Senior coach John Longmire spoke in a press conference on Wednesday (May 3) as the red and white prepare for a clash with Collingwood in Round 8.
On Round 8
“It’s a pretty important game – I don’t come across one that hasn’t been important and against a team that's been in red hot form. It will be a big challenge, we had some terrific tussles with [Collingwood] last year and another one this week. We’re looking forward to keep improving as a team against the best.”
On Nick Daicos and the Magpies
“Obviously he’s one of the form players of the competition. They’ve got plenty of them if you look at the experience in their midfield and right across the board. A guy like Daicos can go anywhere. They’ve got some real flexibility in there and he is one of many that we’ll be looking at. But we need to make sure we get the balance of what we do well right as well.”
On the ‘Kings of the comeback’
“They’ve got a system, but they also have belief. Their record of being behind at three-quarter time and coming over the top of teams stands out. There’s no question about that. They’ve reinforced that over the journey and they did it again last week. That’s a credit to way they play and the way they’ve been coached so we’ve got to be mindful when you play Collingwood, like every team, that we play to the 120 minute-mark. We can’t afford to play to the 100-minute mark.”
On strategy
“Their average contested ball per game is almost double to number two on the list so most importantly, [the Magpies] are very strong in the contest. They’re able to be consistent in winning the contest all over the ground. That’s something they’re good at no matter what part of the game.”
On addressing fourth quarter losses
“We’ve had a couple of times where we’ve been 20 points up halfway through the last. On the weekend there was different things at different times. We dropped away in our contest and on the weekend we gave some simple goals away and we weren’t efficient going forward. That’s been a bit of a pattern.
“Part of that is player availability, part of that is youth, part of it’s to keep learning and systems that we have to keep teaching our players. The positive is that our pressure has been strong. We’ve been getting the ball in our forward half. We have to be more consistent.”
On the challenges of player availability
“We’ve had a few of our starting six defenders out for a few weeks. Robbie Fox or Dane Rampe would have been great for Toby Greene but when you haven’t got those guys you look at opportunities. Sometimes they’re costly learnings. We’re out to win and learn, we don’t want to lose and learn. We looked at the last three or four minutes of the [Round 7] game that we didn’t get right. When Rampe and Fox are not there we still have an opportunity to get things done. We need to keep focussing on the players we do have and keep teaching them.”
On team selection
“Fox may be available this week, we’re not sure. Rampe is still some time away and there’s still a couple of key position players that are down the track. We’re not sure what that looks like this week but mainly we’re not focussed on what happens in the backend of the year, we’re focussed on what happens last week and this week.”
On Tom Hickey
“He played the week before in the VFL and there was a bye last week which wasn't ideal, so it’s a matter of how much footy he has played. We’ll just see what his progress looks like this week. We were really happy with Peter Ladhams on the weekend and thought he was terrific, so Hickey will come in at some point and playing both is something we’re considering.”
On Paddy McCartin
“He’s progressing and improving every day. There’s no update on anything other than that. He’s coming into the club every day and is feeling better every day.”
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