- Oct 3, 2013
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Fly's presser
Where do you think you lost the game? It was seesawing in the last quarter.
Where do you think you lost the game? It was seesawing in the last quarter.
You hit the lead late and you've been so good in those situations, what was the difference today?"Yeah, the weight of numbers inside 50 were huge. Their [Gold Coast] contested possession and their ability to get the ball forward was really the cost in the end, particularly in the second and third quarters. We sort of got stuck in our back 50 a bit more than we wanted to, through losing contest. Not so much clearance, but just being outnumbered around the ball".
It felt quite frantic late on, do you think it was because of the fatigue or was it the team that could settle and go forward with some method would end up scoring?"I just said to the players like we just love that when you put that jumper on, you play right until the end. Anyone that's watched us in the last couple of years knows we're coming, but you've still got to still do all that all the time. We're really proud of that part of our culture or the way we want to play. We want to continue to celebrate that, but we don't want to be in these positions. How many times do you want to put yourself in a position where you'll have to do this miraculous comeback? So they're the things we'll wrestle with. Grow that part of our game, and why we're in this position and also celebrate the other part".
What do you take from that going forward in terms of avoiding these close games? What do you want to learn from that?"We were hoping the game was going to be like that right from the start. We scouted the Gold Coast and how that game was played. Got huge respect for Dimma. They're a maturing team. I just thought they did so many things they hadn't been doing in previous seasons around doing the right things at the right time. They just looked really well drilled and they imposed that on us tonight".
Beau McCreery came off with a leg injury. Can you give us an insight on his injury?"We've lived in it for the last two and a half years. Some circumstances are a bit different to this one. There's a bit of a pattern in the last couple of games. There's been such a big margin at three quarter time. It's pretty obvious. If you look at the intent in the last quarter and the pressure and those things are really obvious, so why are we not delivering that in the second quarter. You wrestle with this stuff. I know the paint is still wet on this game and I've yet to see any replay(s), but that's the emotion at the minute".
What did you make of the performances of the returning players, namely De Goey, Pendlebury and Mihocek?"Beau's got some form of strained calf, so I'm not sure if it's a kick or strain but we'll work through that. You would think he's unlikely".
Having those "scattered puzzle pieces" as you put it, how challenging it as a coach to put in your best effort when you're dealing with that?"We've had pieces of our jigsaw puzzle playing in different parts. Have you ever done the jigsaw puzzle? The corners don't go in the middle, so we've been having a few of those going on and so it's good to have some of our corners back. Then other parts of our jigsaw puzzle could just then be what it's normally meant to be. I think Pendles set us up really well. I thought Jordy imposed himself on the game. That last goal was significant and he's a beast of a player and hard to tackle".
You sound quite frustrated. Is it because it's raw or has it been bubbling away for a while and it's repeated again?"We've had that for probably a better part of six weeks. We've found ways to kick enough goals. We had another 10 goal kickers today. Funnily enough to get back in the game we've had to move them around again. Howie forward is a bit of work for us, it's worked before and worked again a little bit tonight. Nick [Daicos] to other roles. Again I comeback to sort of let's get ourselves in positions where we don't need to do these things, so be a bit more settled. The flexibility is nice".
"Natural emotions 20 minutes after a game. None of us love to sit here and not get the job done. That's not what we're paid to do. For most of the night, 68 inside 50s is a lot to give up so we're going to struggle to win any game with that amount of ball in the opposition half. There's a natural emotion of 'come on, let's get busy'".
Full post-match, R16: Magpies
Watch Collingwood’s press conference after round 16’s match against Gold Coast
www.afl.com.au