The senior players were all sensational, and Jude’s game was remarkable. Just watching him on the ground and then whenever I was sitting on the bench, he actually had 26 contested possessions which is the most I’ve ever heard of or seen in a game. I’ve since heard that it was an AFL record - no player had ever had so many contested possessions since they started collecting those statistics.
He was simply unstoppable, and that is Jude’s game, in and under. He was inspirational and I think that will go a long way to getting our season kick-started again.
We have a massive game this Saturday night against Port Adelaide, and hopefully a lot more boys can jump on board from now on, and if Jude keeps that effort up I’m sure we can go a long way this year.
That elusive feeling came back to us last Sunday against Essendon. It had been four weeks, four losses before that, and we were all down and disappointed. We were trying to get our effort up to standard and that consistency back, and I think just missing out against Hawthorn was a bit unlucky but we carried that effort on to the match against Essendon.
It was sensational to win one of those close gritty games. Since I’ve been involved every time it gets close we seem to come away on the wrong end of it, so it was good this time to come out with a win.
For that period of a few weeks where we were down, it was our lack of commitment, poor work rate and not having that care factor, but it was back last weekend and we want to carry it on this weekend.
It might be a cliché but it is all about everyone playing their role and all competing. We have to have that same effort against Port Adelaide.
It’s obviously a massive game for both clubs and if we can go to the break at seven (wins) and five (losses), it will really set up our season.
