From the Coaches Box - a lot's changed
In Cellarbrations' From the Coaches Box, assistant midfield coach Marty Mattner talks about the change since the round one loss to GWS
Harry Cunningham was one of our better players against the Tigers, and he’s a player who has been really consistent for us this season. He’s been able to play a variety of roles whether it be half-forward, half-back and he’s also played a few run-with roles. He’s really developing into such an important player for us and his game against Richmond at half-forward, where he ended up with 22 possessions and showed some really good, hard running in the last quarter, was really good for the team.
Another young player who really showed something last week was young Zak Jones, who played his first game. He got his opportunity to come on at the start of the third quarter when Rhyce Shaw went down injured, and looked really comfortable and composed and made some good tackles at really important times. He looked great out there and it was a really encouraging debut for him.
This week we take on GWS here at the SCG on Saturday night. A lot has changed since we played them in round one and suffered that disappointing loss, so we’re not really looking too far back when it comes to our preparations for this week. We just need to go in and play our brand of footy because we know that will go a long way towards winning the game.
GWS have won back-to-back games, so they’ve certainly been playing some good footy and have so many talented young players who have taken strides forward this year. They have shown what they can do when they’ve got confidence, so it is very important that we get off to a good start on Saturday night. We need to try to really stick to our structures and play pressure footy because that’s what has gotten us in the position we’re in this year.