Wells, the centre of some scrutiny following his team’s opening round 55-point loss to Essendon, fronted the media at Arden St before training on Wednesday morning.
The silky-skilled Kangaroo, like several of his teammates, was quiet throughout the round one clash.
Despite enjoying a solid off-season, Wells said he felt flat early in the match and was at a loss to explain his poor first-up showing.
“The work rate definitely wasn’t there … at the end of the day there’s no excuses,” he said.
“I played poor and I’m ready to redeem myself. Hopefully I can have a bit more impact this weekend.”
Wells said he was primed for a big 2008, although he had let himself down in round one.
“It’s all about actions at this club and that’s the way we try to go about it,” he said.
“I didn’t deliver on the weekend but hopefully I can do it this weekend.”
The man entrusted with reinvigorating the Kangaroos on-ball brigade, midfield coach Darren Bewick, said Wells had the opportunity to make amends this week against the Tigers.
“He knows that his performance wasn’t up to scratch [against Essendon] and the good thing about it is he can turn it around in four or five days’ time,” Bewick said.
He said Wells wasn’t alone in having a bad day, and he looked forward to seeing the ball in his own players’ hands more this weekend.
“There’s a number of blokes who were disappointing and you know that happens when you get beaten by 10 goals,” Bewick said.
“You look a bit slower when you’re chasing, and we chased a lot on the weekend.
“I’d class Matt Campbell, Daniel Wells, Andrew Swallow, those sort of players, as quick players but when you’re chasing you always look a bit slower.
“I think the good thing is we played on Monday [and] we only have to wait five or six days to really turn it around against Richmond.”
