So what did Dimma really actually say?
Healy: Been a tough start to the year, fair to say that expectations haven't been met?
DH: Yeah it's obviously not where we wanted to be. Haven't played well enough for long enough, certainly some upside.
Healy: Can I ask about the loss to Carlton in the final last year. It seemed to spook the club and since then you've experimented with Martin across HB, slowing the ball down, it just seems like it hasn't come out the way it was planned.
DH: We haven't really changed the way we go about it, we still go about attacking the way we want and structure up defensively the same, but it just hasn't clicked as we'd hoped.
Dunstall: You say that the attacking structure hasn't changed but the run and gun style of footy, that has decimated Hawthorn the last 2 years has been missing. Is that a product of trying to sure up the defensive mechanism?
DH: To a degree, it's more about us not moving on the ball as quickly as we'd like. That came about from the guys going into their shells and lacking the confidence to take those attacking kicks on. We've been on the players the last 3-4 weeks to take the game on and rather them make mistakes by trying to be positive rather than negative.
Sheehan: Took a while for that run and gun style to emerge yesterday. 100 disposals for 1 point in the first then 22 minutes in the second before a goal.
DH: Yeah funnily enough Mike, we felt we were playing OK at that stage but just couldn't get the ball past HF with an inexperienced HF group trying to counter a very good Geelong back 6 who zone off very well.
Healy: Can I take you back to something from your presser yesterday, *shows clips with DH talking about how we tried to get a more stoppage based game going early but couldn't* I thought about Gil coming and chatting to you about playing an attacking brand of footy
DH: Geelong are an elite turnover side, but haven't been that good at the stoppages, but this year they have improved in that area. We also know that they are going to have a Taylor or Mackie back there, you only have to look at Taylor taking 5 contested marks. We needed to work our way through that a bit better but just didn't think our way around it and it cost us turnover goals.
Sheehan: But that was your best performance, but against Geelong it's not that good. Fair to say your performances early on against sides you should have beaten have let you down. Your starts early in games just isn't good enough.
DH: Yeah I think we've kicked 16.27 or 16.31 in the last 5 first halves, last year we were averaging 7.5 shots on goal at the moment we're down to around 5. We've tried changing up a few things to try and rectify that as we're getting enough entries into the F50 but we're not getting the scoreboard ticking over our way.
Sheehan: Riewoldt is getting sucked up the ground and he is your primary goal kicker, taking marks on the wing and even further up, he isn't doing that with your instructions is he?
DH: Actually he is, we don't chain him to the goalsquare like we did the bloke beside us, a guy like Hawkins can end up that high at stages, Sheehan: Tommy ends up that high?, well probably not that high up.
Dunstall: Probably a bit of searching for the ball? I want to talk to you about Chaplins bump on Motlop. Surely as a coach you look at that and say if you have an opportunity to get the ball you get it. Look at the vision, he actually runs under and past the ball to lay the bump, the result is the Cats get the ball and scoot away.
DH: Look Troy was really disappointed with that, he is a clean ball player and was lucky not to have got him in the head.
Healy: The bloke on the end of that was Stevie J, I get amazed at how sides let him get off the hook, it's not just the Tigers either, obviously you can't tag them all and decided to go to Selwood, but what was the plan for Stevie?
DH: The plan was to lock down on Stevie at the stoppages, he gets a lot of his meterage from stoppage, we had Jackson and Vlastuin going to him at stages but Stevie is just so smart. He looks at the contest and see that they might win the ball so gets going and before you know it is on the other side of the ground. To Jacksons credit I thought he did a great job after half time, Stevie finished with 29 after 14 in the first quarter.
Healy: You can't have your cake and eat it too? With a bloke like that is it worth hedging your bets?
DH: Well it's hard to tag 2, you've got to choose one or the other. If you tag both you take away your offensive run, so we were prepared to try and lock down on Stevie at the stoppage and work off him. He is a smart player and relies on getting the ball fed to him, we were trying to hurt him by working the other way.
Dunstall: What about the role Martin is playing? When you first got him he looked like a gun midfielder, but since then he has played HB and goal kicking HF, is it a defensive weakness in his game that needed addressing?
DH: Had a bit to do with Deledio being out, we needed some goal kicking up forward so played him there and he has been trying to fill holes around the ground. This week we settled him down and he had a reasonable game accordingly going through the midfield and forward. It's no surprise that Deledio coming back helps settle Dusty down.
Sheehan: Now this bloke Matty White, playing for a side on top of the ladder a week ago.
DH: That's the thing with free agency, he got a good deal from Port with a long term and we weren't prepared to match that, look he is a good player and can play the game, but we were
Sheehan: was it length of contract?
DH: that and the amount of money.
Dunstall: Speaking of Port, I want to get your idea of where the game is heading, are they changing the way the game is going to be played?
DH: Look they have a side full of athletes who can run the length of the ground and sides are looking to attack much more from the back half. The press up defence is still there but sides are folding back even harder now and looking to get the paddock type of goals, I think we're going to see that evolution of the game and sides are trying to work out where they are in that and the zoning type of play. We're probably in the middle of that at the moment.
Sheehan: This is the first hiccup in your coaching career? Your coming now at 45% coming off a pretty big year are you a bit shaky in your belief/self confidence?
DH: Not really, we know where we are at, more importantly we know where we want to go, we just haven't been playing well enough as a club. The good thing about our club is that we knew there was going to be a hiccup at some stage. We find out a lot about ourselves, the club and the players at this stage. We feel that we're over the worst of it, the Hawthorn game we saw some signs and the Geelong game we saw some more. We've got the bye this week and we need to make sure we hit the next block of 4 games up and running.
Healy: Are you happy with the response from your leadership group? When you look at sides like Hawthorn Geelong & Swans, you know the ones that are going to lift. Your captain has tried but hasn't had a lot of support around him are you disappointed that others haven't lifted?
DH: Probably harsh, Jackson only came back, Deledio Maric has been out. Cotchin has been pretty much on his own. You look at the Pies they have a group of 5-6 that get it 25 times in Pendlebury Swan Sidebottom Ball Beams and that helps spread the load. We've got Cotchin and Deledio, Martin is getting there, Ellis Conca Vlastuin are getting there so we've got a relatively young group still developing that consistency. Trent has been a lone hand trying to do it all at this stage.
Dunstall: DO you still think the Tigers will play finals in 2014?
DH: Yeah I do, it's a really even season and we think that 12 wins can get you there. Obviously we're at the wrong end of where we'd like to be right now, but we've played 4 of the top 5 sides at the moment. We just got to play more consistent footy and feel that we should have done better against those sides. However we feel that we've got the game to take it up to those other sides.
Sheehan: Quick one before you go. Big Ivan isn't Polly Farmer but is important to your structure, how far away is he?
DH: If there was a VFL game this week he'd play, so he is probably 3-4 weeks away, he is an important player and guys play better with him around.
Healy: Whats on for the bye?
DH: We'll have a mini review then we're off Thursday & Friday then back into it.
Healy: Do you get away for one weekend?
DH: Heading up to Sydney haven't seen them play yet. Might take the wife away with me.
