BILL GETS GRILLED – BILL MONAGHAN ROUND 6 Q & A

WEST Perth premiership coach Bill Monaghan discusses Saturday's important win over Swan Districts and looks ahead to Saturday's clash against Claremont in Kulin.

QUESTION: How important were those four points to get?
ANSWER: We turned up and played a lot better brand of football, albeit against a side who probably in a lot of ways their season has mirrored ours. They've been missing key personnel and haven’t been playing the greatest footy, and both of us have been struggling to kick goals and getting it inside-50. It had been like looking into the mirror watching Swans the last week or two in planning for them, but all we could do was go out and beat the opposition. It felt like we probably controlled the game than the scoreline reflected and in the first 10 minutes the ball was played exclusively in our half but we kicked three points. Then we kicked five out of bounds on the full having shots on goal in the third quarter and at one stage we were 2.9. All sides experience that, but when you haven’t been winning it makes the coach nervous and it makes the players a little bit jumpy. But to their credit they fought through that and played some good footy. We're still a fair way off playing our best footy but it was a step in the right direction.

Q: When did you know Shane Nelson was going to play and how big of a boost did that give the whole club?
A: It was a funny one. He had the wire taken out on Tuesday and he got a really favourable report from the surgeon and another surgeon he saw last week. We were told it was just a matter of him getting a guard made and we had to get that checked off by the WAFL. Basically it was about if he could play with the discomfort with that and the fact that he hadn’t touched the footy for seven or eight weeks. He strapped that up on Thursday night and to be completely honest you wouldn’t have noticed he'd missed any football the way he handled the ball. We just left the ball in his court and said we'd pick him if he was confident to play. He said he wanted to play and we thought he might actually have to get through a week of training or maybe play some time in the twos just to get some confidence back in the hand, so we were pleasantly surprised on Thursday that he declared himself fit. We were then really happy with his output on Saturday and he's just one of those players who has the great ability to win the footy. He hunts the footy and gets his hand on it. He had 29 possessions and 13 clearances, and every club in the competition would miss that type of player. There are certain limitation Shane has and other people like to focus on those, but he's exceptional with his hands and his ability around the contest. It was great to have him back.

Q: You made some big calls at selection and the biggest call was probably on Seva Mozhaev meaning Tyler Keitel had to carry the ruck, and he did a great job?
A: In some ways the selection was forced upon us given the fact that three guys declared themselves fit who weren’t available the week before – Duffy, Nelson and Tedesco. We were all really comfortable to play those three and then we made a real horses for courses decision that Swans were down a little bit on talls and key forwards. We thought that Tyler's mobility around the ground would give us in some ways an extra midfielder against the Swan Districts ruckman Yukich. He won plenty of taps but mobility and winning the ball around the ground aren’t his strengths. So we thought instead of going for what would be a like for like in some ways with playing Seva against, we'd try something different because we didn’t think we needed Tyler down back. Tyler has great versatility and he's been doing a good job down back, but we think in time he'll play forward and every time we put him in the ruck he seems to play some pretty decent footy. He had over 20 possessions and five clearances himself so we were really pleased that it came off. Sometimes you make calls at selection that come back to bite you on the backside but that was clearly one we were happy to go with, and were rapt it worked out the way we wanted.

Q: Anyone else now due back this week to play Claremont in Kulin?
A: We expect Kody Manning to play. He was touch and go last week so we just think with the way he prepares himself and the condition he's in that he will come straight back in. Whilst other people around the competition might not rate Kody as highly as we do, he is one of the first picked when he's fit all the time for us. On the proviso that he gets through the last training session of the week and hasn’t pulled up sore from the three or four sessions he's now done, he will be on the bus. But none of the other big names we'd expect back until after our bye and that's Rasmussen, Morrow and Keunen.

Q: Heading to Kulin on Saturday. What do you know about the town and what are you expecting?
A: First of all, the country games are fantastic. The country people have a great association with WAFL footy and they deserve to see WAFL out there. The players like the experience as well. It's a three and-a-half hour bus trip but it's the same for both sides. We'll aim to get there around lunch time and we'll stop on the way there to have a walk and a stretch. It's pretty full on because we get there and we are not far away from our meeting time and warm-up. It goes pretty quickly and from all reports the Kulin ground and facilities are in great shape, and it's a good facility. One thing they do really well in the country through the Royalties to Regions program is that they produce really good sporting facilities and it's the hub of the town or district most of the time. The hospitality that they put on for the players and coaches is always really good. If the weather is fine, we'll get a decent crowd as well and hopefully it will be a good showcase for WAFL footy.