Coach Post Match – Todd Curley WA Day

WHAT South Fremantle coach Todd Curley had to say following the Bulldogs' 73-point WA Day Foundation Derby victory against East Fremantle at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

QUESTION: We talked last week about how this group usually responds well to a disappointing performance and they certainly did that?
ANSWER: I thought it was a good response. We started really well and kicked the first eight goals. But to lose our captain and obviously Shane Hockey, one of our leaders, pretty late and to go in with eight players with 16 or less games was really pleasing. I thought we defended much better than we have.

Q: A four quarter performance to come away with a 12-goal win against a team that you do have the wood over, but would have come into the game with some confidence?
A: I thought our first half especially was pretty good. There was a patch in the third quarter we probably got away from the way we wanted to play, but we certainly switched on again late. It was really pleasing, but we do have another couple of sore boys and we'll see how they pull up. It was pleasing though.

Q: Was it especially pleasing to play well without your full-forward and two of your best midfielders?
A: It's funny, we are 6-2 now and we've had a pretty challenging start with a funny sort of draw and some injuries mounting up. We've had to do a fair bit of it without Jason Maskos, Zac Dent, Zac Strom, Tom Vandeleur and Jarrod Parry, and now Ben Saunders has missed the last couple and was sore in a couple. And now we missed Main and Hockey this week so we've struggled a bit with guys going out here and there, but the beauty of that is we've been able to play some young players and they've come in and played really well. In the end, it will hopefully make us better.

Q: Donaldson keeps getting better week after week too speaking of those young players, and Russell, Bryon and Cabassi all looked comfortable out there too? 
A: We're really happy with our young group but really happy with our leaders as well. I thought they really stood up today and it was important to bounce back. We were really disappointed last week when we really didn’t fire a shot and played maybe a quarter of footy, and let an opportunity slip. But they are a really honest group and they trained well and we knew they'd bounce back.

Q: That was Nick Suban's best game of the season and what you were hoping he could produce. But it's not just his numbers, he has a real presence out there when he's up and about?
A: He has probably played back for a fair part of the year and today he played more midfield but I thought Schloithe was back to his very best as well. Marlion continues to grow in the midfield and Cooky was pretty good too. I think we're at our best, and most teams are, when you have the majority of the boys weighing in. Last week we had way too few and this week we had a lot more so that was pleasing. The opposition obviously came with a lot of expectation too after a good win last week so it was important we started well and we did that.

Q: Cory Dell'Olio reached 100 games even since you've been his coach, it's been a rocky journey but could you sense how much the milestone meant to him?
A: Yeah no doubt. It has taken him 10 years to get to 100 games but he's obviously had a stint in the AFL and then a few challenges as a result of that. He got a poke in the eye but he should be fine and when he sits back when he's finished playing footy, I'm sure playing 100 games here will make him pretty proud.

Q: A short week now before playing on Saturday, what challenges does that present?
A: A five-day break is obviously different, especially at this level when guys have to get up in the morning to go to work. But we'll do our recovery and then train Thursday and head into Saturday trying to feel as fresh as we can. We obviously have a lot of young guys who will be fresh anyway and the older guys are smart enough to make sure they are ready to go.

Q: Your first look at Perth for the year, what do you expect from them?
A: They are super dangerous if you give them space and they can certainly score. They will be a big challenge for us. We've had some pretty good games against them in the last couple of years and they were pretty good on the weekend before unfortunately getting overrun. They are a bit similar to us with a fair few young guys so it will be a good game.