Assistant coach John Blakey joins us for this week's Coaches Column, thanks to Cellarbrations, ahead of our clash against Melbourne at the MCG on Saturday night.

Turnovers and decision-making were few of the criticisms stemming from our performance against the Western Bulldogs. Is that how you guys saw it from the coaches box?

There were some turnovers and skills errors but it’s not something we can control or like to focus on. We need to execute better than what we did, certainly, but at the end of the day that’s not the reason why we lost the game.

The Bulldogs have certainly improved, they bought pressure and played out the four quarters and, at the end of the day, they got the win. We know our best is good enough and unfortunately we just didn’t bring that on Saturday.

According to weather reports we’re gearing up for another game of wet weather footy. The boys are used to that of late, does our approach change at all?

Yeah unfortunately we can’t control the conditions. Everyone talks about winning the hard ball and that doesn’t change. We need to make sure we take control in that area and then give our forwards an opportunity to score.

The Swans are the highest ranked side for stoppage clearances while the boys have compiled the second most tackles, are these stats you like to see?

We pride ourselves on our defensive game and it’s something we work very, very hard on so to be up there for tackling is an objective. We’re certainly ticking that box off.

In regards to our clearance work, we’re very comfortable with the midfield crew at the moment. Dan Hannebery is in career-best form, Josh Kennedy and Luke Parker are always hard at it and Kieren Jack leads from the front every week.. They’re all doing a fantastic job for us at the moment and we hope to have an edge ion our opponents in that area.

What are you expecting Melbourne to hit us with on Saturday?

Knowing Roosey (Dees coach Paul Roos) they’ll play a physical and a one-on-one style of game – that’s just his style.  I imagine the Demons will bring something similar to the sort of pressure the Bulldogs bought last week, so we’re going to have to be at our best.

Those areas we spoke about before, we’ll have to do well in the clearance areas and not turn the ball over as much as we did last week otherwise we could find us in trouble again.

We have three big inclusions for Saturday’s clash – Sam Reid, Isaac Heeney and Ben McGlynn – what do those guys bring to the side?

Heeney is a young, developing player with a big appetite for the contest while he has proven he can bob up and kick crucial goals for us.

Reid is coming off his best game against Fremantle a couple of weeks ago, so we’re hoping he can continue that form.

McGlynn’s ability to cover the ground and apply pressure should hold us in good stead at the MCG as guys that can run up and down all day are always important.