It did feel as if we’d bunkered down early in the week but the great thing about football is that it is a week by week game, and while people might dwell on things for a week, you can move on when you play your next game.
Even though we’re sitting at 10-1 we feel like we haven’t been playing at our best. It might have something to do with personnel because I don’t think there’s been a stage this year where we’ve had our best 22 on the park. The thing Alastair has done really well is get experience into our young players. We’re still learning but we’ve got a long way to go.
You could tell the boys were boosted by the return of Luke Hodge and he certainly took no time to readjust after his hamstring injury.
He probably got us going to be perfectly honest. We were struggling early but he came through and kicked a couple of really important goals. His centre clearance work, considering Sammy Mitchell was getting heavily tagged was really important for us. We’re really pleased with the result we got out of him.
Hodgey is one of those blokes that lifts everyone else. He is a spiritual leader and Sam is very much the same. When those guys are up and playing well everyone else plays that much better. He is such a physical and competitive beast by nature that he can instil confidence in everyone else. There are not many players in the league that can have an influence on a game the way he does. He is a very important player to us and one we’ve definitely welcomed back into the side.
We’ve got a couple of other handy players that could be back this week. Crawf is thereabouts but I’m not sure if he’ll line up. Stuey Dew is one that should be available though.
Stuey is a quality player I’ve seen him close up since we were teammates at Port Adelaide and his strength is his kicking; he is such a beautiful kick of the ball. He’s like Rick Ladson and Brent Guerra in that they can be very dangerous scoring options from up the ground.
Another bloke we are delighted to have back is Max Bailey. Max has been out for 18 months with a knee injury and for him to work his way back is inspiring.
It will be a huge boost for the club, he is very popular within the playing group and one that will contribute just by having his presence on the field.
