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 Swan Districts and previews this Saturday's clash with East Fremantle at HBF Arena.

QUESTION: Not only good to win last Saturday against Swan Districts obviously, but more importantly to do so in such emphatic and dominant fashion against a finals bound opponent?
ANSWER: It was a really solid performance. There were periods of the game where even some of our own supporters weren’t overly happy with us playing keep things off, but that was the plan and we had to do something different. We have found over the past four to six weeks that we have been kicking into a forward-line that has almost been dysfunctional so we just had to change the way we moved the ball into the forward-line. A little bit of that had to do with how we thought Swans play and defend as well, but it was also because we thought a slower transition of the ball meant we could keep hold of the ball better. The stats were in the end 170-off marks for us which must be some sort of a record. We had 440 possessions as well but we don’t focus a lot on possessions. Even Shane Nelson's 44, I'll use him as an example, his work around the stoppages was outstanding. Kerry and Blacky both play as outside mids so they were used as link players so whilst their numbers are grossly exaggerated by the number of uncontested marks, that was the plan. Had we not had two players like Kerry and Blacky who have good stamina to run into the right spots, it would have been difficult to execute.

We think that our back six and our mids have been our relative strengths in what has been a poor season, so it was some way of hopefully identifying and working to our strengths. We were probably blindly relying on a forward-line that was undermanned so we had to change something and it worked. It may never work like that again, but we will see this week what happens when we get back on our home ground and get ready for an exciting game against East Fremantle.

Q: Your foot skills have been a concern all season, but they were spot on on Saturday and that meant you were able to play that style of play effectively?
A: There was a period about 15 minutes into the second quarter when we got sloppy for a little bit and we missed four or five targets in a row, but they didn’t hurt us and that has been happening. We have been turning the ball over and sides have been going up the other end and scoring. We just needed the game played on our terms and it was. We kicked the ball well, 79 per cent efficiency by foot for the game, but a lot of them were easy targets. There's nothing wrong with hitting an easy target, though, when it meant we kept control of the ball and got away with a really good win.

Not only do you kick the only 50 points in a half of the footy and 49 of them for yourself. We have really struggled to scored so it was pleasing to have an opposition go through the same problems as us for a game. They only had one point in the first half and 1.4 for three quarters. We've been copping a fair bit of heat for our lack of scoring and we've deserved that, but even good sides and Swans have been that this season, sometimes it doesn’t work for you and you can struggle to score. That's what happened on the weekend.

Q: You tried some different things in the midfield. One was Laine Rasmussen into the midfield and he looked like he belonged?
A: When Laine first came into the side we used him through the midfield mainly in tagging roles and he is a really good one-on-one player. He has got great body strength and probably more importantly he's got really good mental strength so he's got a really big will to compete. We think that Laine could turn into a really handy midfielder. Part of what we have done is push Browne forward and Rasmussen in the midfield, and some of that is to try and fill holes and gaps that we think we've got, but we've had a really steady back six over two or three years now and a lot of the good kids coming through like Luke Meadows, Mitch van Berlo and Kris Shannon, who can play as mid-size backs. So to give them an opportunity we had to create some space and Laine and Browney filled a void in the midfield and forward half.

Q: Luke Meadows did a great defensive job on Ryan Davis and looked good with ball in hand?
A: We think that there is a really bright future for Luke Meadows. He is a really strong kid, he trains as well as anyone, he is really coachable and wants to learn. We think he's going to be an outstanding player for us over a long period of time. He could play on Ryan Davis next week and not do as well, but he did exactly what we needed him to do. His will to compete is fantastic and his challenge now is to play at that level every week.

Q: I know Marcus Adams has played some good football as a forward, but he really has looked like a natural key defender since going back there in recent weeks?
A: We think Marcus for us long-term we need to keep him forward. He was having some confidence issues based on the fact that we couldn’t get the ball in the front half, so he has been moved back and his attack on the footy is really strong but I think for us long-term his marking and kicking ability need to be used forward of the play. We will probably continue to use him back this year though. He is a kid who played a couple of league games as a colt for Swan Districts and then was out of the system for two years. Whilst he has just turned 21, he is young and naïve about body positioning, running patterns and all of those things we talk about as coaches. We think that he has got the ability to play at both ends, he can also pinch hit in the ruck because he's so athletic and has a really good vertical jump. It's going to be interesting where his footy ends up, but a fit Nick Rodda and Marcus Adams with one 20 and one 21, we think they are going to cause a few headaches for opposition sides as forwards.

Q: Good to see Steve Potente back in the reserves, Jack Thrum as well and you are starting to get some players back from injury?
A: Personnel has been a real struggle for us and it culminated when we had a really tough run with fixturing as well, which is no one's fault and is not an excuse, but we got all the top four teams when we were at our most vulnerable. Steve Potente's first quarter in the twos was outstanding and based on that we could have picked him for the league side. He is a competitor and that has been consistent in critiquing all our players today. That's probably what we have lost in this period. With Rodda, Potente, Manning, Strijk and Thrum out of the side, they are all guys with high competitiveness and we were probably playing football that was not aggressive enough, and not combative enough. We were still defending well structurally, but we just weren’t putting enough pressure on the opposition with our ferocity at the contest. All of those guys have a common theme and in 2013 that was very much a common theme of our side. Throw in losing Mellington and Salecic, who if  you describe what their football is like it's combative and competitive. They are all the things why are trying to regain. I was looking at some stats produced by the WAFL and we are third for tackles in league, second in the reserves for tackles and No. 1 in the colts for tackles so that is something that we place a high priority on. Not tackling is the only stat related to competing, but it is one that is generally used as an indication of how hard you are going.

Q: You will probably consider Potente for this week. How about Strijk and Manning?
A: Strijky is purely based on if he gets injured whilst in the fire brigade training program that he potentially could get turfed out. He has been training really well and it will be an interesting dilemma for both him and us because we've known since earlier in the year that this potentially could happen with the fire brigade, but his view was that whilst we were in finals contention that he would run the risk of playing football and training. The last couple of weeks we made the decision to sit him out for the rest of the season, but now that we could be right back in the hunt again if we win this week against East Fremantle, we might have to revisit that and he could play again for us this season. We initially ruled Rodda out for the season after he had a bit of a clean out on his knee purely based on him needing four or five weeks to recover, and we didn’t think our season would last that long. But now suddenly if we make the finals he potentially could be available again, but a lot has to go right for that happen. The earliest that I think Manning would be available would be Round 23 but he is just a competitor and he will do everything to get himself available for selection as soon as possible. Certainly we will consider Steve Potente this week as well because we can never have too many players with his sort of competitive nature. It's a big game against East Fremantle, it's back on our home ground for the last time this season, both teams need to win and it should be a terrific contest.