Todd Curley Q and A – Round 13

SOUTH Fremantle coach Todd Curley’s weekly question and answer session during the 2015 McDonald’s WAFL Premiership season.

Curley spoke following Saturday’s 15-point loss against West Perth at HBF Arena and looks ahead to this Saturday’s clash at Fremantle Oval against Swan Districts.

QUESTION: The forward-line didn’t really work with only Haiden Schloithe ending up kicking four goals?
ANSWER: Yeah look I think obviously we didn’t kick enough scores, but we had a few chances that we squandered even though the opposition did as well. We didn’t deliver it to the forwards too well either and when we did, they looked dangerous but too often we were beaten.

Q: Did the wind have much to do with that?
A: It was tough conditions for both teams but I don’t think that had a huge impact on the result.

Q: Is your full-forward Ben Saunders still quite a few weeks away?
A: Yeah but he has missed a significant amount of time already so by the time he’s fit and available, it’s going to be a few weeks away. We need some guys who are fit and playing and available now to stand up, so that will be the challenge.

Q: Cory Dell’Olio is the other one missing from the forward-line, is he a chance to come back against Swan Districts?
A: We are pretty sure he will play. He was touch and go this week but he’s a pretty valuable player and he had interrupted start, so we wanted to be cautious with him. But he did some work on Saturday morning and I’m pretty confident he will be right to go for next week.

Q: It was a pretty scrappy game for the second straight week, how do you reflect back on it?
A: I thought when the game was on the line in the last quarter it was three-zip out of the middle and they out-tackled us. They had more possession and out-tackled us so that was a bit of a reversal of Round 1 when we really pressured and tackled well, but we didn’t do it this week.

Q: Tim Kelly was back to his better form as well after a tough few weeks?
A: Yeah I think he should get better still over the next couple of weeks because he hasn’t played much footy at all lately. He played one, then we had the bye and he got knocked out in the first two minutes and missed the week after. He’ll get better for the run but he was better this week and we need him to lift further, and like all the others give us a bit more.

Q: Blayne Wilson back to some strong form?
A: I think over the last couple of weeks he has taken some real steps in the right direction playing more as a key position rather than a flanker, and his last two weeks have been pretty good.

Q: We say it every week, but another crucial game now against Swan Districts?
A: It is, but we have to get better. We played pretty well last week against the top side and competed fairly well but didn’t take our chances, but this week we were beaten by a better and more desperate team. The challenge for us is that we need to get better and need to do it pretty quick. At the moment it’s pretty much irrelevant what’s going to happen at the end of the year because if we keep playing the footy we are now, we aren’t going to be playing for long anyway.

Q: Swan Districts beat you last time up at Bassendean, what do you have to do on Saturday to turn it around?
A: We have to get 22 guys who turn up and are desperate to compete and play. Last time we didn’t play well and they targeted us, and went after us after we hadn’t been beaten at that stage and they were far too good for us on that day. But we have to get 22 contributors because we were well short of that this week.

Q: What do you do to make that happen now during this week?
A: We just have to train and try to train as we play. We just have to get better and get guys who want the ball in their hands at crucial times. Good teams have players who want the ball.