Aside from the Bolton/Rioli stuff, Dimma said:
* Rioli has told him he's fine and is right to play this week.
* We don't get any troops back so our midfield is obliterated. But from obstacle comes opportunity. That's the way we've got to look at it. So some players will get an opportunity and we'll look at those players this Saturday night.
* Second half was confronting. We had plans to contain Geelong and we couldn't execute them. Their ability to fight through tackles [ed. we only had a tackling efficiency of 52%]. Usually against Geelong you've got to send two in to tackle due to their bigger bodies. We couldn't nail that part of the game and they got through and were able to nail what we call a "1-v-0" in free air. We weren't able to stop their ball movement. Gave up 8 goals from D50 which is incredibly disappointing and something we'll work on this week.
* Robbo and Whateley tonight were pushing the argument that we were beginning to lose our 'aura'. So opposition sides aren't as intimidated as they once were.
Dimma replied he doesn't care about that stuff only what we are doing and what we can control. There's no doubt we aren't playing our best and we've got a fair way to catch up to those top sides ahead of us. The Swans, Melbourne and Geelong were fantastic against us and we feel behind those sides at the moment. We've got parts of our game which aren't getting the required result and we've also got our whole midfield out at the moment which isn't helping at present. We've got some challenges no doubt. We've had similar challenges in previous years but we just can't think it's going to happen. We've got to get to work and do things a hell of a lot better. We accept that and we've just got to move on and look forward to what we can do this week against a very good GWS side.
* We don't explicitly sit down and discuss where we're at but we do look at it as opportunities for players who can be working on their wares at VFL level and now have the chance to show their talent at AFL level. It's exciting for those players, exciting for our group and exciting for us as coaches. We've been able to spruik about our depth and now here's an opportunity to see it and play the style of footy we know we can. The challenge is set for us. GWS are in pretty good form so we've got a challenge on us no doubt.
* Gave an insight into a coach's psyche - when you lose a game you get this feeling you'll never win another game. That's the reality of the situation. You can't see where your next win is going to come from. But then we go back and look at the evidence. How we play and what we do well and we build ourselves up. No doubt the players will be the same. But that's our job as a coaching fraternity, as a leadership group and as a playing group, to understand when we play our very best footy we are very hard to beat. We aren't playing our best footy at the moment. We've got some work to do.
* It's a tough gig. There's no more a lonely job when you lose a game.
