Once the lightning happened, what were you planning when you went down to the rooms?

Bit of divine intervention, I thought, the way we were playing at the start of the last. We were trapped in our deep 50, the start of that last quarter, and we got a chance to address that and try and reset ourselves mentally. And then, not having experienced it really before, trying to get them prepared to come back on. We try to get loose, and relax a little bit, sometimes you try so hard it goes the other way. And I thought there were stages tonight, the harder we tried, the worse we got. The third quarter stoppage work, Melbourne are a very good side, very consistent, so we tried to loosen up a little bit to be honest, and then we came out and played a lot better footy in the last 15 minutes, and jeez, we were a sneaky chance there for the last five minutes. But, not to be, but some good signs, we saw a spark with our players which we haven’t seen for a while, so we need to leverage off that, but we’ve got to still assess some of the points of the game where we got well-beaten.

Is that attacking style of football something you can use for four quarters, not just in the final 20 minutes of the game?

Well, yeah, if you’re trying to attack from your back half, and it’s wet and you’re playing against a really good outfit that defends well, the quicker you go, the more trouble you’ll get into. I thought we had a bit more composure in the back half, won some contests then got some real speed off the contest. You’re just not going to get from defensive 50 to forward 50 without going through a contest against Melbourne. So we won a few of those, bit more predictable. But then we got going in the front half, got some real energy with our entries, repeat entries, won our contests, and played the way that we’d like to play. So, that’s a positive sign that we can take from it. We’ve still got to work on the lapses and the momentum which have cost us an extra two or three goals than it should and puts the game almost out of reach.

Do you think that spark could be a turning point for player’s mindsets?

Maybe, you know, we’ll have a look at the vision, I think our boys are capable of very good things. You need your good players to play well, and I thought in that period, Nic (Naitanui), (Elliot) Yeo, (Jack) Darling, (Josh) Kennedy, (Oscar) Allen, who went back forward. We lost him for a little while, we lost Shannon (Hurn) and then in the back half, with (Jeremy) McGovern, so you know, our good players responded and really stood up, and that’s something we can leverage off next week.

What is Hurn’s injury and how serious is it?

I think it’s a very, very slight hamstring, but not good enough to come back on, so we had to sub him out.

How pleasing was it to see that sort of game from Elliot Yeo after coming back from a long-term injury?

Once again, he stood up as well, I mean, contested possessions and clearances, you can tell when he clicks into that ‘beast mode’ I suppose, and competing against some very good competition. I thought Melbourne’s mids overall probably had a more consistent game. Whereas, we had periods where we were on top, and we didn’t capitalise as much as Melbourne did. I think they kicked six or seven goals from stoppages, and we kicked two. That third quarter, we just lost field position through, mainly the clearances, and it was really difficult to respond from our back half, but ‘Yeoy’, he’s obviously still building to his best footy, unfortunately its round 21, and it’s just taken a while to get going with that injury he’s had. He was obviously out of action for 12 months, so we’re really happy for him that he finished off well.

How are the guys feeling after what seemed like a bruising game in those stormy conditions?

Pretty disappointed that we didn’t win, but optimistic we’ve showed a glimpse there at the end that we can play some really good footy, so it’s not completely lost. We’ve been down on form and down on confidence, but we’re still seventh, I don’t know how. Can you finish seventh if you only win 10 games? I’m not quite sure. It seems to be every week we seem to stay there. But we know what’s coming, we’ve got two games left and we probably need to win both of them to make finals. So the ball’s in our court, like I said to the players, and we need to look at the areas we need to improve, but also take some growth out of what we did right tonight.

With the Derby next week, what’s one thing you take out of tonight that you need to improve on?

Well I think I’ve said this for a few weeks now, the lapses in momentum, it happens every week and every game, we seem to be leaking a few extra goals than we should. It goes from being one or two, to three or four. And then suddenly you’re trying to chase down a pretty hefty deficit, so can we stay strong, stay composed, work our way through momentum, get it back and then put the foot down? And I thought in the second quarter, we did that. We just didn’t convert, we copped a few punches in the first, made the most of our opportunities. The second quarter was good, we had some good supply, just missed a couple of shots on goal. And then that third quarter, for probably 20 minutes, we let it slip, and that’s what’s cost us in the end.

Who do you get back next week?

Probably not (Liam) Duggan. I think (Tom) Barrass will be available, (Luke) Shuey will be, hopefully Liam Ryan, Willie (Rioli) is an extra week away, if that all works out well. Jamaine Jones may be available for some minutes, so we’re missing some soldiers and we haven’t quite got that synergy right this year. And we’ll lose Shannon tonight, we’ve got to wait on ‘JK’ and see what happens there with his knee, but yeah, we’ll get a few players back.

What was wrong with Kennedy?

Don’t know, fingers crossed it’s not too much.

And what about Duggan’s injury?

His knee has been troubling him all year, and there’s a bit of soreness just below it. So we’re just going to investigate a little bit more. So we’ll have to wait and see what that is, I think it’s been difficult to get a scan while we’ve been in quarantine, so we’ll get that in the next 24 hours, hopefully.

He might need a clean out or something?

No, I don’t want to say that because he might be fine, but that’s something we’ve got to wait on for the next few days.

Are you still in quarantine and how does that affect you coming into a Derby?

Yep. Doesn’t worry me, go home and go to the footy club, that’s the rules at the moment, so you can be home or at the football club, we’re very fortunate we’ve been given an exemption to work. And it’s not too much trouble, at all, so I don’t have any complaints and neither do our players.

Is it weird to be home when everyone’s excited about a Derby? Do you think it keeps everyone level-headed or do you like the hype that builds blokes up?

To be honest, I’ve been around a little while now and they don’t really change. With the prep it doesn’t make much difference and every week is important, so we know what’s at stake this week and both clubs being around the mix, it’s a high-stakes game. So, we can’t wait.