Do you take some comfort that you're able to get so much of the ball and play a game that they didn’t win by a huge margin?
Not comfort, we went in pretty positive that we could perform well, and we didn't in the second quarter. So, I think it was six goals to one. The rest of the quarters were probably breakeven, I would have thought they might have tipped us over and a couple of little stats here and there, but not by a lot. So, you know, we don't accept the loss. But there's also a reality as well with what we're dealing with. So, we're just seeing growth and some real positive signs and some areas of our game and individuals, which we're really proud about, but we want to win. So, getting in that's hard at the moment with what we've got. And I think they try and the effort is there. And we're trying to play a way that keeps a scoreboard ticking over whilst we can defend and we probably not getting that right all the time. But yeah, stages today that we thought we had had the game in our hands to a certain degree. And there were times when it was slipped away. And pretty obviously that was the same quarter.
Is that reassuring for you, that you've got something to work with?
Yeah, I think we've had that all year. I know, you're going to look back at this period and you look at the games and the scores. But we are finding it pretty hard to play our best footy with 16 or 17 injuries, which is a challenge for any club. But the identity piece is probably what we're looking for. And we see not four quarters, not every minute, but we see what we've been training and chasing in the offseason, we see it on game day, but it's just not good enough at the moment.
Who is driving that at the moment to make sure it doesn't fall apart?
That's a good question. The leaders obviously but there's not many leaders out there at the moment terms of official leaders, but there's a good cultural, we're in a good space, we're really clear about what we want to do and how we want to go about it. We've set up all our programs around it, and unfortunately, we just hit a cluster of injuries again. So, I think our leaders in general, it filtered down to the rest of the playing group that we might not to be there right now. But keep fighting, keep chasing and it'll turn one day. So yeah, it's frustrating, but I think we're seeing little signs.
How is the injury list?
Well Luke Shuey got subbed out with an ankle. We tend to get them on Mondays and Tuesdays. So yeah, we won't get too many guys back. I think Shannan Hurn might be available. We've only got one or two guys playing in our reserves side. Yeah, so that's just reality.
Luke’s ankle, was that in that tackle in the first quarter?
I think so yeah, he went off, got to check it out, come back on, and then it was too sore. So, to be honest, when the guys get subbed during the game, you sort of move on pretty quick to what you got to deal with. We thought Jai might be subbed out, but he's fine and he was a good contributor.
Do you know how bad that ankle is for Luke?
No, we will need to get scanned, not good enough to come back on.
On Jai's performance, obviously, he got that bump by Tom Jonas and he kicked four goals.
He is a midfielder, we don't have any forwards available at the moment. So we've got a couple of mids pushing forward. And he's 194 centimeters, and he can take a grab. So he's trained in that role briefly in preseason in his second role as key position forward, and he got a look today at ground level. So yeah, we're really pleased for him that he's found a little niche there. And keeps his spot in the side. And he's, he's given us a good look.
Will Barnett play tomorrow in the WAFL?
We need to weigh it up. Yeah, possibly. We just, you know, if we play them and they get injured, we will have not many left. So you know, Barnett's been up for a bit played four or five WAFL games in a row. He's got a lot of work to do on his craft, and he's 18 and we can't put the pressure of senior footy on him just yet or maybe we might have to and O'Neill he was an emergency today that we might need next week and take the risk to play and might be too great. But we'll work through it and we'll make a call and unfortunately for our WAFL Eagles, they might another couple down.
Are you a little bit nervous that you might not be able to field the team if the injuries keep going?
It was never a suggestion we were going to postpone that game. We've got a list 30 WAFL Eagles there who help out. They're meant to be topping up for us and they're just going to have to represent us as best they can. And we've got Will Schofield as well, so it's all good.
What about in the AFL though are you getting concerned with the injuries are getting to a point where you might struggle to name 26?
That's probably real. But that's fine. That's just reality. So the guys who played today were all fit and they had a good go. So the guys available at the moment, they're not coming back from COVID or coming back from long term injury. They're available, and they've had really good preseason. So I think that's why we've seen a better effort over this period, they're ready to play.
When you said during the week, you might have to elevate NGA players not ready for AFL where does that take the bigger debate on list sizes in that second tier and whether should have a national reserves competition?
We don't have an affiliate WAFL club and when we're not dealing with this, it's like in 19, we had good availability and our WAFL Eagles played finals. So the system works. It's just at the moment, we've had two really, really bizarre years of a lot of collision injuries, a lot of issues around returning to play. And we're hurting a bit. So yeah, I'm not quite sure that means everything needs to change. We need to get our players back. We need health back and fitness back. And then we'll get a better result on field obviously. But I'm not quite sure we need to change everything.
Zane and Rhett, how proud are you of them today to play?
Noth those guys have dealt with tremendous adversity for 19, 20 year olds, to come and play today and be available, at the very least be available. We are really proud of them. It's a brotherhood, that group and they, they really care for one another. And for those guys to work for that and play and Bazz came on and he was going to go forward there for a minute because we thought Jai was going to get subbed out and he was like i'm ready to go. And Zane I thought in the second half contributed, gave us some good look, he's got sticky fingers. So yeah, poud of them.
Were you frustrated or excited?
I'm a little excited. Yeah, people must get frustrated and see me excited. I think because we're trying our best. And look, if it's not good enough, and you know what we'll be we'll be, but the environment is positive. We don't like losing, we don't accept losing. It's just reality. And we're chasing, and we've got a plan in place. It's a longer term plan. It's set up with development and growth within the football club. So we've goy the right stuff. And now it's just getting the guys games and fit and healthy and keep giving maximum effort. Like it's guilt free footy. If you bring that max effort, and I think they're doing it. We're just not winning it.
Does that challenge you? And how you approach it?
Yeah, but not to the point where I'm concerned about it to the point where I need to change it. We could easily try and change some things to make things a bit easier, but we're going to keep moving forward.
You previously said that you're hoping all the injured guys come back this year? Are you planning on it? Are you still confident in that?
Yeah, I think so. Yep. Holding out hope. So that's yeah, they've all had their surgeries and McGovern, Jamie Cripps, Liam Ryan and Nic Nat, he hasn’t had surgery but he's hopefully turning the corner. Yeah, they are all three to four month injuries we are so sort of hoping to get them back.