Round Eight: Melbourne v West Coast
Pre-Match
- We had a good build up during the week, with training at a high intensity and everyone looking forward to travelling to Perth to take on last year’s premiers.
- We were aware that defeating West Coast at Subiaco is a huge challenge but thought our best football could give us a great opportunity to do so.
- West Coast was coming off their first defeat of the 2007 season and we knew that they would be at us from the opening bounce.
- We had played reasonably good, high intensity football over the past few weeks without getting the points against Port Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs.
- Our players needed to continue to focus on the game at hand and not get too disappointed with missing out on the reward of four points after these two very close losses.
- Had to make sure that the players didn’t get caught up in the media hysteria of Byron Pickett’s club suspension.
- We’d prepared our players for a tough game, with West Coast being very strong in all lines across the ground. Needed to halt Chris Judd and Daniel Kerr at stoppages.
- Needed to continue to focus on a high work rate both offensively and defensively, continue to win the contested ball, and use the ball well through the midfield and forward line.
During the Match
- Had a poor start to the game, allowing West Coast to kick five goals to our one in the first quarter. We were lucky that they kicked inaccurately, having 13 scoring shots to our one. It’s the second time this season that we have had a poor start when playing interstate (Sydney). Overall, we have been predominantly good starters this season.
- We didn’t put enough pressure on the opposition early in the game, and West Coast was winning all the stoppages. Their midfielders had too much of the ball in the first quarter, with Judd (11 possessions), Fletcher (nine possessions), Stenglein (nine possessions), and Kerr (eight possessions) controlling the game.
- We made many errors that resulted in West Coast goals, influenced by the opposition’s pressure.
- Our second quarter was more competitive, and we kicked two goals to their three. Our intensity increased, making it more difficult for West Coast to score.
- At half time, we continued to encourage our players to lift their work rate, run and tackle harder, and take the game on.
- We started the third quarter well, kicking goals and winning the ball, before West Coast hit the scoreboard late in the quarter. They kicked five goals to our four for the quarter, but we were playing with higher intensity, and were putting a lot more pressure on the opposition. West Coast started making skill errors from our pressure, which resulted in scores early in the quarter.
- Our finish to the game was disappointing, allowing West Coast to kick six goals in the final quarter. We only kicked two, finishing with nine for the game. We were fortunate that West Coast kicked inaccurately, otherwise the final margin would have been much higher.
Post Match
- Disappointing loss, and a poor interstate performance.
- West Coast took too many marks inside 50, with a total of 28 compared to our eight. There wasn’t enough pressure put on the ball carrier when entering their forward line.
- West Coast was more determined to win the hard ball, and they worked harder than us to win the ball. We didn’t play with enough intensity or put enough pressure on the opposition.
- West Coast was well on top at stoppages all over the ground.
- We will regroup this week before our round nine match against the Kangaroos on Sunday at the MCG. Our players will be very disappointed with what we produced on the weekend and will bounce back this week.
