BILL GETS GRILLED – BILL MONAGHAN ROUND 10 Q & A

WEST Perth premiership coach Bill Monaghan discusses Saturday's win over Subiaco at Medibank Stadium that gives the Falcons a fourth straight WAFL victory ahead of a clash with Perth at Lathlain Park this Saturday.

QUESTION: The conditions were tough on Saturday and it's always hard playing Subiaco, but to dominate the last 45 minutes like you did must have been pleasing?
ANSWER: Our form's been pretty good leading up to this game so we were confident that we would put in a good showing. The weather conditions probably made me a little nervous because those conditions probably play to Subi's strength with their contested ball, clearance work and bigger bodies. I was a little nervous going into the game, albeit we were well prepared and the players have been working really hard on the track and on game day to right the ship. It was a really good performance across four quarters and when we were challenged we stepped up. I don’t think we had any noticeable passengers, I think it was close to a four-quarter performance by 22 players so we were buoyed by that effort.

Q: The feeling around the club must be really positive now with four straight wins and a lot of the injured players back playing?
A: We are getting a lot closer to what would be our best 22 but mindful that we aren’t really sure of what our best 22 would be while Chris Keunen is still out and we decided not to play Sev, and Joel Leeson has hurt his hand to be out for a while. The players who suffered the most through our form slump, or personnel issues, was as much the fringe players like Kris Shannon and Keegan Knott who came into a side who weren’t playing great footy. We think we have another group of seven or eight guys who can easily step up when we are in good form to play their role. Nathan Alexandre has been playing some really good footy in the twos, James Batterham is playing good footy, Ben King unfortunately hurt his thumb but he's anther in contention for league footy. I would have thought from the weekend's reserves game there would genuinely be seven to 10 who if we had to play them in league footy this week we'd be comfortable with. Having said that, we don't want to have to play all 10 at once and that's what was probably happening six or seven weeks ago. They are all good enough to play, it's just a matter of getting into the side at the right time. We are really happy with the numbers we've got coming through the reserves although they're not winning a lot of games of footy.

Q: Trying to limit what Lachlan Delahunty did in the ruck would have occupied a lot of your thinking. You tried something different with Drew Rohde up against him with some help from Tyler Keitel, how did you see that go?
A: It ended up where Drew rucked against Delahunty and Tyler rucked against Wheeler. They are both fantastic players and can play a variety of roles, and they seem happy to concede ruck contest wins for what those guys follow up with at ground level. I thought Drew was a little slow to get his head around it but you have to remember he's 187cm and has rucked for all of three minutes in his career. It took him a while to understand that if Delahunty ran one way he couldn’t run the other, but I think after quarter-time it was a pretty even match. Delahunty's first 10 or 15 minutes were outstanding and had the ball on a string. He had about seven in the first five minutes and 11 in the first quarter, so you take away that start and Drew more than held his own. Drew ended up with six clearances and seven tackles himself so that's a good performance from a guy who hasn’t spent a lot of time in the midfield.

Q: Were you surprised by anyone who was included in the initial state squad last week, or anyone who might have missed out?

A: Most of those are the usual suspects. Black, Nelson, van Berlo and Strijk are usually in the mix. It was good for Browney to get recognised. He is probably in career-best form, he has been outstanding. All those guys deserve to be in the squad. I'm not sure all of them will play but having six in the squad is OK. Luke Meadows deserves to be in the squad as well. He was one of the first guys I pushed up when I was asked by the state selectors. The only other one I made a bit of a pitch for was Tyler Keitel. I think Tyler's form has been good and if he was given the opportunity he would be able to handle it. Maybe with Anderson going down and his ability to play in the ruck or forward if needed, he might still get a look in and he was the other one I pushed to be includes. There's still another two games to go until then and there are some issues around six of the eight sides playing on the Monday including us before the game. I think you will find that there will be significant changes to what most people have as their starting 22. Whether they all come out of the current squad or it gets added to, we'll wait and see.

Q: Because of the five-day break for your guys, would you still be happy for them all to play?
A: I've never had the view of keeping people out. As someone who only ever played WAFL footy and was lucky enough to play state footy, and coach state footy now, it is the pinnacle of the competition to represent your state. It's a fantastic opportunity so if the player wants to play then we back him 100 per cent but that's the same on a week in, week out basis. We don’t make judgement calls that go outside our medical team. Our physios and doctors are strong on understanding what's required and if they clear anyone to play they will be made available and the state selectors can select him.

Q: With Perth this week, I'm sure a lot of your time will be spent trying to come up with plans to take on Angus Graham and their midfielders which is their obvious strength?
A: Hopefully Earl will read this column, he is a big fan of it and reads it most weeks. I can tell him 100 per cent that Drew Rohde will not start in the ruck. I'm sure he will work that out though. I'm extremely confident that Seva will come back in and the only thing that could stop that are conditions and maybe their personnel. I know that Perth is a bit stretched at the moment with their talls they have out so we have to get the balance right. We just need to make sure that we don’t take Perth lightly. We're not in a position to treat anyone without the utmost respect and we'll train hard this week, plan hard and hopefully be ready for Graham in the ruck, Jones in the midfield, McKenna on the outside or Walley playing as a small forward. They have a very good side but like we were early in the season, they've just been handed a rough trot with their injuries and I'm not sure after a bye how many will come back for them. We will work hard to be at our very best and hopefully that will be enough to win.