BILL GETS GRILLED – BILL MONAGHAN ROUND 4 Q & A

WEST Perth premiership coach Bill Monaghan discusses Saturday's loss to East Fremantle, what went wrong and what needs to improve quickly while providing an injury update and looking at Saturday's first derby of 2016 against East Perth at Medibank Stadium.

QUESTION: It was obviously a horror start, but were you even more disappointed in the last quarter after fighting so hard to get back into the game in the second and third terms?
ANSWER: I guess in the last quarter that was because we had expended so much energy getting back in the game. We conceded a really late one in the third quarter which we shouldn’t have done, it was an errant kick into the middle followed by a senior player flying for the ball, trying to mark it and letting it get out the back. So they kicked a goal with 30 seconds to go and we were three down at that stage, and had outscored them seven goals to three in the two quarters up to then. We go to three quarter-time four goals down and win the first clearance, get an uncontested mark 15 metres out and we miss it. Everyone misses goals, so you don’t lay the blame solely on the person who missed, but at the one-minute mark of the last quarter we should have been two, or three at the worst, goals down and it's game on. Then with the ease they got their next goal took the wind out of our sails on the back of those other two things. Is that acceptable? No. Are we looking for excuses? No. but sometimes circumstances lead to sides working their butts off to get in the game and frustration or lack of reward mean things can turn ugly. They then got up and about, and saw it as a nail in the coffin and went for the jugular, and ran away with it. I was extremely disappointed with our finish to the game but I was more disappointed with the start. If there's a positive in it, and not that there is great positives, for the second and third quarters for the players to be able to turn that around and to at least fight it out and wrestle momentum back our way was at least a positive. But we've got a lot of work to do.

Q: What is the impact right now on your performances of being without your best ruckman, best midfielder, best small defender, best mid-size defender and best hard man?
A: It's having an impact, but we just have to try and find ways to be in games of footy and to close games out. We can dwell on that if we wish to and obviously we would prefer to have those players available, but we can only control who goes out on the park. That doesn’t excuse players' energy levels and commitment early in the game not being good enough. Two weeks in-a-row I've had to get fairly cranky at quarter-time to try and change it. The players have the ability to do it and Subi jumped us before our second quarter was outstanding. East Fremantle jumped us and our second quarter was outstanding, Perth started well against us and we kicked the first two against South before they controlled the rest of the first quarter. We have the ability out there. I have to find the switch to get us going from the start. We are really struggling early in games so we are looking at what we do pre-game, what I'm doing with talking to the players and we need to find a way where we get out there, and throw it all on the line early. We think the season's far from lost and we'd love to have those other players back in and five or six of what is probably our top 10 players not playing has a significant bearing on our performances, but that's not the reason we are 1-3. We are 1-3 because we haven’t played good enough footy.

Q: Again you were well beaten in the possession count. When you've played your best the last three years, you have been a high possession team, is it simply the personnel missing that's stopping you keeping as much of the ball?
A: About 350 or 360 has normally seen us out. We are trying to play a game where we are kicking the ball longer at times, which is party contributing to the lower count. A lot of people in the media, players and coaches have an opinion on Shane Nelson and how much he hurts oppositions, but the thing is he is a 30-plus possession winner and his hands in close are exceptional. That releases the next player so that's one factor. I think up til this week our outside mids, with Blacky playing mainly as an inside mid, haven’t been finding enough of the ball but at least this week Kerr and Browne did that. We just are failing to capitalise on the moments when we do have control of the game. We are coughing the ball up under no pressure or in situations we shouldn’t cough the ball up, but it's a game of small percentages. We are one metre out with the kick or five per cent off the required effort. There's just a lot of things that we are contributing to, but there are a few things conspiring against us. We just need to stay positive, work on and improve what we are doing well, but significantly we need to change some of the things we are doing poorly. We got belted at stoppages on the weekend, our tackle count was a bit low and we couldn’t keep the ball in our forward 50. They are all things we've been pretty good at for a couple of years so we've worked on other things, but maybe the players need some reminding of the things that have made us a reasonable side so we get back to doing some of those basics well.

Q: It would be silly to say this Saturday's derby is as big as the grand finals or preliminary finals you've had in recent years, but with the loser to go 1-4 it's a crucial game?
A: With a final five and a few other things in play like a couple of sides on top going really well and not losing yet, we've lost three of our first four and we're sixth. We are above three sides which I find really amazing and whilst Claremont has played one less game, we are one game from Peel in fourth. It's far from the end of the penny section, but we need to make sure we get back in the winner's list and a derby is a good way to get people back and focused. Hopefully we come out firing from the start and it will be a cracking game.

Q: They are coming off their first win, and best performance of the year too?
A: They've got some quality with their own players plus the aligned players. Hutchy might come back after missing last week, Lamb was held over so he might play this week so they will have a strong team. West Coast plays Friday so they won't need to hold anyone out of East Perth, but all we can do is plan for their very best and try to be better.