BILL GETS GRILLED – BILL MONAGHAN Q & A

WEST Perth premiership coach Bill Monaghan will be conducting a weekly question and answer segment each week during the 2014 WAFL season for the club's website. Here is the latest edition ahead of Round 5 this Saturday against South Fremantle at Arena Joondalup.

QUESTION: That win over East Perth must just have been about as well as you have ever played?

ANSWER: It was a really solid performance right from the first bounce. The players attacked the contest hard and were able to sustain that over the four quarters so it was a really good win. I guess you do have to take it into perspective that there were significant changes to East Perth's line-up. Whilst they brought four AFL players in, losing six out the other end probably meant their net loss was a fair bit. You can only beat who is out there, but it was probably not them at their very best.

Q: Should that take anything away from your performance?

A: We are happy with the things we did. Obviously our pressure and run and slowly our ball use is getting a lot better. It's not really up to us to comment on what other people thought of our performance, all we know is that we were pleased to get back to playing that style of footy again against an opposition who hadn't lost a game. We can't control what they put out on the park, we can only control our effort and that was outstanding, so we are really pleased.

Q: Marcus Adams is in outstanding form at centre half-forward?

A: He has kicked a few more goals than we thought he might have, but we used him in a slightly different role in the first couple of games when we were without Manning and then Crisp for a couple of weeks. We used him as a pressuring-type mid-sized forward but since we have pushed him back to play a key position. His attack on the footy and speed is very good, so we have been pleased but he's only a young player and we understand that he may be a little inconsistent in his performance. We'll keep working with him and keep trying to get him to improve. If he can keep having the input he is having at the moment, we'll be really pleased.

Q: The forward-line is looking so potent with a handful of guys kicking multiple goals?

A: Probably in my whole time here we have never relied on the one goal kicker and forward-lines now generally work best if there is enough guys up there to pressure. When you have Kody Manning, Marc Crisp and Steve Potente as smalls, and even Matt Fowler has grown and matured a lot in that area, and Marcus with his speeds and some of our other mids, that's the forward-line we want. We think that there is a significant amount of leg speed there and if we move the ball quickly and find some space, we can cause some problems. Marcus has just added that extra dimension of a bit of size and strength if we decide to go the bail out kick.

Q: Pressure on for spots with Matt Guadagnin still to return as well as a host of guys in the reserves after they also had a 100-plus point win?

A: Our reserves were really slow to start the year and it's always tough early on in the season with a lot of blokes disappointed not to play senior footy. Like the league side, they were butchering the ball by foot but last week that was a real change for them, and we have a really good core group of young players who are putting on a lot of pressure for spots. Guadagnin will be out again this week but we are getting closer week by week to being able to unveil Andrew Krakouer. Jack Thrum, Corey Chalmers, Mitch McPhee and guys like that are all in good form who could easily push up to play senior footy we think.

Q: Will you name Krakouer to play?

A: At this stage we will name him in the 25 and then make the final decision with him. We think that even though he might still be a little bit underdone, three games in the reserves for someone of Andrew's standing is probably enough.

Q: South Fremantle might not have won a game yet, but you won't be taking them lightly?

A: Offensively they are still strong and if they get their tails up, they are hard to stop. I watched them against Perth a few weeks back and their first quarter was outstanding, and then last week against Swans had they kicked a bit straighter at goals they probably dominated that game for most of it. When you have guys like Cook, Schloithe, Hams and Pickett going through the middle, they can pose problems for any opposition. We know we are going to need to be at our best and what they've done at times this year, and the last couple, is give up some big scores so we hope to close the game down and then be good on offence as well.

WITH CHRIS PIKE