BILL GETS GRILLED – BILL MONAGHAN Q & A

WEST Perth premiership coach Bill Monaghan conducts a weekly question and answer segment during the 2014 WAFL season. Here is this week's edition looking back on the pre-State game win over Subiaco and looking ahead to the WA Day Derby.

QUESTION: You must have been happy with the team's performance to beat Subiaco before the State game break?

ANSWER: Very much so. It was a real arm-wrestle and both sides were fantastic and there was a lot of contested footy in and around stoppages, and a lot of tackling and defensive pressure. It was a really tight game and the third quarter was one that typified with 25 minutes without a goal. We were lucky enough to then kick three quick wins – one through a free-kick down the ground and we lifted for a couple of minutes to get the advantage and break the game open into what proved to be a match-winning lead. We knew that Subi would come hard at us in the last quarter but every time they did challenge I thought we really stepped up. I was particularly happy with the way we defended.

Q: Pretty close to a four quarter effort as well which has been a bit of a problem so far this season?

A: Very much so. It is something that we have been hard on trying to rectify and we have been putting things in place. I think the players were lifted by the challenge of playing the top side and they responded well. I thought their effort over the four quarters was outstanding.

Q: You have played Nick Rodda forward the last couple of weeks and he is providing a good combination with Marcus Adams?

A: We just thought that a lot has been made of our skill execution so far this year and we have been highly critical of the way we have been moving the ball from defence into attack.  We decided to play two larger targets up there so the players had the faith and belief to move the ball quickly, and that we could compete in the air. That seems to have worked the last two weeks and you don’t know if it's going to work every week, but Rods is an outstanding young player and he competes really hard. It was good for him to get some reward on the scoreboard for that work as well.

Q: Two of your more skilful players Andrew Strijk and Rohan Kerr had good games as well?

A: We think that at times we get bogged down moving the ball slowly and that makes it difficult for the person with the ball in his hand, and sometimes we need to speed it up and both Kerry and Strijky were able to get the ball in some space and used the ball extremely well. 

Q: Kris Shannon and Jack Thrum both took their chances in the league team as well?

A: Thrumy was on debut although he played in the Foxtel Cup, we deemed this as his WAFL debut and he was holding his own in the first half and we decided to send him to Jason Bristow after half-time. I think he kept him to six touches for the second half as well as finding some of the ball himself. That was an outstanding performance and Thrumy is a real inside, in-and-under, hard-nosed player and he had a good tackle count and his efforts to stick to his job to curb Bristow's influence was fantastic. We think there's a lot of league footy in Jack Thrum down the track.

Kris Shannon we all know has electrifying pace and he is still learning the game. We probably don't help him by having him come in for a bit of a cameo and then he gets squeezed out, but we think that long-term if Kris can get some confidence in himself and choose some good options when he has ball in hand, that we want him to run and take the game on. Sometimes he probably runs too fast for his own good and that appears to restrict his kicking efficiency. We are trying to encourage him to believe in himself and it's not often that you get a footballer with his pace so we have to try to use that to our advantage as well.

Q: It might be Dan Hunt's last season, we will wait and see, but he is probably playing as good football as he has at any time you have coached him so far this year?

A: Dan's been outstanding for the whole time that I've coached but he is probably playing more up the ground than he has done previously, and he is playing as a legitimate centre half-back after spending most of his time deep back. He has got really good aerobic capacity and he's not a very heavy bloke although he's done some good jobs on big-bodied forwards. I think he is relishing playing up the ground a bit more, he moves across the ground well, he reads the ball well and spoils aggressively. Dan is in good form. There is a lot of talk about when Dan's career will come to an end but I know that he is just enjoying the moment and making sure he prepares well for games. We will sit down at some stage and worry about his future, but our focus at the moment is on getting Dan to play the very best he can on a weekly basis.

Q: Your focus now turns to a massive WA Day Derby against East Perth at Arena Joondalup on Monday?

A: We have put ourselves behind the eight-ball due to our inconsistency so far this season and not being able to play games at our best for long enough over the first five or six weeks. We are 4-4 and whilst we are coming off a good comeback win against Peel and a solid performance against Subiaco, we are really a long way off righting the ship. Our ultimate goal is to always win as many games as we can and hopefully play finals footy, but the best spot is in the top-two and we've left ourselves a couple of games adrift of the sides above us and three games off top spot. This is an absolute crucial game but we have a focus on what we need to do to try and beat East Perth. If we can get some consistency in our effort levels and we can use the ball well, then we are confident that we can match it with any side. We just have to keep ticking off all the little things and making sure it all comes together on game day.

WITH CHRIS PIKE