A: It’s human nature when that pressure comes on. It’s [a question of] do you take the safe option when it’s building and the space feels like it’s shrinking all of a sudden? But we’ve got a licence and we give our players a licence to make a mistake. Make the right one, the one that we trained during the week, and we will never, you know, it’s never on the skill error, it’s formation that we talk about that you look to improve. But if it’s a skill error it’s back in the mind and get the Sherrin again.
Q: There’s a lot of people who said you needed to lose a bit of weight. You don’t look lighter to me. You are clearly running on top of the ground. You have that real power back, bursting away. And the body looks good.
A: Yeah, feel good. I think continuity at any stage in your career as you know, it’s so critical to a good performance, and it’s really hard to not train a huge amount and then expect to perform every week. And it is easier when you’re younger to be able to do that because you do recover that little bit quicker but as you get older it reinforces how critical that part of preparation is and feeling good.
Q: When you pick the paper up and you’re talking about Petracca and Oliver and talking about how good they are, and they’re now the best players in the comp, is that still in you that you come out here and say, you know what, I am sure I am still one of the best players in the comp. Do you still have the drive to be the best?
A: 100 per cent, that is one of the things I mentioned during the week in our midfield meeting with a few comments around how hard and contested they are. But we want to strive to be that. Words mean nothing, and it’s action and what you do. We have to continue to back that up. Absolutely it’s a huge part of the game. It’s special. It’s a privilege to play, and it’s a privilege to pull on the hoops, and we want to be the best.
Q: What did you do? Was it will and intent to take apart their midfield tonight?
A: That’s where the game starts, Daisy. So that is a critical part for us. The contested possession. With how the 6-6 -6 is, if you’re able to win that inside ball first, it’s difficult to come back through numbers and transition from one end to the other, compared to what it was. We understand how important centre bounces are, and I felt like we executed that pretty well tonight. And it’s about the quality of clearances as well. You know, if they were to penetrate and come through, which they did a few times, it’s hard on our defenders. We’re aware of that as a group.
Q: Hard to win a lot of games in a row. It’s seven on the bounce now in a very competitive season.
A: Yeah, it is. Whilst we’re playing well and going well, you only need to look at the ladder. We are not flying ahead of any other team. It’s super tight. So you cannot rest on your laurels. You’ve got to enjoy the wins that you get but then get back to preparation quickly and get ready for the next assault because the challenges keep coming for us.
Q: Even though the score was tight until halfway through the last quarter, do you realise you’re dominating? If you kicked straight, the game should have been over.
A: You do, but sometimes that ebb and flow and especially when you’re playing against a team like Melbourne, who are reigning premiers, you can’t give them too much of a sniff. The positive for us is even though they got a few in a row, being able to track the ball in our forward half, it does take a lot out of defence when it keeps coming down there. So played it down there and pinched a few.