Coach Post Match – Todd Curley Round 18

WHAT South Fremantle coach Todd Curley had to say following the Thursday night WAFL clash with Subiaco at Medibank Stadium and looking ahead to this Saturday's derby with East Fremantle at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

QUESTION: You probably did a lot of things right after quarter-time but like against Claremont the last game, giving up the opening five goals was always going to make it tough?
ANSWER: It's probably the first 15 minutes that were the game when they kicked five goals. I thought we showed a bit of character after that and started to do some things we had trained and wanted to do, but when you have to come from behind you get tired late. But to their credit when they were challenged I thought they smashed us in the last quarter especially around the stoppages. We had a few young blokes in so there's a bit to learn from.

Q: Now that those slow starts have happened a couple of times is it something you need to look at closely?
A: I think they were pretty different. If you look at the Claremont one we just defended really poorly but up against the best team this week, I thought we were a bit intimidated and we looked like we were intimidated in the first 15 minutes. It's not great and it's obviously something we need to make some changes with to get better.

Q: Do you take some positives that you were able to play well in the second and third quarters against a strong and experienced team?
A: I thought after being five goals down 15 minutes in we probably steadied the ship OK before quarter-time. Then we sort of hung in and played some good footy in the second and third quarters, but probably didn’t make the most of our chances late in the third quarter. They are a good team and keep coming, and they were too good.

Q: What stands out to you about Subiaco that makes them the team to beat once again?
A: They are a really experienced team and have played a lot of finals footy, and a lot of footy together. That's probably a big difference between where their group is at and where ours is. We've still got a fairly young and inexperienced group particularly when it comes to finals. Even some of the guys who have returned from AFL are still really young guys so they will get better as they play more footy, and play more footy together. Sometimes as coaches, clubs and supporters we get a bit impatient because we want that instant success but we think when we get it right and get our leaders back like Hams, Schloithe, Johnson and Edwards, that we have time to turn it around. 

Q: Shane Hockey and Steve Verrier did a lot of hard work in the midfield, I'm sure they will be looking forward to Ashton Hams in particular coming back?
A: I thought they toiled on pretty hard but in the last quarter I didn’t think we were very good in the middle at all, which puts pressure on the whole team with the ball going the other way. Tim Kelly has probably had a quiet month and we know he's a quality player and had a great start to the year so we need him to get back to his best as well. It will be good getting Ashton back and good players make everyone better. You take good players out of any side and you're going to struggle a little bit, and we've really struggled for leadership the last three or four weeks with having Pullman, Higgins, Schloithe, Hams and McIntosh all out at times. They are five out of our leadership group who haven't been out there and we've been a little bit disorganised at times. We think in the long run it will make us better though.

Q: The conditions obviously weren’t great but every week you seem to be playing in that. What did you make of the Thursday night concept?
A: It doesn’t bother us. We had a bye coming into it so it wasn’t a huge challenge. Obviously it wasn’t a great night weather-wise but hopefully there were quite a lot of people watching at home and they didn’t turn it off at quarter-time.

Q: The weather for game day has been quite remarkable, I'm sure you'd like a fine day sometime soon to play in?
A: It does take it out of you as well if you are continually playing that grind. We had a really good week on the track last week with three sessions in fine weather and again during the game when it was fine we looked OK. But there are no guarantees of fine weather so we have to find a way to play well when it's wet.

Q: Big game again against East Fremantle with you needing to stop the losing slide and them needing to win to stay in the top five race?
A: We never take anyone lightly. We need to get us playing our best for longer periods so that's our challenge. We have a few things that we can work on and that's OK, we'll get better and we'll keep working.

Q: Have you learned a lot about the group this past three games that you've lost than you might have when things were going well, and it's good to know you've banked those wins?
A: It's more about where you're at and the younger guys that can improve. We haven't played great footy for the last three games obviously. Our good has been good, but we've had lapses that have cost us games. It would have been easy again to roll over at quarter-time in this game and it could have got really ugly halfway through the first quarter, but they showed a bit of resilience which was good. Everyone goes through their injury and form challenges, which is why it's so important you win when you have everyone up and going. We did that but our challenging time has come and we haven't been able to keep winning. Those early wins give you some space but hopefully we get some boys back, we train well and play better.