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- Craig, how do you say that one of the lines played a pretty attacking sort of game and how did you see it going?
- Yeah, what did Fakes talk about?
- He was happy with our attack but wasn't happy with conceding 100.
- Yeah, well we were exactly the same.
- That's exactly what I put on the board actually, 124 points.
- It's going to be hard to kick 125 in this competition.
- So, I think the last four or five weeks we've just conceded too many goals, too many points.
- We're the number one defensive team in the competition for major parts of the year but we've lost that mantle in the last couple of weeks.
- We're just not happy with the way we're defending the ground in different phases of that.
- I think our pressure's been good but we're not defending the ground like we once were.
- Why do you think it's dropped today?
- A number of reasons.
- I think there's opposition certainly trying to keep the ball off us a little bit at times.
- We'll get to work on this and we'll find out exactly why.
- We've got some time to work on it.
- We're not finished yet.
- Do you think it's more of a full ground thing than a defensive third sort of issue?
- There's many layers to it but tonight they transitioned the ball really well from kick-ins.
- That's one phase.
- We'll get to work on this.
- I love thinking of a growth mindset.
- If you think it's a fixed mindset, we're done.
- This is permanent.
- It's not permanent.
- We're going to get better at this.
- We're going to shine a big light on this part of our game.
- Will it take maybe more than one week to get it right?
- I'm not sure.
- But we'll be working hard to make sure the opposition don't kick 124 points.
- What's the initial diagnosis with Nathan Murphy?
- Difficult to tell from afar.
- He seemed like he had a glooped knock in the first half.
- Landing on his back didn't help that.
- That's as far as I know.
- I don't think it's much more than that, to be honest.
- What about Jacob Ryan?
- It's unfortunate.
- The lad is playing his first game.
- He gets a knee in the back of the head and he's got a concussion.
- He'll be out for the protocols required for that.
- It's disappointing, isn't it?
- I'm glad his family is here.
- It's a big occasion.
- Unfortunately, he didn't get to finish the game.
- How was Jamie Early?
- He seemed to land pretty heavily in the last couple of minutes.
- He's okay.
- He's okay.
- It's one of those contests, isn't it?
- He just fell awkwardly.
- No, he's okay.
- You must be glad you had Mason Cox as a sub.
- You can have a look at him again.
- He seemed to have a pretty big impact in the third quarter.
- There's something to be said about hunger, isn't there?
- You take something away from someone and there's an element of, like, I want that back.
- We'd love to get a little bit of that in all our players right now.
- You just feel like you're biding time somewhat.
- But there's parts of tonight that I was really pleased with.
- Mason came on in the second half and gave us a real spark.
- I thought Pendle's turned back the clock a bit in the middle of the ground as well.
- He had some real important moments, particularly in the third quarter.
- Him and Mason really drove us forward.
- It's not all doom and gloom.
- We're playing one versus two and we're talking about small parts of our game.
- But our bottom line is we're in the business of getting better and we need to get better.
- How much do you think the slump from the last few weeks is down to your top of the ladder and the losses don't really have consequence in terms of ladder position, home finals and stuff?
- You've asked me this before.
- I really don't know the answer to that.
- But you see actions of hunger.
- Last week our hunger for pressure was like, come on, give me some more.
- I want some more of this pressure.
- That was for everyone to see and I thought it was there for most of the night tonight.
- I thought that part of our game was strong.
- This other part of the game.
- But again, you get into this time of year, you're playing good teams.
- We're not playing mugs.
- Credit to them.
- I think they're a very good team, particularly forward of the ball.
- They're hard to defend against.
- I'm not sure how to answer that question.
- I know that whatever we're in right now and last week, all it is is a moment in time to qualify.
- I know that.
- So in two weeks' time, it's a different game.
- The whole competition starts again and it doesn't really matter where you qualify.
- It all starts again.
- But the challenge for us is not to be there already.
- And then you get there and you haven't got the energy and you go, oh, hang on.
- You thought it was a switch and just click it?
- Well, that's not reality.
- You want to have certain parts of your game going well.
- It doesn't need to be all humming along.
- I think that doesn't necessarily need to be the case.
- You could say there may be some narrative around, oh, but this part of the game is not going well.
- That's permanent.
- Well, we don't live in that space.
- We don't.
- We're in the business of looking for parts of our game that we need to sharpen up.
- And we've been doing it for 23 games now.
- And tonight, we've shown a lot on our defence.
- There's just too many points against.
- Are you worried about your form?
- You were 16-2. You've dropped three of four.
- No. No. I don't worry about form.
- What is form?
- He applies out of form.
- He does one good contest.
- He's back in form.
- That's it.
- You get energy from doing good things.
- Were we out of form last week?
- No. I don't know what form is.
- I think form's an outcome of good action.
- So we just get to busy on the action.
- And form, you can feel good about it or you can feel bad about it.
- We're just going to get better.
- Do you expect to get Jordan Ngoi and Bobby Hill back next Friday night?
- Yeah, I'd be pretty confident with those guys.
- If this was the final, they'd be playing.
- We're not being conservative, but there's a risk-reward attached to it.
- They're not 100% fit to play.
- Maybe Jordy could have played tomorrow, wasn't fit to play tonight.
- But, again, they need to get through training and do what's required.
- Yeah, there's a risk-reward at this time of year that you've just got to get right.
- Do you take that approach as well next week?
- I mean, not with those two, but if there are any other players in a similar boat?
- Yeah, absolutely.
- We're here to improve ourselves.
- We're here to put our best team out there that's available.
- Why would you take risk on someone next week if they weren't quite right?
- I'm not sure anyone would do that.
- How did you see Jeremy Howard forward tonight?
- You were leaking goals in defence.
- Were you thinking about moving him around?
- Yeah, well, absolutely.
- We go into the game with the tactic to keep Andrews accountable.
- He's a very good player.
- He had five possessions to half-time.
- What would you have done?
- It's a challenging one, isn't it?
- It's a challenging one.
- You don't get paid the big bucks to do that.
- Yeah, no, this is it.
- Not the big bucks, but we're here to make decisions, and you're going to get some right and wrong, but five disposals.
- We thought, hey, let's back this in for a little bit longer.
- Can someone else just do the job for a little bit longer and see how we go?
- The third quarter was okay, wasn't it?
- He kicked a couple of goals.
- So, again, you're not always going to get it right.
- But then, obviously, with Murph in trouble, we had to move him back.
- So, yeah, there's always decisions come up.
- You go, oh, what are we doing now?
- We back ourselves in, and, yeah, again, maybe that's what we're paid to do.
- What's your ideal situation in September with Jeremy?
- If you have Darcey Nemour available, if you have Nathan Murphy available, is your plan to use him as a forward in September?
- Maybe.
- Yeah, maybe.
- I think we're open-minded.
- We'll see what the opposition present, what our best balance is.
- I thought Mason was really good tonight.
- Do we need to play two rucks again?
- Not sure.
- Potentially.
- So then is that a cost to that possibility?
- Yeah, I think every week we're finding a little bit more about ourselves.
- Tonight we found a bit more about our defence needs to improve.
- Thanks, guys.
