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BILL GETS GRILLED – BILL MONAGHAN ANZAC DAY Q & A

Friday, April 24, 2015 - 5:30 PM by Chris Pike

WEST Perth premiership coach Bill Monaghan will be conducting a weekly question and answer segment for the club's website. Here he discusses his reaction to the loss to Subiaco, the 16-day break before playing on Anzac Day Monday and offers his thoughts on Swan Districts as an opponent.

QUESTION: Feels like a long time now since that loss to Subiaco. What have you come up with from that loss and now how have you prepared to play Swan Districts on the Anzac Day Monday?
ANSWER: Maybe our form wasn’t as bad as we thought it was after the way Subi came out and beat South Fremantle last week they way that they did. We were good in parts especially early against Subiaco and then pretty ordinary after that. We fought the game out reasonably well but just couldn’t get over the line. We've got a bit of work to do and we need to tidy up our structures around the stoppages and that's what we've been working on to try and improve from what we did against Subiaco.

Q: It will have been a 16-day break by the time you play on Monday. How have you approached that break and you must at least expect to come out fresh now against Swan Districts?
A: We gave the guys a couple of nights off and changed our training up a little bit last week just to keep them fresh both physically and mentally. This week has been a fairly normal week with Monday, Tuesday and Thursday as normal but then with it being a Monday game we'll have a another session on Saturday morning. We are going to the dawn service up here at Joondalup to start the day as a group so we will come together early in the morning and then after that have a bit of a run and have our final preparation for the game, and then the guys will have the rest of the weekend off until we get back here to play some Anzac Day footy.

Q: You had a look at Swan Districts last week against East Fremantle. What do you make of them as an opponent for Monday's game?
A: They are an extremely talented side and in some ways they are unpredictable. They base their game on talent and running the ball, and they have a lot of skill so it's important that we pressure them and try to keep the ball in our own half if we are going to win the game.

Q: Do you enjoy that rivalry you have now built with Swan Districts where you play some big games especially this one on the Anzac Day weekend?
A: Over the last four or five years it has really developed that rivalry between us and Swan Districts. We are teams who are both generally around the mark and we produce some exciting footy. We expect a big crowd so hopefully everyone will get out here on Monday and both sides will put on a good display.