“It was very disappointing and frustrating. It was particularly galling because we were a couple of goals in front with e few minutes to go and let the opposition beat us. It’s a bad way to lose.”
“Their conversion accuracy was much better than ours and that often determines whether you win or lose.”
“They dominated us in the second quarter and they dominated us for the first 15 minutes of the last quarter. At every centre bounce in those periods, they just seemed to be going forward quickly. The tide turned in the centre bounce.”
“Whenever you lose a game in those circumstances, I just thank my lucky stars that it has never happened to me in a Grand Final. It obviously happens in various levels of football, but it’s particularly galling to be in front and have the opposition kick the last couple of goals to beat you because in a sense you had the game.”
“I’ve been miserable for day but it’s Monday morning now – we’re going forward. We’re going to go down and take on North Melbourne at Carrara. We will go down and have a run at Carrara on Wednesday afternoon seeing how it’s only just down the road.”
“We hope that the Brisbane travel down to support us and the Gold Coast people accept that we are the South-East Queensland team for the time being. So we can only ask that they all come down to support their local team because we need the crowd support.”
On the Lions’ final quarter fade-outs:
“Richmond grabbed hold of the game in the first 15 minutes of the last quarter and got a couple of goals in front, but I thought it was a fantastic effort by our guys to sort of fight back and get back in front ourselves.”
“There is always the good and bad. Looking at the glass half empty – we lost. Looking at the glass half full – we generated 34 scoring shots while they generated 27.”
“The last few minutes of both the Melbourne and Richmond games have been very costly. They have turned potential wins into losses.”
“One thing I love about the AFL is that the ball can travel 60 metres in one kick and can travel the length of the field in a quick passage of play. Players have to react and adapt depending on the situation.”
“Coaches get credit when we win and get kicked in the bum if the team loses because we’re the representative of the team. We understand that. But the great thing about AFL is that it is a players’ game. We can give them parameters, make changes, send messages and all that sort of stuff, but when the pressure is on, players need to remain composed and think clearly under pressure.”
“That’s why Michael Voss will always be regarded as a great player because in the heat of the battle, he would be composed, organised and instructive. We probably haven’t been doing well enough in that midfield leadership area in recent weeks.”
“I’d like to be out there myself sometimes to be able to answer these questions a bit more accurately.”
On the Lions’ current form:
“We’ve been much better these past couple of weeks. Melbourne beat us a few weeks ago and I thought we were terrible. But I thought different aspects of our game we were quite good last Saturday night.”
“I think we have been playing much better in the past two weeks than we had in the couple of weeks before that. We didn’t win the game against Richmond, but I think a lot of good things came from it with regards to how we are playing.”
“You have to remember that apart from Geelong, Richmond and Essendon have been the two in-form teams of the competition over the past four or five weeks.”
“It’s only the last month that matters when you talk about the quality of opposition.”
“It’s disappointing to let games slip in the last couple of minutes, but that’s only just one part of the big picture of how we’re going.”
“I don’t think we’ve dropped off that much. I think it’s more that the sides below us have come up.”
“It’s a bit unrealistic to say that we are going to go and beat Geelong – because at the moment they just seem to be beating everyone easily. But we played well against Geelong without two of our very good players and pushed them really hard that day. We know that we can compete in that environment.”
“The only game we have played where we were really never in a winning position was against the Bulldogs. In every other game we’ve played, we’ve had a chance to win at three quarter time.”
“Our pressure at the footy has dropped off a little bit. We’re not as gung-ho as we were earlier in the year. A supporter commented to me earlier this year to say that it was great to go along to the games and see the visible effort that this team is putting in. That gung-ho attack on the opposition and in their tackles hasn’t been as good in the last month.”
“That’s got to be the bottom line. If you do that, then how well you win the footy and how well you use it will determine your end performance.”
