Coach Post Match – Todd Curley Round 12

WHAT South Fremantle coach Todd Curley had to say following the Round 12 WAFL loss to Peel Thunder and this Saturday's crucial clash with West Perth at HBF Arena.

QUESTION: What's your response to that loss Todd?
ANSWER: I'm super disappointed. In the first half we were totally outplayed, you can’t play a half of footy and expect to get the result you’re after.

Q: You gave yourselves a chance late, but being 46 points down you probably didn’t really deserve it?
A: You can’t play as poorly as we did in the first half and expect to win a game. There were some good signs in the second half but we’re pretty disappointed in the first half.

Q: The start was almost the total opposite to on WA Day against East Fremantle?
A: It looked like we were still living in Monday. We were poor. Their intent to their credit, they were much harder than us at the ball, used the ball better. We didn’t compete which is a worry. We’ll obviously look at the video and the tape and have another look at the game and then give some feedback to the players. 

Q: Did the five-day break have any sort of impact?
A: I don’t think you can worry about the five-day break when we win the second half, I wouldn’t have said we didn’t run out the game. I think it was probably more mental, we weren’t prepared to go to work, work hard and compete. We just looked like we wanted to get it on our own terms. When you do that you give the opposition a pretty good look. To their credit they certainly made the most of that in the first half and played well and hurt us on the scoreboard. We fumbled, got beaten at the contested ball, allowed them to walk through our tackles, gave away stupid free kicks which conceded goals. It was pretty disappointing. 

Q: With your reserves going so well, will you look to make changes to try to get things back on track after losing three of the last four?
A: You’re only as good as your last performance and our last performance was poor. There are obviously some guys that have played a fair bit of senior footy playing in the reserves that were pretty good and were pretty good last week. We certainly won’t keep rolling out the same team. We want consistent performers that roll up and are prepared to work every week and deliver. We’ll have a look and there’s obviously going be some challenges. 

Q: Do you expect Ashton Hams straight back to take on West Perth?
A: He’ll be fine. Look it’s just too big a risk. Last time he got injured was probably off a short break. The risk was probably the risk of him playing or getting through we considered it was too high. He’ll definitely play next week. 

Q: Good to get Steve Edwards back into the side?
A: He’s a class player with the ball. He like a lot of others was obviously down in the first half but look he gave a bit in the second half. 

Q: Have you seen a better mark than that one by Ben Saunders? 
A: To be honest I didn’t see it, I wasn’t looking. Obviously it was a good mark. I think he kicked the goal which is more important. Look, across the board we want to win and play well as a team, it’s not about the individual, so it’s neither here nor there. 

Q: When you had all the momentum late, how disappointing was it to see their talls take three contested marks to lead to the winning goal?
A: I thought they beat us, again. It’s something we will look at you know when the games on who can stand up and who can’t. Look we had all the momentum but weren’t able to get the job done, so we have to be better.

Q: There's pressure on for spots after a performance like that too with Shaun Bewick, Jarrod Parry, Brendan Verrier and others in really good reserves form?
A: We’ll obviously just keep giving opportunity to the guys that can deliver consistent performances. They are the ones we’ll go with. We can’t keep walking in with not being sure what we’re going to get from blokes. There will be opportunity no doubt. 

Q: Suddenly you now need to beat West Perth this Saturday or you lose your grip on second spot?
A: If we roll up and produce what we did with our effort and intensity in the first half this week then we’ll lose again. We’ll work hard and there’s some areas we can get better. The biggest one for us that let us down was effort and intent. That’s really got nothing to do with form, that’s about how you prepare. We think we’ll get better, historically we’ve been pretty good at backing up but not this week.

Q: You have been good against West Perth of late, do you expect them to try anything different?
A: Yeah maybe, it’s probably going to be hard for them really. If they watched the tape of us this week I don’t think they will be too worried. They’re a much different side, different personnel and obviously have been in really good form. One thing you get from them is pretty consistent effort and turning up. Look it’s going to be a really tough game for us but one we have to be better at.