Proud of the effort against the odds and with an understrength team?

Yeah, we’re really proud. We played with plenty of spirit, got the sense all week towards the game where we could really dig in and make our supporters proud. We’ve been a bit inconsistent this year,  but tonight we were down on numbers, like every club, we’re missing a few good players, but the young kids stood up, but our leaders were exceptional, and our captain Nic (Naitanui) first time as captain, and you know right through the lines with (Andrew) Gaff, (Dom) Sheed, (Elliot) Yeo, (Tom) Barrass, (Shannon) Hurn, and Jack Darling, those guys, so as much as we’re missing some players, we’ve got some really good leaders in the side.

You touched on Nic, first time as captain and also gave you first use in the clearances?

Sometimes we don’t get bang for buck with supply, and teams scout and hunt with Nic, but I thought today it was a pretty good arm wrestle. I thought both midfields had dominance in stages, but I think overall he was probably our best player. He gave us supply when we needed it. I thought the kids played their part as well, they all did something special that they’ll remember for a long time.

Luke Foley one of them, with his first goal?

They’re the type of things, the spirit in the boys that you’ve got to celebrate. So, proud of those young fellas, but it doesn’t get any easier though, we’ve got to back it up next week against the Tigers.

Did he get the sense pretty early in the week that responsibility was going to sit with Nic?

I think so, I think anyone who takes on the role of captain feels a sense of responsibility that probably doesn’t get matched. I’ve seen it with every one of our captains, we’ve had a ‘captain’s curse’ at the moment, I think we’ve had four or five. So, I’m not surprised Nic stood up today at all.

Players with under 10 games experience, that’s a pretty young team to be rolling out?

I think all of them played their part, Luke Edwards first game for the footy club, he’s got a really good footy brain, makes really good decisions with it. The pace of the game didn’t seem to worry him too much, he’s only going to get better. Foley had a really good impact. Bailey Williams is battling hard to try and lock down that second ruck/forward spot. Harry Edwards in his third or fourth game, stood up as well. Xavier O’Neill, he’s still forging his way through his career. We were missing the mid-range players really, we had some good leaders and I’m pretty happy with those young players.

Is it a positive you can win games like that and also get experience into the younger players?

If we can do that, it’s great. Obviously the list needs to transition and develop the youngsters coming through. We haven’t won here for 22 years, so that’s a good feeling. Although it wasn’t against Sydney but still a win here. We’ve got Sydney in a few weeks back here. But they should get a lot of confidence with the spirit in which they played in.

The hoodoo comes up every time you play here, is it good to get it ticked off?

I don’t get overly concerned with the interstate thing, I think it’s hard to win on the road, everyone who travels can attest to that. For us to get anywhere this year, we’re going to have to win away. So that’s our challenge this year, consistent, we’ve been a bit iffy in that, whether it’s been home or away. Today I thought we played four pretty good quarters, consistent football, so that’s a good sign.

How impressed were you with Liam Ryan, not just the goals but the pressure?

He looked sore, on the airport, the plane, the warm up, the captain’s run, after he took his mark. But he was really important for us, really proud of him.

Just how sore was he, if you had a few fellas less injured would he have not played?

Nah, I don’t think so. I think he loves playing footy, so just got to get him a bit more elite with his recovery this week. But he’s fine.

No concern over that hamstring?

We’ve lost ‘Shep’ (Brad Sheppard) today with concussion, and we had a few boys who worked through the game and were pretty sore, so the problem we have at the moment is that we get two back next week and we lose two. Would’ve been good to have a BYE. But we honestly think we’ve had it really good as a club this year, a lot of teams have dealt with far worse than us, so we’ve slept in our own beds but do whatever it takes to keep the comp going.

Oscar Allen is back next week, who else is returning?

Josh Kennedy should come back next week.

So it was just a bit of soreness?

Yeah, just a bit of soreness, due for a spell, we just couldn’t get him through that one extra game. It was a six day break into Essendon, so he’s just pulled up a bit sore.

Liam mentioned after the game, that he felt he was still getting back into the swing of things coming back from injury? How exciting is it he’s performing like this when he’s not fully fit?

We’ve got three or four, Shannon Hurn is still building back into his season, Elliot Yeo is the same. So, to stand up in the big moments is critical for us. We were missing some forwards today, so really proud of Liam for that.

How is Brad Sheppard?

I’m not sure, concussion protocols will kick in and we’ll look after him.

And the game against Richmond this week?

They look pretty good, great to see the Western Australians turn up for that (Dreamtime) game, I knew they would. All the footy we can get there is great for everyone. It looked really, really good on TV, as did the Tigers.