BILL GETS GRILLED – BILL MONAGHAN ROUND 15 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 he reflects back on some of the standout individual performances in the win over Subiaco and looks ahead to this Saturday's clash with Perth at Lathlain Park.

QUESTION: Jay van Berlo flies under the radar but again against Subiaco he was almost three players in one by kicking two goals, winning plenty of his own footy in quelling the influence of Sam Menegola?
ANSWER: VB is a real workhorse. He's not someone who you go to the footy and admire that quick, high-skilled player but what you know you get from him is 100 per cent effort all the time. He's really hard on himself and when he thinks he hasn’t quite done that, he is critical on himself but he was really important for us. Menegola got a couple of shots away in the first quarter and VB wasn’t necessarily directly responsible for that, but he did push forward and kick a couple himself, and it was a really good battle. They are both evenly matched in size and VB really led the way for us especially after Teddy went down who again is a strong, rugged-type footballer and a great leader. VB was outstanding but he wasn’t alone. I thought Guady, Chris Keunen, Andrew Strijk and some of our young leaders like Rasmussen really led the way.

Q: Matt Guadagnin's last five or six weeks have seen him get back to some of his best form?
A: He's been up and about a bit the old fella the last couple of weeks. He just looks sharp and when Guady is gloving the ball in congestion, he becomes an exceptionally good player. Most of his ordinary games are when he becomes fumbly so we've been really pleased with that and the continued development of Aidan Lynch who was fantastic. He went head to head with Phelan and at worst broke even. His attack on the contest and his strength around the ball was good. Shane Nelson continued his great form. He had a dozen clearances, five or six tackles and 33 possessions. We can all get caught up into whether Shane is a good player or not, and whether or not he hurts the opposition, the numbers both offensively and defensively stack up against anyone in the competition. I think it's about time people just started to judge him on what he delivers and not on what they think he should deliver. Our midfield had a really good game and we think we've got a strong midfield group, but we also know that we can't take our foot off the pedal.

Q: Marcus Adams looked good for most of last year at centre half-forward, but he went back late in the year and now he's turned himself into just about the best defender in the competition given he doesn’t get beaten and is good at setting up play going the other way? 
A: If you consistently watch Marcus train you wouldn’t be surprised that he can do anything. His physical presence and his speed and strength are all elite. Marcus is still relatively young in football terms and he hasn’t played a lot of footy, and is still developing and getting better with his decision-making and understanding the game. As a pure athlete with the capability of playing multiple roles, I wouldn’t think there would be anyone else in the competition who would be better than him. It doesn’t amaze us what he's doing, but we have to keep him focused and we will keep setting him big tasks and giving him big jobs, and keep on making him improve.

Q: You must be comfortable with where you are sitting now with the bye before a strength of eight straight matches, having won the last three games to now be clear in second spot?
A: You are never going to be unhappy being 8-4 and sitting second. Is the gap too far from Subi, well that's really nothing we can worry about. Our last three games in particular against quality sides in Peel, South and Subi we performed well in and we still think we can perform better. We won't be taking any side lightly and that includes Perth after the bye this week. We probably haven’t discussed it with the players, but most of the coaches have a magic number in the back of their heads where they would like to get to and we are going to take it a week at a time, but hopefully get to that. That's all we can control and what other sides do is nearly irrelevant, we just need to play our best footy every week.