Adam, you would have been pretty happy at halftime with what you saw, should we start with the first half?
Yeah, I think there was some things there that we liked, you can sort of see what we're trying to do and then we couldn't sustain it. So first half, forward half turnovers, contested possession, clearance work, the method around it all, and the ball use was there abouts, albeit we could have been a bit closer, they were just too efficient. In the second half, we fell away. In the third, I think we lost seven clearances in a row in the middle, and then we had to rely on back half transition and Melbourne are too good for that. I thought we still fought it out and some of our kids would have learnt a lot against a pretty stacked Melbourne side that were too classy in the end with some of their experience players, they must have 18 to 19 premiership players, and we were pretty young. Disappointed that we didn't fight it out for the whole game, but we will look at the good stuff and leverage off that.
You've lost a lot of games by big margins in the past couple of years, but this didn’t feel the same time, it felt like you had a crack the entire game. Do you feel that?
If you're going keep comparing and people are and that's fine, us to last year, and what we went through, and that'll be wins, that it'll be form and that'll be losses. That's fine. But we feel that we're different. We feel like we've been transitioning everything that we're doing, we've got a platform that we set at the club, which is not a short term fixed. So, we're in for the long haul. We'll get some wins, we'll get some small wins, and we'll get some losses but we're going to keep moving forward.
Under adversity last week with no players left, young kids this week, but they've continually had a go the entire time, regardless of what score was.
We did that last year stages too and some stages we didn't. So, absolutely, we're working towards something that we think can sustain four quarters, it's just not there yet and then what we lost last week dealing with the crew that went out, took a bit of time to manage that, but that just gives opportunity for others. So, we're disappointed we didn't win. And we didn't let it blow out like it did. But we'll be half full with this one.
You spoke about the learning curve, what do you think Ginbey could have learnt today?
He's had a pretty steep learning curve today hasn’t he. I mean, the last couple of center bounces even we had some kids in the middle, 18 year olds against some class. So that and then, you know, Bailey Williams has taken another step. I know, he probably got rolled, that he's carrying the load. He was pretty busted up during the week and to get up and play. I think we've seen signs of resilience with all of our players, but Bailey is one who I think has taking a few steps forward.
How close was he to not playing today?
Pretty close. It was just a knock, bit of bone bruising but he's okay.
Of the guys we haven't seen a lot of, Culley, Luke Edwards, Clark coming in, what were the glimpses that you saw?
Yeah, well obviously West as well, and then you got the kids. So, they would of learnt a lot today. Some of it was really good and some of it they need to work on. So yeah, they would have learnt a lot with how Melbourne go about it. What they do really well, Melbourne is that if they think they're going win it, their backs are going win it, they'll take off. And when they win the contest like they did, they get ahead of the play, and they look really good. And that's it. It's a confidence thing that they can rely on one or two to get the job done and then then they spread really well. So, they've got a really good system. And yeah, we got exposed stages through it. But we'll learn from it.
Can you tell us about the role Andrew Gaff is playing at the moment and what your thinking is with him?
Yeah, he's been playing on ball and I just think he's taken some giant steps forward in the last couple of weeks. I've never doubted him and he's been been dealing with a lot with his body the last twelve months, and he got himself super fit. He's had an opportunity play on ball and I think he's stood up in the last couple of weeks in particular. He is so disciplined and detailed when it comes to instruction, he just does whatever is best for the team. So, at stages we've said, keep an eye on Coniglio or keep an eye on Oliver and those type of things and he'll do it exactly how we want him to do it.
How did Elliot Yeo pull up?
Good. We always planned, if we had no injuries to get him through 70 or 80 minutes and I think it was around that mark. He got through and we made a decision at three quarter time to pull him in. He did what he needed to do. I thought he was good down back and he will get better. We could have used him on ball at stages but we held, probably for some of the lessons from last year just throwing them straight back in the midfield where the games going and the transition piece is so hard so he'll build his match fitness hopefully in next few weeks, then we've got options.
What about next week with Witherden and Sheed potentially coming back?
I'm not sure on Sheed he might be another week but hopeful. Witherden should be available. Harry Edwards, possibly. Not a lot more, unfortunately those injuries last week were more longer term. So I think at least four were, and there was three or four that were mid to short term.
Ginbey, with the learning curve he's had and Williams, Ginbey and Culley in there together. Is it a case of we want to throw these challenges to you as much as possible and get every opportunity?
Yes, but we don't want to break them either. It's great have someone like Tim Kelly around, for example. And when Dom and Luke are around, it really complements what we're trying to chase. When they're on their own there's going to be some challenges. So yeah, we'll manage that as best we can. Like we said, they're not going to just be a linear growth there's going to be some ups and downs with the kids. They've had one pre-season, so you've got to be a little bit patient. But even Long, I think he's adapted to the game pretty well. So whilst we were disappointed with parts of the game, we will take some positives, like I said.
Do you feel like you're fast tracking them?
Yeah, I think so. Today is worth about four or five WAFL games, you know, so no disrespect to the WAFL, but yeah, Reubens learning a lot on the on the fly at the moment.
Kelly specifically, he's past two weeks have been really impressive?
We are proud of Tim, and what he's done, largely, you know, not on his own. But, you know, we've missed a few guys in the last couple of weeks to support around him and he's stood up.
Is Reuben the sort of kid that could play a full season or do you think at some stage, you're going to have to give him a rest?
That's a good question. Yeah, he looked tired at stages today. So as expected, so I would have thought like I said earlier. I'm not going to string him out. So hopefully, we've got through injury free this weekend. Although there's always something but yeah, we'll look at it during the week and we've got two Adelaide games in a row now so and there's a six-day break there. So, we'll look to manage our players as best we can and keep expose them as much as we can.
Is your plan to come back in between those Adelaide games?
Yeah, we spent too much time away, well we feel anyway so we will come back.
