BILL GETS GRILLED – BILL MONAGHAN ROUND 12 Q & A

WEST Perth premiership coach Bill Monaghan discusses the win over East Perth in the Channel 9 WA Day Derby at HBF Arena to give the Falcons six straight victories heading into this Saturday's WAFL state match against Tasmania at Steel Blue Oval.

QUESTION: Strong win in some tough conditions, especially after half-time?
ANSWER: I thought we just overused the ball a little bit by hand. We are very much a side who likes to kick but for some reason we kept fabricating handballs. I got a little bit cranky at the players at half-time just asking them to kick the ball a little bit more and that improved. We just felt that if we could get the ball in quickly to the forward-line before they could set up defensively we were a chance. It worked out a little bit that way so I was proud of the guys' effort.

Q: Things were looking tough at 1-4 but you must be happy with the response to have now won six straight?
A: They are playing with great passion. There was a number of reasons early in the season, some around personnel and some around form, and we weren’t quite getting it right. But they've been able to turn it around. Our defence has really improved and we've generally based our game on our defence. The fact is that we are getting better ground position and being able to protect that ground position a lot better. We're really happy with the turnaround and the players are playing with some real confidence which is great.

Q: Michael Lourey kicked four goals and he's taking his chances well at the moment?
A: He played up the ground a little bit the last three or four weeks and has competed well, and he uses the ball well. To finish off with four goals this week was a good return. East Perth, like the Eagles, set up well behind the ball and intercept mark well with Barrass playing a similar role to what Jeremy McGovern does with the Eagles. We really asked our tall forwards to compete in the air and bring the ball forward, and it was a good reward for Mike to kick four goals and I thought until Hamilton got hurt he was as good in competing. Joe Morrow was the same when he went there and we were really happy with the competitiveness of our key forwards.

Q: Another massive performance from Tyler Keitel?
A: He has steadily been building into really good form. His last four or five weeks have been outstanding. He had another 29 possessions, three or four contested marks and 14 marks in total. His attack on the footy, ability to spoil and then run off at the right time is leaving us really rapt with how he's performing. It was a big tussle over Tyler last year but what's been really good has been his coachability. He's a young man who wants to get better all the time and I think with a pre-season under his belt he has been really good. The challenge for Tyler and probably for all of us now is that things have been played on our terms for four or five weeks, and we will start getting challenged so we need to be able to handle those situations.

Q: Kody Manning went down early, any update?
A: He's had some on-going issues with his body all year and this is the second or third time he's done it. Kody is really meticulous with his preparation and he looks after his body, but we probably need to pull back now and impose a little longer time between when he does it and comes back. He is ultra-important to us and wasn’t out there very long, but he had a telling impact when he was. Hopefully with a bye now and then three or four games before another bye, hopefully after that next bye he will get some continuity and be back for the rest of the season.

Q: Expect Jay van Berlo firstly available for the state game and then after that against Claremont?
A: Unfortunately for us, work took him to the other side of the country this week. There was a conference he had to attend and we fully understand and appreciate that. Guys have careers and they need to look after those as much as their football. He will be back after the bye, we think Leeson will be back after the bye and we've got Tedesco and Keunen who got through another reserves game. Whilst there are a couple of concerns through injury, we think we are well placed to replace those guys.