Todd Curley Q and A – Round 6

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

Curley spoke following Monday’s Anzac Derby against East Fremantle at Fremantle Oval and looks ahead to this Saturday’s clash with East Perth at Medibank Stadium.

QUESTION: It was a good performance for three quarters but obviously dropped off in the second. What have you made of the game initially?
ANSWER: Disappointing result in the end but it was probably that one patch. First half of second quarter we let ourselves down, but the positives obviously were Dragovich’s first game, Panizza’s second game, they came in and played well. Bennell came back in and as a young player played well. I felt we certainly played better footy and our pressure on the ball was back, there was a lot to like and a lot we could build on.

Q: Good signs but how do you stop those patches happening? Where a team can kick seven goals against you is always going to be tough to come back from.
A: Yeah we have got some things in place, it didn’t get activated quickly enough or didn’t work. Talking to the players quickly, half way through that second quarter they did change it up and put in place what we have had. We were able to make it a bit of an arm wrestle for a while and finish pretty strongly coming in to half time, but we have to react much quicker than that.

Q: You made some changes and you got some good results from that. Panizza did a great job shutting down Anthony?
A: Yeah I thought he did a great job. Liam Anthony is a super player and really good by foot, and usually sets them up with the use of the ball, but I thought he did a great job.

Q: Dragovich has been banging on the door to get his debut, made it this week and he really made an impact?
A: He was super wasn’t he? He just had that exuberance of youth but the pleasing thing was that he didn’t get his ball handed to him on a platter, he halved contests and tackled and put in second efforts. I thought it was a fantastic debut.

Q: Brock Higgins is working so hard in the ruck and put in another big effort against East Fremantle’s two experienced big men?
A: Yeah I think Brock would have been a little bit disappointed last week. He is probably one of our most durable players and even though he is certainly not a flashy ruckman, he gives you consistent effort and you’re pretty comfortable coming to the game knowing what to expect of Brock. I thought his effort was enormous. He probably let himself down a couple of times with his use of the ball but you can’t question his effort.

Q: Is that his fault? Or do you need guys getting around him that can get a handball off him because he’s never going to be the best kick?
A: Yeah he probably has to make that decision. If I was a midfielder I’d be getting around him all the time because he’s having a good impact with his contested marks. But with him running around calling for handballs it’s probably not what we’re after but his efforts have been really strong.

Q: You made some changes and it was a tough week coming off the loss to Subiaco, apart from the result did you get the reaction you were hoping for?
A: Yeah I think we put our hand up and we wanted to reward good form last week and it probably didn’t marry up with the balance of the team. We thought we lacked run and a bit of speed to put more pressure on the ball. I think the guys that came in and even the other guys on the team were able to put more run and more speed and put pressure on the team today. We were pleased we did a lot of things better.

Q: Your first taste of a Fremantle derby big crowd out there and it was a good atmosphere it was a pretty high intensity game. Was it everything you expected?
A: Yeah it was a reasonably high standard game for the most part, we just didn’t take our chances late but we were still pressing and that was a pleasing thing. It was a good crowd which was good for the club.

Q: Missing three of your best midfielders at the moment. How far away are Kelly, Martinez and Schloithe?
A: Martinez and Schloithe definitely won’t play next week, Kelly is a maybe. But that would be pretty handy, obviously that is a first choice midfield for us that we have out but it gives us the opportunities for the other young players and we have to find a way to win without them. They will come back in the next couple of weeks but probably more likely for Schloithe and Martinez will be probably post the State game bye.

Q: Big challenge with East Perth next week. They were in good form against Perth this week. They have a lot of talented WAFL and West Coast listed players, they look to be a challenge again?
A: Yeah it’s another challenge for us, but we have got to get back on the winners list. It’s a bit of a challenge with a four-day break to play Saturday, they played Saturday so they have a couple of extra days and it was pretty warm today and obviously a derby is pretty physical. It will give us another challenge but we will get 22 wound up, get out there and give it our best shot.