BILL'S GRILL – ROUND 21

THIS week we have a Sunday game against East Fremantle and in the end it could be good preparation for the finals for us which will all be on a Sunday.

We had a couple of Sunday games earlier in the year and we normally train Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and then when playing Sunday or Monday we train Saturday morning as well. We have pushed all our sessions back a day this week. We didn't train on Monday after the Moora game and Tuesday was our normal Monday night with some rehab-type stuff, running, light weights and a video session. Then Thursday will be our main training sessions which usually occurs on Tuesday, and we will butter up and have a light session on Saturday followed by our regular team meeting leading into the game.

What we had been doing for Sunday and Monday games, we had been giving them one extra training session but it seemed to work and we are keen to see how this plan works this week, and come finals time it will be something we look at whether the players are comfortable with it or not.

As for last Saturday, the first 10 or 15 minutes I thought we were really good against Perth in Moora and the inside-50 count was nine to three, but we just couldn’t capitalise on our entries. We then got a bit lazy and I thought the players thought it would all just continue to happen, and Perth got up and running and out the back of us a few times to kick some goals.

After quarter-time, though, the players lifted their intensity and their attack on the footy and their tackling was outstanding. The conditions required that and I thought they were very good. That was all over the ground, but I was particularly pleased with our half-backs after Luke Tedesco got injured early. We had to throw Kris Shannon back and I thought that Andrew Strijk and Steven Browne were really good. They used the ball really well and we were lucky enough to go forward and kick the ball really well on goals.

Even though we kept Perth goalless after half-time, they did kick 10 points and a few of them probably should have been kicked so they could have kicked five or six goals in the second half. We still would have had a comfortable win, though, and it was a good day. We then got back on the bus to get home from Moora and set up for this week.

It was pleasing to have another strong second half but we are just trying to play consistently over four quarters. We have pretty much done that all year. Just before the good performances in the last few weeks, we were terrible in the second half against South Fremantle so it just goes to show that it comes down to attitude more than anything else. We have been able to turn that around, though, and I don’t think we have lost a quarter after half-time since.

Back in 2011, we had a really good run through the first two-thirds of the season and then we got hit with a run of injuries and clearly fell away, and we weren’t able to rectify that. We probably played more exciting footy back then in that period of time when we used the ball really well by foot, and would run and carry the ball a lot with a couple more targets up forward. It was a bit more exciting, but now we are playing a more consistent brand and that has been our aim to try and level off our performances.

Whilst we still have a host of experienced players, over the past two years now we have added a large number of young kids and we are really trying to set some standards to them of the way you need to go about it. We are basing a lot of that on our defensive efforts and work rate.

The flipside has been that we have been still able to kick goals which we have been pleasantly surprised by because we thought that could be a real struggle, and still might be yet but it hasn’t hampered us as much as we thought it could. Our forwards have been really good at sharing the load and it's a matter of getting them working hard defensively and offensively. It's a band of misfits up there at the moment and there's probably no one in our forward six who would be in a State team at this time of the year, but we've got five blokes who have kicked 20 or more goals and that's a really even spread.

While our forward-line has been a work in progress, what has been really good for us has been our back six. That has been really consistent but now Pettigrew is out, Hunt missed last week and we are going to miss Tedesco and Jones this week so we really need a step up in our back-line. Shannon played down there against Perth, Manzone is coming along nicely and we have another couple of kids in the colts who will probably get exposed to senior footy in the next game or two, and hopefully they can fit in and play their role too.

Now we look ahead to this Sunday. We have had two cracking games against East Fremantle so far. There was a high-scoring one with 44 goals kicked and you could argue it was the most exciting game of the year. Then in the second game I thought we played really well and to East Fremantle's credit they came hard at us late to close the game within a kick before we kicked away again at the end. We know at their very best they are a talented side and we will have to wait and see for the make up of their side.

BY BILL MONAGHAN