Simmo, what’s your take on that game?

We hung in there and almost stole it. After quarter time we probably lowered our colours in a few areas, but we gutsed it out. All credit to Richmond and they walk away with the four points, but I’m still proud of our players.

When you say stole it, I think they ended up dominating contested ball and inside 50s. Do you feel like you would have pinched it if you got up?

When you’re not getting supply like we didn’t after probably halfway through the second quarter, or the start of the second quarter, and you’re holding up as much as you can, I reckon we probably gave away a couple of easy goals. There were some moments where we weren’t as predictable as we would have liked, but there was so much supply coming in that it made the job to get it out of our back half and get any field position.

You seemed to get the game played the way you wanted it early when you played your best footy. They came back into it, even before the rain. Why do you think the second quarter, it changed so much?

They’re a good side. I don’t think you can take any credit away from Richmond. We played well in the first quarter, they played well in the second quarter and then it was a slog in the second half and they had more opportunities than we did with supply.

Dustin Martin was obviously influential in the second quarter. Not having (Mark) Hutchings, was that big?

We lost Hutch at the end of the first (quarter), that wasn’t ideal for us for the role he was playing. He wasn’t on martin, but the reason he was in the side is that he’s a bit of a go-to for us. Unfortunately we’ve lost him with a hamstring. But we had other avenues to try and quell (Martin’s) influence. It was difficult to do though. But they’re more about the collective Richmond and hopefully so are we.

Does Hutchings seem like a normal type of hammy?

I don’t know. He could run at 60 per cent, which wasn’t going to cut it today.

Was Will Schofield a forced out or a selection decision?

It was a selection decision based on the team, the conditions and the role we want to play. That call was made today.

They seemed to win a lot of crucial centre clearances. Is that an area that you felt let you down?

I’m not sure what the centre clearances were in the end, but there were moments where both teams stood up and I thought … the supply, if you’re not winning it out of the middle it’s hard to get it back in these conditions. I felt like there were a few times where we lost the ball out the front, which is always difficult to defend. But, you know, that’s footy.

Did you have a few other sore guys apart from Hutchings? Sheppard and Sheed both spent a fair bit of time (on the bench).

I’m sure they’re sore. We’ve got a game in six days, so we haven’t got time to be sore. You get on with it. We’re still fighting for that top four spot. We’ll have a crack at the Hawks this week and see how we go.

You’ve got a few guys in the WAFL, like (Liam) Duggan, (Chris) Masten and (Jarrod) Cameron, those sort of guys. Do you expect many changes?

I’m not sure. I thought the effort was there today, but we lost a few goals through predictability and good opposition. But we’ll have a look at it.

A lot of people said this could be a potential grand final preview or a finals preview in some way. How much do you take from this game going into September?

Not a lot. We’re just trying to win. We’re not projecting form. I’ve said this a lot. We are not building. We just want to win every week. We want to try and play our best footy and today we faced a really tough opposition and we weren’t good enough in the end. We’re not thinking about anything other than winning this week to be totally, brutally honest.

In the big picture Adam, with some luck you could still finish top two…

I’m not worried about any of that. I just want to win next week. I’m not worried about the machinations. I don’t do the ladder predictor. We just want to qualify as high as we can and at the moment top four is our goal. We’ll have a crack at the Hawks this week.

How difficult is it to deal with the Dylan Grimes goalkeeper type setup?

It’s an interesting strategy. I thought we found our way in the first quarter to deal with it and then they had their way with it at stages as well. That’s the beauty about footy, isn’t it? There’s different systems, every club has got a different way of playing. Richmond has a distinct way and we’ve got one that is pretty distinct as well. At times it was really hard to get through and at times, in particular early, it was working in our favour. I don’t think it was all because of structure, but we’re all different.

How do you think the weather changed the way the game was played? And the fact that (the team) came again late, did that give you some heart that your system can stand up in rain?

It was interesting the weather. I think the last wet game we played in was the Freo game, which we had a good win in. We’re not worried about playing in the wet. I know people talk about our ball use, but we’re not just relying on that. We wouldn’t be where we are if we just relied on good ball use. We didn’t adapt as well as Richmond at stages with predictability, but the second half became a slog. Field position was the real key and we couldn’t get that.

You’ve obviously been through, with the players, endless big moments in the last two years. Do you feel like with everything on the line in one game this week everyone will embrace that type of pressure?

We will find out. I think last year we were playing up in Brisbane for second spot. I don’t know where we can finish, but top four is locked in if we win. We’ll get on with it as quick as we can.

Given the results at the weekend, it just feels like four or five sides are fairly equally matched. Is that just how you see it?

It’s been like that all year. It’s been one of those years where you’re not sure what’s going to happen week to week. There’s been so many twists and turns this week, let alone this season. That’s why we can’t ride that wave. There’s just too much to do.

The forward structure with (Jake) Waterman and (Oscar) Allen both playing, as well as Darling and Kennedy, are you sort of pretty happy with that at the moment with the way that it’s looking? In terms of the size?

You need a second ruck, so Oscar is our second ruck. And Waterman is 190-191cm. Maybe on a day like today you might play an extra small, but it hasn’t really been our way and we’ve got away with it in the past. We think there are strengths behind it as well.

Adam, Elliot Yeo had an amazing 15 clearances. Can we just talk a little bit about how often him and Dusty were together and how you saw both their games?

That is a good question. I think Dusty had a really good game and played really well. He did it onball and as a half-forward coming up, which is part of the way they play. It’s hard to defend unless you go all the way with him. Elliot, he just has a crack. I don’t know how much they were head to head. I’m sure Dimma (Damien Hardwick) would say the same thing, but the collective battle of both mids … we probably lowered our colours. We might have won the clearances, but I reckon working in transition we might have lowered our colours.