We take a look at some of the key take outs from coach John Longmire's weekly press conference on Monday afternoon.
Injured player returns (Franklin, Mitchell, Rohan)
“The plan is for them to train tomorrow and train later in the week before we make decisions. They are at different stages – we would expect Franklin and Mitchell to do some training tomorrow with Gary Rohan to run tomorrow. Whilst we won’t know until Friday we will get an indication at training tomorrow of how they are going.”
Won’t be taking risks with injured players
“We are in a situation where our destiny is in our own hands and we need to be able to put our best team on the park this week to be really competitive against the Saints who were terrific on Saturday. We certainly won’t be playing them if they are not able to do the required amount of training this week.”
Tom Mitchell
“It is probably a little bit more positive about him being a chance to play this week. He is going to see a specialist later this week but he is actually really good today, a lot better than we had anticipated. He is a chance to play this week, he has to go through the process of seeing the specialist later in the week to make sure he is all clear and that will happen before Friday’s training session. It looks reasonably positive at this stage.
Franklin’s training
“He has certainly taken a step forward in his running in the last week and has been doing some training with the balls. He needs to do the training tomorrow and Friday as well. That is our plan to make sure he is running around and feeling good about it to be available for selection on Sunday.”
Focussed on week to week
“Everyone is talking about finals but we still have two games to go. We just need to win this week and it is important that we win this week. We are fully aware of the situation in being in a situation to have a say in our own destiny. We play a team who are playing really good football and that will be our focus. It is important our players know that this week is a real consideration. What happens outside the footy club everyone else can talk about that but we are determined to make sure our focus is on the Saints this week.”
James Rose dream debut
“It was fantastic to be able to see a young kid really enjoy his footy like that. It gave the players a real lift, they were really happy for him. It would be fair to say he did his job, played his role, come on as the sub and kicked three goals. We always thought he would be able to contribute. We probably didn’t think he would be able to do that which is a good sign. It helps with our depth. To have seven players under 50 games, have a first gamer come in and kick three goals is a good sign for us. We would like to be able to look at him but it depends on the other guys and we need to get the balance right around who we have in the senior team.