Coach Post Match – Todd Curley Round 17

WHAT South Fremantle coach Todd Curley had to say after South Fremantle came from 41 points down to kick 14 of the last 15 goals to beat Swan Districts on Saturday ahead of this Saturday's trip to Busselton to take on East Perth.

QUESTION: Similar story in some ways to the last couple of weeks where you started slowly, but the response from halfway through the second quarter onwards was impressive?
ANSWER: It was a really slow start obviously but there were some different factors this week. We were kicking into a fairly steep breeze and they played some pretty close attention to key players early who weren’t able to influence the game. But I thought we worked our way back into it even though it was eight goals to one at one stage. It showed some really strong resilience to hang in and still believe.

Q: What started the turnaround from halfway through that second quarter?
A: We started to get our hands on the ball and got much better in the contested situation. As a result we got our hands on the ball and gave our forwards a chance to score.

Q: What goes through your mind when you go seven goals down. Are you looking to change things or do you have faith in the players turning it around?
A: We obviously have faith in the guys but the other thing is giving them the opportunity to settle and reload, and go again. The last couple of weeks we have been able to try a few different things or make a few changes that have been able to have an impact, but for the most part it happens on the ground. I thought our leaders were pretty good.

Q: To dominate like you did for the last two and-a-half quarters with 14 of the last 15 goals, it's pretty impressive?
A: It was a pretty bleak outlook when you're eight goals to one down early in the second quarter and they are only a game behind us on the ladder. So it was a really strong belief shown. It hasn’t been ideal the past couple of weeks but I think the players have got strong belief that they can come from anywhere. But it would be nice if they could jump out of the blocks and play the game on our terms.

Q: Do you now put extra focus onto those starts or in a way could that put it even more in the minds of the players and create more of an issue out of it?
A: I think you always try to rectify it but in terms of the way we played in the first quarter compared to after that, structurally and the way we play generally doesn’t change. We'll keep working on it and obviously we have to get better, but we would have won three of the four quarters. We do have to be better no doubt.

Q: One move they made was to bring in a player just to play on Blayne Wilson. It's not often your centre half-back gets that attention and Blayne did hurt a shoulder, but what was your take on that?
A: I don’t think it had much of an impact. We didn’t think it had a huge impact and we were happy to just run with it. I thought Blayne was pretty good but we aren’t about one player. Tim Kelly was obviously tagged really closely and kept fighting on so it was another chance for him to improve and get better. I thought he was fantastic and Schloithey as well. We were pretty even again which is generally the case when we go OK.

Q: Tim Kelly gets that attention regularly now, but is it different if it comes from someone like Ryan Crowley and does he potentially learn even more from that?
A: He's been played pretty tight for a while now but we'll keep working with him. He didn’t let it frustrate him and just kept working hard, and eventually he was able to get a bit more space and have an impact. We don’t expect him to have 35 possessions and kick seven goals every week, but the low 20s he had this week with 12 clearances and 17 contested was something you can't ask much more of from one of your mids.

Q: Their small forwards kicked some goals early but after that Steven Edwards and Jason Maskos were outstanding?
A: I think a lot of it early came from up the ground and it's pretty hard playing deep on a dangerous small forward when we probably weren’t at our best further up the ground and didn’t put enough pressure on the ball. Steve Edwards was fantastic again and Jason Maskos in the second half was very solid. He's been in very good for us.

Q: How do you approach next week in Busselton, does much change in terms of your preparation?
A: Not a lot other than you have to drive two hours to get to the game and play on a different ground. But it will be the same for the opposition. We'll give the players the option of how to prepare and whether they go down early or not, and we'll train as we normally do during the week.

Q: You'll be playing a pretty desperate East Perth team as well?
A: But our starts haven’t been great so it's a good chance for us. We were pretty good against them last timeout here for three and-a-half quarters and then let ourselves down. Our boys are a pretty proud group so I think they'll be ready to play.