As we prepare to face the Melbourne Demons in a Qualifying Final this Friday night, see the key quotes from John Longmire who spoke to the media this morning (Wednesday, August 31).

See the key quotes below.

QBE Partnership renewal

It’s absolutely significant for our QBE partnership to extend beyond 40 years now across the whole of club and we feel incredibly privileged and great to continue to continue such a long standing partnership with one of the real iconic brands.

Peter Ladhams

We are obviously disappointed with it. He had been coming back after his broken thumb, and pushing up to get some more game time and match fitness at the lower level and we were looking forward to having him available, not only this week and the coming weeks.

That has obviously been taken away so it’s disappointing for us and hopefully he learns from it.

Mixture of finals experience in current squad

There is a wide spread of experience (in our squad), as Melbourne had last year. It’s great we have been able to play some younger players, they have been learning from our experienced players both home and away, and now they get the opportunity to do that in the finals.

We understand the intensity is going to be right up and we need to make sure they keep remembering what got them there and keep on focussing on our process that has been so significant for us in the way we play and taking in the opposition who are a high quality team.

We need to make sure we keep doing the basics and focusing on our process, even though it is a big finals game.

Learning from last year’s finals experience

Every year is a different year. We didn’t get it done last year, even though we had an opportunity in the last year but that is past now. We look very much forward, have given ourselves an opportunity by finishing in the top four and we play a quality team on their home deck and that’s where all our focus is.

Importance of Buddy and his experience in finals

He is always important but he is no more important than Luke Parker, Dane Rampe and those guys that have played a bit of finals footy. He knows what is about and what it is like to play in front of a big crowd at the MCG but our players will hopefully learn from that as well.

In the end, Lance is one of a number of players that needs to be able to focus on our roles and making sure that we compete for four quarters against a high quality team. 

Chad Warner

He played last year off the back of some significant time out so he has a little look at finals. But it is a new year, he has learnt so much this year and we are confident that what he brings in contest, power and competitiveness are always quality attributes to have.

He likes the contest, he likes to compete and will come up against mids that are in exactly the same boat this week.

Looking at last time we played Melbourne

It was 12-13 weeks ago when we played them at the MCG, so we need to understand that both teams are going to be a bit different. Our contest and pressure work is always important, and around the footy it’s important to win your 50-50s and when they get it to be able to apply really strong, effective tackles. That is always going to be important.

We looked at that past game and learnt some things as well from that game as well and I am sure Melbourne did as well but high quality pressure around the contest will always be what you lay your foundation with in finals footy and that will be the same on Friday night.

Will Hayward’s development in 2022

He has been fantastic. He has continued to develop and improve year on year and we know his work-rate is outstanding during the course of the game. He competes really hard, gets up and down the ground, puts enormous pressure on and he can mark and also kick goals. He is a really important player to our team structure and a really important player for us in the role he plays and how he goes about it, how he competes all the time and how he is a difficult match up in the air.

He is a really valuable player that has continued to improve, has 100 games under his belt now and it’s a significant bit of experience that he has alongside him.