Summary
* Q. How is the heart rate Damien?
A. Better now. It was a great win. We sort of looked out of it at stages but the boys hung tough, stuck to the way we wanted to play and gradually gained some ascendency which resulted in some scoreboard pressure. Both sides have some key injuries no doubt, but I think both sides will walk away really happy with the effort. It's unfortunate one side had to lose. I thought both sides were pretty brave.
* Q. What turned it around for you in that second half?
A. Contested ball. We got belted around ball especially early. Our stoppage guys got to work and got the ball moving forward. GWS's pressure and intent around the ball looked a bit better than ours in the first half, in particular, the second quarter. Then guys like Dusty and Baker got to work and started to get the ball moving in our direction which is really important.
* Q. How did you see the new look midfield play out?
A. Started off a bit nerveracking. There were 3 goals to GWS from centrebounces which was the difference in the game in the first half. The kicked one goal after half-time from stoppages. The big thing about GWS is you've got to manage centre clearance. We were disappointed in that part of the game in the first half but got a hell a lot better in the second half. We sort of knew that was a template coming in. Guys like Bakes and RCD had big moments as well. So we were impressed with what they delivered.
They are bigs wins. We're had a tough week. I've been dealing with stuff both on and off the field. So to come off the ground with a victory was great for us. But more importantly our fans. It's been tough to watch us a couple of times this year. This year we haven't played as well as we would've like. We are still hanging tough. We're 5-4, we're still in the hunt. We've got a lot of work to do. We understand that. But we've also got some growth out of these games. We're seeing some players emerge which is exciting for us in the weeks coming up.
* Q. You have a few tough weeks in the past 18 months but the club continues to deliver?
A. It's our people. Brendon, Peggy ... we work our way through it to get an understanding of it. We're going to make mistakes no doubt about that. We learn from those. We try to get as many life lessons from them. The players take that on board and move forward. We can address, we can learn from it, then we've got to move along and take the next effort. The guys with the amount of mental preparation they do are strong in that part of the game.
* Q. Do you address it [these off-field issue]?
A. Our footy club is pretty authentic. All clubs will say that but we think we are pretty forthright about things. We're very open and honest about how we work through those things. I think it holds us in good stead. I think we do things differently, there's no doubt about that, but it works for us which is important.
* Q. You tried a few different things at the start of third: Lynch on a wing, Nank on a wing, Vlastuin into the centre. What was thinking behind that?
A. We just had to flick a few things. I forgot to tell the assistant coaches I was doing that. A couple of things we had to try to get some movement around there. So it won't be something we'll try going forward to be fair. It was just trying to get Lynch some time on the ball.
* Q. How important was Dusty tonight?
A. He was huge. It's funny, when you feel we need a goal he delivers a goal. He kicked 4 and almost missed a fifth right at the end. That's what good players do. They break the game open. They've got Toby Greene at one end and we've got Dusty at the other. Jesse Hogan was a real shining light for them as well especially early. Look, Dusty was really important tonight. Really important!
