for you and everyone strives, everyone starts at the footy club believing we want to win and we are capable of winning the premiership in 2021. When you get to this stage and you fall short by one step to make it to that final game, it does hurt. It hurt last year and the margin was six points. It hurts every year. You’ve got to continue to work at it and you have to continue to improve and all our players, young and old, just need to continue to work to get better and know that every year if you are not prepared to turn up and work hard to get back the opportunity, it becomes an easy drop off for you if you’re not willing to work.

As a group you look at the contested possessions at the end of the game and you’ve won by 30. So that is outstanding.

We know Port are such a strong contested team. Round 23 they were really strong in this area and probably gave us a touch-up, to be honest. We knew it was always big in the finals so to get the ball out of those critical ways is huge.

You touched on ‘Libber’ before, he was tagged earlier. What do you do when you see one of your mates getting physical and it’s harder to get a possession. What do you have there?

We have a few things up our sleeves, doing two-v-ones, or doing trades. We have so much strength in the midfield that we work well together. When someone is getting tagged we try to do our best for them.

You were given so little chance in 2016, did you channel that and say, it’s possible, so why not again?

The heart of this group is so big. We haven’t talked about 2016 too much. It shows the heart of the group. How much adversity we have had to face. A few injuries to key players as well. The heart of our group and we know inside the four walls how big it is. We never questioned ourselves internally. It was a huge effort for Stefan Martin to come in. I think it was 97 days since his last game.

He certainly provided you with a really good contest in there.

He did, he’s been so professional all year. And there are probably times when everyone thought his season was over. Just the true professionalism and I think Lycett is huge so to nullify that and give us access will go a very long way to our victory.

You touched on your plan. It looked from the outside a big part of that was the Port Adelaide backmen and making sure they are accountable and can’t intercept. Was that a big part of the plan this week?

It was. We are looking to great different contests around the ball and that means at times the boys are going to be competing outnumbered in the first line and with players like Aliir Aliir who we’re trying to nullify his influence as much as possible, is super impressive for our smalls and mediums but also our talls to keep the game alive in the front half. It is definitely something that went ahead.

How nervous were you, a couple of minutes to go in the knockout final last week. Was there a part of your mind that said, “This is the end of my year” (when you hurt your knee)?

Obviously hobbling to the bench and getting through this week has been hard. You might be limited at times but it’s nice knowing that the midfield group that we’ve got, you need 20 to 23 to win finals and we got that tonight.

Marcus we have seen the emergence of a player (Bailey Smith) in this final series I know you guys rate him so highly.

To take it to another level in knockout finals is pretty exciting for you. Some players seem to rise to the occasion and to be able to burn the rest of the players on the field and opposition players on the field and as the quarter goes on he really seems to hit his stride. He is a massive weapon for us to use and rely on. When you get players playing like that in finals it means so much.

Bevo started the us and them mentality in the media. What did he say to you behind closed doors? Can you give us an insight into some of the things that he said that we didn’t here.

I can probably only say part of it, I guess, he is an inspirational wordsmith and sometimes he will look a little bit left of field but sometimes the motivation is right in front of you. I think the build-up and the things that we weren’t able to do potentially coming over here, definitely gives you an opportunity to use that to your advantage. He did that exceptionally well. Ultimately it’s about the team, it’s about everyone chipping in and using those little things that might be seen as negatives or things that can hold you back to really empower us and bring us together. He is very good like that, Bevo.