BILL GETS GRILLED – BILL MONAGHAN ROUND 15 Q & A

WEST Perth premiership coach Bill Monaghan discusses Saturday's 70-point win over East Fremantle that consolidates third position, and what pleased him most while looking ahead to this Saturday's clash with Peel Thunder at Bendigo Bank Stadium.

QUESTION: That was always going to be a big game with third spot up for grabs but after half-time that was as good as you've played this year?
ANSWER: I was really disappointed at half-time with the scoreline of 4.13. You always worry when you miss several easy shots and you don’t hurt the opposition on the scoreboard that it can come back and bite you on the backside. I was disappointed with the scoreline but not the way we were playing and in the second half in the end we got reward not just for how we played after half-time, but got a few back that we probably missed in the first half. I was really pleased with that.

Q: It was probably the first time this year where you've really put a team away and piled on a good score and big win?
A: I'm not really sure why. We probably play a style that is more based around defence than offence so we're not a side that normally kicks a high score. We didn’t really plan to do that this week, we just wanted to move the ball a bit longer and more direct forward of centre. I thought Hamilton was outstanding for the day, Lourey obviously chipped in and Duffy got some spoils late. But we also had three or four big roles played by players. Munns had another scalp, Ben King was outstanding on Brett Peake and Ras played as a defensive forward on a combination of O'Brien and Schofield. It was one of those games where just about everything we had planned for came off, which is great but that's not normally the reality. You win some and you lose some.

Q: Last week you labelled most of the forwards disgraceful, but they delivered this week?
A: We probably stripped it right back to say that the forwards were working in isolation and we showed them some vision and worked on some drills during the week about playing their role, if they had a role to play. Sometimes that's hitting up at the ball carrier, sometimes it's defensive positioning. We are finding in some of the vision that we had six players all wanting to get the ball at the same time and that doesn’t work. The planning worked this week and they executed well so our challenge now as a forward group is to do that on a consistent basis. Whether it was luck or good planning, we got them this week down back and it won't always be the case.

Q: Ben King's job on Brett Peake was as good as anyone could do?
A: We made a real decision at selection and it meant that Luke Tedesco after coming in last week and playing his 150th had to go out. He was OK last week and especially in the first half I thought he was good. But we made that decision purely based on a match up and we used Drew Rohde last time, and we have tried a number of people on Peake over my journey here. Kingy defended really well and it was a horses for courses selection. He came in and did a wonderful job but I thought collectively our backs were solid. We were missing Rodda and that exposes Joe Morrow to play as a tall where he's normally the third tall, but I thought Ben was outstanding.

Q: Dean Munns did another great job on Sean Henson?
A: We would be foolish to think that he won't be beaten ever, that's unrealistic. Again the discussion this week will be around that OK he kept Henson to five but he only had five himself. We really need to weigh that up but it's the first time we've used Dean on an outside player. Whilst East Fremantle pushed Henson inside for a little bit, we were comfortable with that because that's not his normal game. They then pushed him forward and Dean still concentrated. Someone will get hold of him, it's just the way of the world. But we still need to work out if we are happy to have a midfielder touch it five times ourselves. But based on our last couple of games and in particular in Round 4 when East Fremantle belted us, it was all their outside players that hurt us whether that was running off half-back or Henson on the wing. It worked this week and we'll find another match up next week and keep soldiering on. Dean's concentration is outstanding.

Q: You were disappointed in the accountability of the midfield last week but going both ways they were right on top of East Fremantle's on-ballers this week?
A: Sometimes you get fooled a little bit by winning form and maybe as a coaching staff, and coach in particular we sugar coat a little bit what we were doing defensively through the middle of the ground. We were happy that we were finding the ball, running and finding enough footy to beat the opposition, but last week was a wakeup call that our mids have to do it at both ends, offensive and defensive transition is really important. Whilst I would have preferred the win last week especially with South losing this week we could have been in second spot, so that's disappointing, but as I tell my players and my children, you learn from your mistakes and sometimes making mistakes or getting beaten teaches you more than winning. Last week was a good guide of that but the challenge now is to do that on a weekly basis. Everything we planned this week pretty much went the way we wanted and I'd be foolish to think that's going to be the case every week.

Q: You might have missed a chance to go second but this was still a big win to see you well clear in third?
A: It does. After being 1-4 I would have been dreaming that we could be sitting top one, two or three. We've put ourselves in position now where if we continue to win we can finish in one of those top three spots. We will need some significant faltering of Subiaco and South Fremantle to claim one of the top two spots, but all we can do is keep working on what we need to do. The good news was that our percentage ticked over 100 and whilst Peel and East Fremantle are slightly above us, it wasn’t long ago we were 85 and they were 114. If we can continue some good form and keep winning games the percentage now isn’t as big an issue as it was but it's probably getting a bit tight from third down to sixth or seventh. East Perth and even Perth are a sneaky chance to make the five so that's probably good for the competition.

Q: Peel might not have many Fremantle players again this week but I'm sure you won't be taking them lightly?
A: I'm really confident that there was a watershed moment travelling down to Peel Thunder in my first or second year that we lovingly recall as the Mother's Day Massacre. I would think that if you look back through the history since then that it was a clear mental shift from our players after that. When I got here travelling to Mandurah was seen as a pain in the backside and something they didn’t want to go through because of how far away it is. It is a long road trip but those days are long gone where we don’t prepare well. We have played some ripper games down there against talented Peel Thunder sides. It will be a little difficult planning this week because they or Fremantle didn’t play last week, and it's a big unknown how many Fremantle players filter back and Walsh and Bootsma suffered some sort of injury last game they played. We will need to be sharp mentally but I think we will be right if we roll up with the attitude.

Q: Would you expect Nick Rodda, Kody Manning and Andrew Strijk to be a chance against Peel? And how far away is Matt Guadagnin?
A: Our indication is that Rodda, Manning and Strijk will all be available next week. Obviously Trent is still a couple of weeks away, mind you that's strange when someone gets found guilty of severe contact and the player plays within the time frame that is severe. I'm glad that Darcy Cameron is back playing but there's a little anomaly in the rules there. But those other three will probably be back I would say and Guady is an interesting one. He is due to play footy sometime in the next two weeks. I reckon if I had my way it's probably two or three weeks but that means it comes up in the bye week. I think everyone truly believes the right time for him to return is the week of the bye and we just need some real clarity of whether we are prepared to push that a week earlier against East Perth. He's no chance to play this week against Peel and I would think he may play some footy against East Perth, but my personal belief is we should leave it for a couple of weeks after that. But the time frame is starting to get pretty tight and for me to tell Matt to wait a couple more weeks will be a hard sell.