Happy with the effort?

Absolutely, obviously when you play AFL for a club, you’re Eagles for life now, those boys. So, their sense of belonging should be as strong as anyone’s. I think in the end we had 14 changes from last week, so synergy, belief, system, all that stuff was a challenge, but they looked pretty connected to us, we could’ve won that, absolutely. Some of the pressure factor and tackles, those sort of things just require effort, something we’ve been working on as a club for the whole pre-season, so we want to continue to grow our identity on that space. So, I thought we took a step forward.

You were within three goals, did you miss some opportunities there?

We did, I know North missed a few shots too throughout the game, but the last half, I thought we probably had more inside 50s, I don’t know how many scoring shots we had compared to North, but it looked pretty even. But there were moments where we looked quite vulnerable, as to be expected, but there were moments where we looked quite dominant, so I’m really proud of our players, our leaders, we talk a lot about the guys who filled in but I thought our leaders really stood up. Just with their effort and playing their roles, and then we got younger players some opportunities, Bailey Williams gets a chance to hold down number one ruck spot and I thought as the game went on he grew and grew. So, we’ll take a lot of positives, I don’t think we had any injuries. Jackson Nelson a minute before the bounce, that just gave us a chance to debut another player.

Considering you got so close, is this a validation of your process given all the moving parts?

We’re disappointed we didn’t win, like we came here to win, so whilst that didn’t happen I think when we got the top up players, three of them had played AFL before, I know two of them (Aaron) Black’s the one that I met probably last week, but Sandover medallist, 200-plus games, so they took it in their stride really, so we tried to complement the player with the role. Then (Declan) Mountford at the end when he came on, he ran with (Jye) Simpkin and I thought he did a tremendous job keeping him to 15, 16 possessions. So, those guys came in and we gave them the role and they tired their hardest too, (Brayden) Ainsworth was the other one that also came in and played his role as well.

How tough has the last week been?

It’s been bizarre, really, I mean even last week we had a top up player in our squad, we’ve had a lot of injuries over pre-season, so it’s been difficult to get synergy. We’ve got some new coaches in, we want to play a different brand and create and grow our identity as a side, it’s just been hard to do. So, I can’t say it’s not going to happen again, it might happen next week, but we’ll just take it in our stride as best we can and always have an optimistic, positive nature about it, our staff have been tremendous, nothing’s too much trouble, so we’ve grown as a club the past couple of years, about dealing with resilience and a bit of adversity.

Fourteen changes is a record, what does it say about the club coming so close?

We want to instill a real sense of belonging at our club, if you’re with us you’re one of us. So doing that with guys we just met, that’s a challenge, but at the same time we must have had 30 players train with us in the last three months, and every one of those players that’s come in, we’ve tried to make them feel really welcome. So I suppose we were geared up for that a little bit when we get the new guys in, it’s just like, well here’s the next crop, it’s just got to a level where they’re playing. (Patrick) Naish is a classic, it was a week before, we met him on Thursday, he played against Freo on Saturday, so it wasn’t like we hadn’t done it before. (Hugh) Dixon, (Luke) Strnadica is another one who’s come in late, so it’s not ideal though, it’s not what we want, it’s not best prep, we’re not going to succeed if we continue to do this, so we need to work our way through it, take some positives, keep working on what we want to do well and we’ve got Freo next week.

How did you see Jack Darling’s return?

Well he just hasn’t played for a long period of time, so I think he tried his hardest tonight. He didn’t have a heap of support with a couple of fresh faces down there, so I think that was like probably his first pre-season game. An intense atmosphere and he competed all day, probably lowered his colours but I’m really happy he got through, to be honest. Along with – we must have had four or five players – that maybe they would’ve played WAFL to build their season, and Liam Duggan hasn’t played since major knee surgery, so he was due for 70, 80 minutes of, probably not as intense football, and he looked really good. Luke Edwards, same sort of thing, so we made him the sub. So, some of these guys we fast tracked without taking the risk of injury, but it was probably a little more riskier than we’d usually do.

Would Jack have been one of the players who played WAFL?

No, he wasn’t far off, he had a bit of a niggle with his foot that kept him off legs for a couple of weeks, so I think just not having physical contact, training and getting that base, so he’s pretty much had one main training session. So I think we got okay, we’ve all got to cut him some slack I’m sure, the fact that he’s a bit rusty, but I think we all would be if we did that.

Big game next week, how many players will you have back?

I don’t know, maybe all 14, I’m not sure, I mean some of the guys that are in the protocols will come out pretty late in the week, so unfortunately the synergy won’t be there again. We’re going to chop and change, I think we made a fair few changes from the AAMI series to round one, and then the same thing’s going to happen again next week. But, I think in the long run hopefully it pays us back, but we’ll have a crack next week, absolutely.

Do you worry that this has put you behind already?

Well if we don’t start winning it will, but I think it’s a long year, we’re zero and two, it’s not ideal for us, I don’t think they’re excuses, they’re probably reasons. We want to win, so we’re doing everything we can to do that, it’s just we’ve hit a bit of adversity at the same time.

Willie Rioli, four goals, are you pretty happy with him?

Yeah, we’ll he’s been a long time out as well, bit of an interrupted pre-season, pretty good last week, very good today, so he was a real shining light in the front half, especially in the first half.

Andrew Gaff, is he injured?

Just a little foot, I’m not sure I thought he’d play this week, but he got ruled out two days ago, so just a sore foot. I don’t think it’s major, just hadn’t recovered in time.

Is there an update on Brayden Ainsworth after being subbed out at half-time?

I was told he tweaked his knee, I don’t think it’s a major knee issue, but it was enough to sub him out.

Jackson Nelson, is that bad?

I honestly don’t know, something around his knee area as well, structurally not a big one, but it was literally, I did an interview with FOX and I got grabbed saying Nelson’s out, so I haven’t really followed it up too much.