It's derby week. Senior coach John Longmire appeared in a weekly press conference on Monday to answer questions from the media. Hear what he had to say on Joel Amartey, Callum Mills' recovery and the upcoming opposition below.
On Joel Amartey
“It was a great effort, there was no doubt about that. In the second quarter he kept us in the game, his presence in front of the ball was enormous, and he kicked so accurately. He had a wonderful game, and it's not an easy thing to kick nine these days. To be able to get the reward for his effort was fantastic for him.
“He was a little bit tight in the last couple of minutes. We saw him get up a couple of times from a couple of contests. With his injury history, I'm sure everyone appreciates the fact that we want him playing this week. My experience over the years is sometimes things can happen in the last two or three minutes in regard to injuries with players… We just want to look after him and get him to this week's game, which is the most important thing.”
On Round 14
“We had double the inside 50s as Adelaide in the first quarter. We weren't great aerially, and we didn't stop them. They were able to score a bit too easily in the first quarter, which was a bit like the week before. We've got a bit of work to do there.
“We were really pleased with our second half, our pressure around the footy. We didn't really get the reward until late in that quarter. It's a pretty simple game sometimes. If you get that right, a lot of other things flow from it.”
On game momentum and scoring quickly
“It's good to be able to do that if you need to. You want to make sure you don't rely upon that all the time. It's good to be able to do it and have the belief that you can do it when you need to. The last two weeks we've been able to do that in bursts. We want to make sure that we're a bit more consistent over the four quarters. In certain areas at different times, we’re still confident we can keep improving.”
On Callum Mills
“He's in team training. We need a block of training and that'll depend upon how long that goes for and how he goes in the block of training. He's been training now for a few weeks tackling and running around. He's been pulling up really well.”
On the AFL’s father and son bidding process
“We're aware of those discussions going on but to be honest we're in the dark. All clubs I would say are in the dark as far as what the plans are for us this year. I don't think anyone really knows. Hopefully it happens pretty quickly. We're waiting to hear from the AFL what the plans are in a whole number of areas.”
On GWS Giants
“They played really well against a really good team in Port Adelaide. The Giants had nearly 30 scoring shots Giants so that's a real credit to them. They're a highly talented team. They've got good players everywhere and so you can make a case for a number of players so it'll be a tough one.”
