The game: St Kilda 12.8 (80) d Sydney Swans 9.11 (65) at Docklands, Rd 1, 2009 Toyota AFL Premiership Season
The stats: nine kicks, 12 handballs, three tackles, four clearances and one goal.
When did you arrive in Melbourne for the match?
Friday afternoon. We came here early so once we got off the plane we could have a training session, come back to the hotel and have a recovery session and massage before dinner.
Will you be able to catch up with your family during your short time in Melbourne?
Tonight and tomorrow is a chance to catch up with the family, which is good. For the night games, it is kind of in and out. With a day game on Saturday you can stay down the whole Sunday and go back late Sunday after catching up with the family after the game.
What were your pre-match preparations?
I have got into a pretty good routine now. I don’t like to listen to music. Firstly, I just get strapped and have a massage. Then I like to spend about 30 to 40 minutes just relaxing - having a stretch, a little kick and getting my mind ready for the next two hours of madness.
What was the atmosphere like in the rooms before the match?
Especially it being the first game tonight, I was buzzing, lots of excitement and enthusiasm. I reckon it really showed in that first quarter when we kicked five goals to one.
Did you know who you would be playing on during the week?
Not really. There were a couple of taggers who it might have been that I was prepared for in (Clinton) Jones and (James) Blake, but then Goddard actually came to me.
You spent a majority of the match on Brendon Goddard. What was your approach towards him?
Goddard is a really good tagger. You look at their tape and see how they get the football, how they like to work their opponent underneath the ball at stoppages and where they want to go, so you try and see their strengths and weaknesses during the week.
The momentum shifted against the Swans in the second and third term. How did you deal with that?
You just have to try and get involved in the play, try and get your hands on the ball and try to do the things we want to do as a team. I think what we did in the second and third quarter was lose our structure. I think we didn’t play our game, the game we wanted to play and instead we just fell into St Kilda’s gameplan. They pretty much ran away with the game from there. You’ve really got to try to get your hands on the ball, maybe slow the tempo down and have control of the game so you can bring it back to your terms and take the sting out of it.
What was the main message Paul Roos sent to the team at three-quarter time, after the Saints had run away with the match?
Just have a crack. We’re a good team. In the first quarter we were able to show that and in the second and third quarter our effort was lacking so he really wanted effort in the last quarter. We were still in the game even though they kicked the first two goals of the last quarter. I still thought we were a chance to win.
What surprised you most about the way the game unfolded?
When you are out there it’s really hard to get a gauge on it. But reflecting now, we were pretty disappointing in those second and third quarters. AFL football is too good these days to just rock up and play two quarters and think you are going to win the game of footy – and the result proved that tonight.
How did you rate your game from a personal perspective?
I was pretty disappointed with myself tonight. I think my opponent had the better of me and he definitely not only nullified my game, but actually drove their game plan as well. He got a lot of touches and penetrated their forward line a few times with his possessions. I’m fairly disappointed and hopefully I can learn from this week and improve against the Hawks next week.
What can you take from this result going into next Saturday’s clash at ANZ Stadium?
Every game is a learning experience. We have got to know as a group what we dished up in the first quarter is high quality AFL football and if we can do that for four quarters, we are going to beat teams. We can’t do it for one quarter and not rock up for the two or three other quarters because we will lose like we did tonight. That was the key lesson tonight. We have to work on our game plan and fitness to make sure we can sustain the pressure for four quarters.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
