IT'S hard to know what went so wrong against Melbourne. Our preparation was really good leading up to the game.
Everyone felt really inspired cause we obviously had finals up for grabs and Jude’s 250th (game). Obviously it was a massive day for the club and Jude and absolutely everyone. There was heaps at stake and then 21 seconds into the game they scored a goal.
You brush that one aside and you think that’s ok, you think that’s just a lucky one - you try and fight back. After that they just kept coming and kept winning the clearances, winning the contested footy, kept kicking goals, kept cutting us up with their ball movement and made us look really slow and poor.
There was a pretty bad feeling in the rooms after the game, on the bus and at the airport. Everyone was bitterly disappointed. Not much was said, everyone was lost for words. You couldn’t really speak, no-one was sure what to say, whether it was to the mate next to you, or to a coach or even to my family after the game.
I was really in a state of shock I suppose. It was such a big day for the club and to not perform anywhere near our best and to actually put in a really weak and poor performance, everyone was really gutted after the game. It’s probably one of the more dark days for the club but hopefully we can bounce back and get back on the board quickly because we have a massive week ahead.
We’re playing Geelong, the premiers, so we know it’s going to be a big challenge this Saturday. We hit the training track today and will again on Thursday.
We need to get some things in place, and really just go out all guns blazing and have a crack against Geelong, with a nothing to lose kind of attitude.
We need to get back to that good footy where we back each other and instinctively give it to each other. That’s when we’re playing our best - when we’re all just having a crack, and we’ll take that into this week’s game and it will be good for us.
We know our fans were disappointed but it will make a big difference to us if they come out to ANZ Stadium in red and white on Saturday and stick with us, because we’ll be doing our best to turn it around.
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