BILL GETS GRILLED – BILL MONAGHAN ROUND 20 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 Saturday's big win over East Fremantle to see the Falcons retain second spot ahead of another crucial clash this Saturday at HBF Arena against Swan Districts.

QUESTION: It was surprising that you were handed such a big advantage with the breeze in the first quarter, but you were and kicked six goals before East Fremantle even scored so it set up a strong performance to remain in second spot?
ANSWER: I thought the players brought a really solid mindset down there and sometimes on cold, wet days when you travel from Joondalup down to East Fremantle you can be a little flat. But the players were right to start and I thought from the very first bounce, and a goal within 30 seconds really set the tone. We were able to maintain that aggressive mindset for most of the first quarter and then came out strongly after quarter-time. To kick two goals into what was a strong breeze and restrict them to one meant that we went into half-time in a strong position. That made it tough for East Fremantle to come back and had we kicked a bit straighter in the third quarter we could have really blown them out of the water, but the players fought hard on a horrible day, and the condition of the oval wasn’t great.

Q: Trent Manzone is in his third year at the club now, but he's really grabbing his chance in the midfield at the moment and that was probably his best game on Saturday?
A: Trent's an interesting one. We actually had in mind that he would be a rebounding half-back when he got here, but Andrew Strijk got delisted and he played a similar sort of role that we had in mind for Trent. Andrew's got a great ability to sit off opponents and read the ball in the air, and set us up from half-back and you can really only afford one of those type of players in your side. So for most of Trent's first 18 months or two years here we had to reprogram him as a half-back and he got squeezed out of our 2013 premiership side, and that's a real kick in the guts to anyone. This year we have tried to use him on the ball as an inside midfielder, and he has had to bide his time for a while because we think we've got a strong midfield. But since he's got his opportunity he has grasped it and is playing really good footy. I'm really pleased with his attitude and how hard he's worked to get his spot.

Q: East Fremantle is struggling, but still has a good midfield with the likes of Rory O'Brien, Liam Anthony and Jamie McNamara. But even without Matt Guadagnin and Shane Nelson, you got on top in that area?
A: We are trying a few different things as well with Marcus Adams spending a bit of time in there, so is Mike Lourey and even in the last quarter we put Tyler Keitel in there. One thing we've tried to do this year is spread the midfield load a bit and we're really pleased with how VB, Lynchy, Nelly, Blacky and Kerry, when he was playing, have been going. We think the quality is there but we are also trying to find different avenues and especially with some of the bigger bodies. Strijk has also spent a bit more time in the midfield as well and it's exciting, but there's a lot of good midfielders in most sides so we know we need to be on our game every week.

Q: It was probably the best games that Corey Chalmers and Blake Wilhelm have played as well?
A: Corey has basically played most of his league footy as a small forward, not that he has played many games, but when he plays reserves footy he runs around in the midfield and racks up some pretty big numbers. We gave him more midfield time and he played pretty much on the wing and inside mid, and was able to find almost 30 possessions. He's an exciting player and he has the ability to kick goals when he goes forward so he's relishing the chances he is getting playing senior footy. Blake is a late starter to footy having played state league basketball, but he wanted to give footy a shot and he's not that tall, so there's probably not a big future in basketball for short people. It has taken him a little while, but we love the way he attacks the contest and he has some really good physical attributes with his speed and vertical leap. He has really learnt how to play good, solid footy coming off half-back and he has a lot of depth in his kicking, and he generally makes good decisions. He is right in the infancy of his career and his last two games have been fantastic, but he's only played three games. We will keep giving him big jobs and try to fast track him, and we think we have a long-term player there.

Q: Good to see Rohan Kerr back in the reserves when it looked like his season might have been over with his back injury?
A: It's an interesting one with Kerry. He was still on the surgery list, but he was starting to feel a little bit better so he said that he might as well give it a try. All the doctors and physios have ticked off that he's not going to do any more damage to his back. At some stage it will need surgery, but it's just a matter of managing the pain at the moment. He has a herniated disc so there's a little bit of protruding disc in between two vertebrae. He struggled a little to find the footy, but he basically hadn’t trained for four or five weeks. We'll give him another run in the reserves and if he gets through that, we'll look at playing him in one of the last two games and it's a bit of suck and see. All we know is that we get out the other end of it and he's playing league footy that we'll be better for it.

Q: Do you expect Nick Rodda and Shane Nelson back this week, and is Luke Tedesco getting closer?
A: Teddy nearly played on the weekend so I expect him to play some limited minutes through the reserves this week. Rodda just got a knock to the shoulder the week before but with a six-day break and the weather conditions, we thought we could afford to not play that extra tall. We were confident that had we needed to play him we probably could have, and East Fremantle is a side who at the selection table didn’t go overly tall so that meant it was the right to give that a bit of a rest. Nelly has just had a little problem with an ankle and at this time of year it's just to give him a little bit of a break as well. Both of those were calculated risks but we are pretty confident with the way we're playing at the moment and we thought the people coming in could do the job, so we were really pleased to come away with the win.

Q: Important game now against Swan Districts at HBF Arena on Saturday?
A: We'd love to be a win or two further away from fourth position and it's fairly significant to finish or second or third to get the double chance, not that it's the end of the world. Everyone at West Perth will be hoping we can finish second and get a home final so this week against Swans is important. They were, from all reports, fantastic against Subi last week and anyone who can beat Subi this year is doing a really good job. We know that Swans at their very best are dangerous and they have a lot of exciting players. They've got lots of forwards who are capable of kicking goals, a solid midfield and their back-line has Tony Notte who plays really well in the air, Tallan Ames is a seasoned campaigner and Justin Simpson is back. We know that with anything below our best we'll struggle to win the game.