BILL GETS GRILLED – BILL MONAGHAN ROUND 21 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 win over Swan Districts, this week's clash with South Fremantle and gives his insights on other happenings concerning the Falcons.

QUESTION: It was an arm-wrestle for three quarters like games with Swan Districts usually are, but you must have been happy with how you dominated the last quarter?
ANSWER: It's been an interesting history probably in my whole years here against Swans, but clearly over the last two or three years the games are entertainment value, if nothing else. Both sides again ran pretty hard and tried to move the ball quickly to catch the opposition out, and our work rate over four quarters clearly stood up. It was a fantastic first quarter I thought for the most part, it was an extremely disappointing second quarter, an even third quarter and there were just signs before three quarter-time that the team was setting in, and we were confident we'd be able to run out the game. I'm really proud of the way the boys did that.

Q: Again it was a win on the back of a last quarter. What have you done that's allowed you to finish games so impressively for the most part this year?
A: It's obviously a topic of conversation that we have as well. The first thing is that we have great belief in the way the players work and their work rate, and their work ethic, on and off the field, is fantastic. We think we are blessed with the best S & C coach in the competition and clearly what Craig does with them allows them to finish games off. But then there's a couple of things that you can't put a stat on like belief and I think right now the players have great belief that they can finish games off, and I think that's a huge advantage. It's also interesting to consider if we finish games off well or if other sides drop off. If you analyse our statistics like I do, I have a bit of belief that we are able to maintain our level consistently through each of the four quarters and other sides have a bit of fluctuation in what they do. It just happens that we are able to stick at what we do for longer and it probably looks like we are running over the top, and clearly the numbers will say we are, but I think it's more about us doing the same things at the 30-minute mark of the last quarter than we are at the two-minute mark of the first. I'm really proud of the players who are able to do that.

Q: That was a finals-intensity type game and now with only three weeks until the finals start, does it serve as good preparation?
A: Swans were obviously going to come at us and they had to win to realistically keep their finals hope alive. The have got the opportunity next week playing Claremont but then will still need to rely on the last round fixture, which just happens to be us against Claremont. We knew it was going to be a tough day at the office and they were going to throw everything at us, but we still think there is a little bit upside in us. Rodda, Rasmussen, Tedesco and Shannon, as a coach I'm pretty confident they are in our best 22, and there's a couple of others like Mitch van Berlo who could easily in our best 22 as well who aren’t in the side at the moment. We've been able to cover that pretty well to play at that level and to be challenged by a very good Swan Districts side. To be able to stand up to their pressure can't hurt us going into the finals and it was good to finish a game with 22 pretty much fit blokes for one of the first times in the year. Fit might be an overstatement because Nelly did have his ankle slid into and tweaked it again. It was one of those incidents they are trying to stamp out and Nelly pulled up pretty sore from that. I am pretty happy with where we are at with our squad and selection is going to be pretty late over the next few weeks because at least those four will press for this week, or the week after at the latest.

Q: Rohan Kerr is fighting through his sore back and he just showed how important he is with the way he can kick the ball so well and hit his targets to set up play? 
A: That's probably why we've taken the punt. We still think our ball use and our ball movement can improve, that's a personnel issue as much as it is a game style. We were rapt to have him back this week and he hadn’t trained for almost six weeks, and then he miraculously rocked up to training one day and he said he was right to go. We took the punt and we are willing to take that punt nearly purely based on his ball use.

Q: Are you confident he can get through the rest of the season now before then having his surgery?
A: You would think on what he's showed that there's no reason that he can't. Pre-existing injuries are something you have to take a bit of a punt on sometimes. If a guy has a sore shoulder and has it strapped, and hurts it again do you say that you should or shouldn’t have played him? We know what the risks are in playing Rohan Kerr and they are really minimal, otherwise we wouldn’t be playing him. You never know what will happen, but fit people can get injured and sometimes you have a sore right shoulder and you hurt your left shoulder. It's something we have talked about but really we will know what we are prepared to risk and not risk, but based on this week the risk is well worth it. 

Q: With all the talk surrounding the club the last few days of the TV broadcast, do you as a coaching staff and playing group ignore it, do you talk about it or how do you handle it?
A: We've pretty much had the philosophy all year that it's not something that we can control. I'm sure if you ask the coach, the players, the supporters, the board if our preference is to be on television then yes it would be and we are part of a competition that is shown and promoted on free to air television so we'd be silly to say that we wouldn’t prefer that. We fully understand why that's not happening at the moment but to be completely honest, I've probably only had the need or want to talk to the playing group two or three times the whole year. That was probably when it started and we clearly had to talk to them about it, then maybe once during the year and now clearly this week with a headline that is sprawled over the back page of a paper. We feel the need to counsel our players on that and to their credit they have been rock solid. We know that whether we are on television or not, it has no bearing on whether we win or lose. We give it minimal air time and thought, but I can't say that it's not in the back of people's minds but we can't control that.

Q: Do you now have to be mindful next week of not having any sort of drop off against a South Fremantle team out of the finals race?
A: Team selection around fixturing at WAFL level is always a challenge because you get three general byes and the state game bye, and we can't control when they are. This year we've got an eight-game run into the finals and then there's the potential to play four more finals if it ends up on grand final day. That's potentially a 12-week run so through our S & C staff, and coaching staff we are mindful of that hence why last week we took the conservative approach with Nelson and even Rodda even though he didn’t play again this week. He probably could have played if we needed him to. Are there a few more players in that boat? Probably but I would dare say that the 22 players we put out there on the park any given week will be trying to win a game of football. That's all we can do and I think if you don’t have that mindset that whoever plays has to perform at a certain level then it's fraught with danger. Will we play everyone who's available in our best 22 in the next week or two? I can't guarantee that we will but we'll be trying to win both games.