BILL GETS GRILLED – BILL MONAGHAN Q & A

WEST Perth premiership coach Bill Monaghan will be conducting a weekly question and answer segment for the club's website. Here he discusses last week's win over Claremont and looks ahead to playing East Fremantle this Saturday.

QUESTION: No matter what the performance was like against Claremont, it was just such an important four points to come away from the Showground with?

ANSWER: It was scrappy at times again but I thought our players' effort for the first three quarters was very good. We did peter out a little bit in the last quarter mentally as much as anything, but we were coming off a really tough game against East Perth, and I think the players might have thought they had done enough. Claremont then went forward to kick a couple of quick goals but to our players' credit even though it got relatively close, they were able to withstand that. Had we kicked better in front of goals in that last quarter we might have been able to put it to bed a bit earlier as well.

Q: The last two weeks you haven't had great last quarters but for much of the year that has been the team's strength. Is it just one of those things that swings around throughout a season?

A: It does. We started to make a bit more focus on starting the games better but generally speaking over the last couple of years we have always kicked into the breeze early. We believe that the game is generally a bit more scrappy early and people are finding their way, and getting used to the conditions. We did that on grand final day and it worked. We think that it is easier to waste opportunities with the breeze early so maybe over the first six or seven games we started kicking into it and therefore coming home with it. We have changed that concept a little bit over the last two or three games because we felt as though we needed to get off to better starts, and give the players some confidence early so we have kicked with the breeze the last couple of weeks. Not that the breeze is a huge thing, but sometimes you can not get such a strong finish kicking into the breeze as you do with it. There are a few things around that, but the other thing too was that Claremont had five or six scoring shots in the last quarter and we had four, it's just that our four were points. If we kicked two, three or four goals then it was still a comfortable win for us and that was probably a fair indication of where the game was for the majority of the first three quarters.

Q: We knew it was going to be a big job for Seva Martin in the absence of Chris Keunen and he did well up against Mark Seaby and Darcy Cameron?

A: Sev was great. We think that Sev is going to be a fantastic player for us long-term and he is clearly behind Chris at the moment because he is an outstanding ruckman, but to Chris' credit as well he is working hard with Sev and trying to improve him. He knows that down the track Sev is his successor so it is a really interesting relationship that those two have formed and they are completely. One is a big, strong, strapping lad and the other is a wiry little 85kg ruckman so it's actually good that Chris is able to try and teach Sev some of those more subtle things about movement and positioning rather than just using his size and bulk. Sev is a work in progress and we have been really happy with what he has given us this year in the reserves and the seniors the last couple of weeks.

Q: Jack Thrum is showing that he belongs at league level?

A: Jack won the colts fairest and best a couple of years ago and then he had a couple of overseas holidays where he missed some chunks of pre-seasons but we always thought he would develop into a good player. He has had a really good period of time playing reserves footy doing a bit of an apprenticeship. He isn’t an overly big kid, but he is strong and keeps his head over the ball. We are really pleased with the way he is going and hopefully he will continue to improve and keep his spot in the side over the next couple of weeks.

Q: Big game with East Fremantle at Arena Joondalup this Saturday. Win and you are in fourth spot. Lose and you are two games behind?

A: It is a huge game in the context of the season for both clubs. I'm sure our players will be ready for it and it's good this week to get back to a standard week having played last Saturday with a game this Saturday, which is the first time in a while we've been able to have what we would call a normal training week. The players that we will put on the park will be fit and firing, and we expect to go out there putting our very best on show. We think that our very best is good enough to beat anyone. I am expecting East Fremantle to have the same attitude and it should be a ripper game. The people who come and watch it should be treated to a good spectacle.

WITH CHRIS PIKE