At the start of theyear, especially with Jon Hay leaving the club, the side looked a bit thin fortall defensive options. Despite being a little undersized, Michael Firrito andJosh Gibson really stood up in those roles, didn't they?
I think all along we knew we were going to have torestructure things in the backline so right from the word go over thepre-season we put a lot of work into getting Michael Firrito and Josh Gibson tobe able to play in key roles on that last line of defence.
The big thing for us was losing Nathan Thompson because allpre-season we'd planned to have Drew Petrie at centre half-back pulling thedefence together, so losing him to the forward line was probably a blow.
Having said that, that put a bit more responsibility on Mickand Gibbo and I think it really helped them develop. We also had a guy likeShannon Watt, who has played a lot of footy, show he can do big jobs for us attimes and he had his best year at senior level.
You spoke aboutlosing Drew to the forward line for most of the year. How much did that hurtyour defensive plans?
It definitely threw us out but he had such a huge impact onthe forward line, so we just learnt to cope.
Last year we were 16th in the competition fromgoals kicked from crumbing and snaps, to this year we ended up being in the topfour – I think Drew was a big part of that.
But we certainly know that moving forward, if we go with thestructure we ran this year, we are probably sometimes just a little too shortdown there and that's where we know Drew can help us.
He can give us that extra bit of size and height and it'ssomething we know we'll have at our disposal once Thommo comes back next year.
Daniel Pratt tookanother big step after starting to show how good he could be in 2006?
He was sensational this year. He can smother those smallcrumbing goalkicker types like Stephen Milne, Aaron Davey and Leon Davisbecause he's deceptively quick and he's also very strong.
But he can play tall as well. That's where we've tried tohead and that's to have a defence that match up in size and shape really wellon any kind of forward line.
You appeared to playa more one-on-one style of footy in the defensive half rather than relying onrunning a loose man in defence this year. Is that accurate?
Spot on. The whole pre-season the thought was that if youare going to play down back you had to be able to show you could compete inthose one-on-one contests.
And that relates to when the ball is coming in with nopressure on as well as when, in a best-case scenario for us, the ball is comingin when there is pressure on the opposition ball-carrier.
So that relates to when the player is on the lead or whenthere is a high-ball coming into our defensive 50. I reckon that's where weimproved the most as a defence – and that was to halve contests or win contestson a regular basis throughout the year.
Is that stillsomething the side can get better at?
Most definitely. Where I'd like to see that grow is for ourguys to identify when they can see their bloke is not being used so they can goover and help out their teammates a bit more both at ground level and in theair.
I think at times we were pretty good at ground level but wecan probably get a bit better in the air. That's what I think we need to workon a fair bit over this pre-season.
The Roos finishedabout mid-table in terms of points scored against it this year. Does that needto come down even further next year?
Geelongwere the biggest improvers in defence as a team – they went from an average of91 points per game last year to 75 in 2007.
We were the next best improvers – and we needed to improve –taking our average from 98 points down to 90.
There were teams who have better defences than us but theirimprovement wasn't as great us ours from last year to this year.
That's good, but that's got to continue to improve tosomewhere around the mid 80s to the low 80s if we are to get into the top fourin the competition in that category.
Did Jesse Smithexceed expectations after coming back from his ankle injury?
There were periods where we did have concerns about how hewas going to come back. I was personally confident he'd come back, just withhis added maturity and in learning to cope with his injury.
He was always going to come back and play AFL footy but wewant him to come back and show he can be the super player he always showed hecould be as a junior.
He's going to be a very important players for us – he's gotleg speed, great lateral movement, he penetrates the game – exactly the type ofplayer we've lacked.
Wellsy is one of those, Boomer [Harvey] is, but we havelacked a bit of depth in that area. We'd like to hope that Jesse can developinto a midfielder – it seems like the next progression for him. That just meanswe'll have to develop another one down back.
Do you think WesternBulldogs recruit Sam Power as someone who can add depth to the team's runningcapability off half-back?
He's 6'2, about 88kgs, and with a good running capability sohe might be able to slot in to allow someone like Jesse to move further up theground.
Even Ben Davies, who we've been watching fairly closely fromCollingwood, might be able to fill that sort of role. We felt we were a bitthin across half-back which, really, is quite amazing because three years agowe thought we were well off for half-back flankers.
Now a lot of those guys have either moved on, or they've hadinjuries or they have moved to other positions on the ground, like ScottyMcMahon or Ed Lower, who are probably playing elsewhere.
Lachlan Hansen played a lot of his junior footballat centre half-back. Is he someone who can play in a key defensive post?
We want to try to get him into the mix somewhere, whetherit's down back or as a roaming forward.
The thing with getting him into the backline is that physicallyhe is very immature and when he plays on the bigger types that will raisequestion marks. If we can build him up and play him every now and then on first-andsecond-year players like him, that's the perfect scenario.
We certainly need to keep developing tall backs but we'lljust wait and see where the best fit for him is. I think he believes his bestposition is at centre half-back but at this stage I think relying on him is alittle way off.
You mentioned theloss of a few defenders from over the past couple of years. Which other playersmight be in contention to play down back in 2008?
We might end up getting Drew back there again, and eventhough he's done well up the ground, Scotty McMahon can still push back.
Ed Lower is another one who might find himself more in themidfield but can definitely go back. Gavin Urquhart is a younger type who hasthe game to play a running half-back role once he gets his fitness up and youmight even find Adam Simpson could play off half-back a little bit next year.
