He had an exceptional first day with regards to getting the ball in his hands. He’s actually quite a quiet kid and I don’t think he’s the type of kid that is going to get too full of himself.
You often find that your first game is the easiest game of football you will play for a while because you’re new to the game and the opposition.
It think it would be a big call to leave him out next week. He certainly did well so he’ll hold his spot in the team.
He’s not a teenage first-year player. He’s 21 and been around the AFL system and had plenty of kicks in the pants. It’s not as though he was an outstanding junior who got drafted into the system – he’s gotten overlooked for years and eventually he got a chance. He’s been overlooked by us for most of this year but got his chance and did well.
He’s been through the hard times so I don’t think he is all of sudden going to think that the AFL is a piece of cake.
On Saturday night’s win against West Coast:
We got the base-line of our game better and we had a good win. It was important for us to re-establish that.
We’re still not great with the ball in our hands – we have got to get better. It was interesting that young Dalziell kicked the ball well. The fact is, if you can’t kick the ball well, you’ve got to have something pretty special about you. There aren’t going to be too many people in this game who survive if they kick the ball poorly.
I’ve been around footy for 40 years and I’ve never seen a ruckman do what Dean Cox does – that includes John Nicholls, Polly Farmer and any of the other great ruckmen.
He dominates the ruck contests then becomes and extra player as a ground-level runner. Our ruckmen couldn’t keep up with him and no one else can either. That was an absolutely dominating performance – without him we might’ve won be 100 points.
On facing Richmond at Telstra Dome this Saturday night:
Mitch Morton and Jack Riewoldt are two young key position players that are doing really well. Nathan Brown is a proven player over the years, but those other two guys have really popped up and are the new kids on the block.
