BILL'S GRILL – SECOND SEMI-FINAL

I WAS really proud of our players and whilst it wasn’t an issue for us, it clearly was for most on the outside about how long it's been since we won a final so there was a little bit of a relief there for the players to get the monkey off their back so to speak.

To their credit, though, their focus was purely on that game and they knew they couldn’t change anything that had happened in the past so they just focused on playing Claremont and now are focused on doing everything right going into the grand final.

I'm not sure we were nervous about our goalkicking considering we were confident that with the way we were playing we would be able to absorb a few things. Clearly goalkicking was an issue, but it's not something that we are going to focus heavily on because it hasn’t been a problem all year.

The general way that good sides are going right now in both the AFL and WAFL is by putting huge pressure on the opposition, and whilst we felt our pressure against Claremont was good, they put us under good pressure as well at times and then may have contributed a bit to our goal kicking and a bit of our field kicking. It was a game that was pretty much hammer and tongs for four quarters even though there seems to be a bit of a feeling that because of our scoring shots we controlled the game, but we only won by four points against a side that lost just three times in the regular season. We know that was the minimum standard we need and I expect we will need to find another five or 10 per cent come grand final day.

I think the emotion of it all is really different as a coach. I sat back and was reflective pretty early about it all and looking around at the faces of the players, supporters and support staff and that's the enjoyment you get when you achieve what you set out to do on that day. My thoughts, though, flicked fairly quickly to how we can best prepare the players in the next two weeks leading into the grand final. There's a process we've got to go through as coaches with debriefing players, analysing the game, looking at our structures and making sure of the things we did well. We did an extensive video review and then there's injury management and there are so many things that need to fall into place and the first piece of the puzzle is winning to get into the grand final.

It doesn’t matter at what club you are involved in or in what role, the whole purpose you are there is to win. To see those players who have played so long at the club win and go into the grand final, and see their faces, was priceless but they are as grounded of a group as I've seen. They were pretty quick to pull themselves in to say that it's a little pat on the back for making a grand final, but they know there's still a long way to go. It's a great reward for those long-term servants and great excitement for our young kids with the fact that probably half of them were playing their first ever final. They got to experience a second semi-final and come through that with a win, which can only hold us in good stead going forward.

Our style of play, the way we went about it, our attitude, our effort and all of those types of things were good but we are under no illusions that they will need to be even better again come grand final whether it's against East Perth or Claremont.

The players are aware that all we've done at the moment is qualify for the grand final, and qualifying for a grand final doesn’t mean a lot at the end of the day if you don’t win. We are working on a few things now over the two weeks leading into the grand final. Goalkicking is clearly one of them, but there are three or four minor areas that we also think we can do a little bit better in than we did against Claremont in the second semi-final. Then there might be some slight tweaks to the plan of attacks and tactics that we employ depending on whether it's Claremont or East Perth.

They are different sides even though generally speaking what we do well, and what we've done well over the year, needs to be done against both of them but the power forwards of East Perth are different than the smaller, more mobile forwards of Claremont. The midfields are probably similar so there are a couple of little tweaks for instance a Cale Morton for East Perth seems to like to free himself up across half-back and Adam Selwood found plenty of space against Swan Districts and so did Cripps and Lycett. But we will sit back on Sunday and watch Claremont and East Perth go hammer and tongs at each other, and it's an interesting thing having to watch a game of footy not knowing who you are playing the next week. It might be the 30-minute mark of the last quarter and we might not know who we will play or we might know during the second quarter, we won't know that until Sunday.

One of the disadvantages of going straight through to the grand final was that Claremont, if they get through, might be thinking that they have now seen what West Perth has and they might just parts of their structure and maybe even their side.

Both Luke Tedesco and Michael Pettigrew need to get through another training session to declare themselves fit, but they are no under illusions that even if they do that there's no guarantee they will come back in. The cards still need to fall their way for that to happen.

Whilst all of our 22 were contributors in the second semi-final, we still need to work through the process of picking our best 22 now for the grand final and that doesn’t guarantee anyone who played on second semi-final day a spot in the side, but it clearly is an advantage and it's clearly a position they want to keep.

We honestly don’t know what the make-up of our side will be and Tedesco, Pettigrew and even Matt Johnson who has now played a couple of reserves games, and Shannon and Antonio who were unlucky to go back and Frank Stockley all come into calculations depending on circumstances and who we end up playing, and how we want to structure up.

There is still some selection headaches for us and there will be some disappointed guys, but that's part and parcel of football and we just need to be supportive of the players who miss, and those who miss selection need to be supportive of those who get a game. All I know is we will put out 22 committed players and give it a red hot go. If our best is good enough then it's good enough and I'm confident we will give our best.

Our reserves also did a great job last Sunday to win through to the preliminary final and the excitement and belief that they have generated over 12 or 13 weeks now has been outstanding. To see the guys enjoy their football and get reward for their efforts while still doing all the right things that we ask of them, has been great to see. We will now get down to Claremont Oval to support them and hopefully they continue their winning form and we will have two sides there on grand final day.

BY BILL MONAGHAN