Coach Post Match – Todd Curley Round 3

SOUTH Fremantle coach Todd Curley speaking following the Easter Sunday WAFL victory over West Perth and looking ahead to this Saturday's ANZAC Derby against East Fremantle also at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

QUESTION: A little bit of a slow start and you didn’t kick straight in the last quarter, but I'd think you would be pretty happy aside from that?
ANSWER: I think we continued the vein of improved. In Round 1, we were pretty average, in Round 2 we were a bit better for a half and I thought we were pretty good for the most part this week. We were a bit fumbly early and then didn’t convert after dominating the early part of the last quarter. Then we were a couple of man down and got a bit tired to keep inviting them to stay in the game. But we'll certainly take it. We thought we got better so that's something to hang our hat on.

Q: The style of footy was closer to how you want to play too, especially through the second and third quarters? 
A: There's no doubt there is going to be ups and downs, and challenges, just because there's so much new personnel. A lot of guys haven’t played much league footy and there's a few who have played a bit but not with us. That connection and synergy of playing together with the same group of guys is going to build so we think the longer the season goes that will improve. But we want to get better quickly. We're all impatient but we want to tick off some wins along the way as we continue to improve. We've got some young guys which is exciting.

Q: One of those is Dion Munkara from the Tiwi Islands, pretty exciting to see him kick his first three goals at WAFL level?
A: Last week he fumbled and bumbled, he was pretty nervous I think, but his strength is his touch and use of the ball, and decision-making. You saw a bit of that this week but he's still obviously learning and it's a different brand of footy here than what he's used to. He was better again and the more he plays the better he'll get. That can be said as well for Spooner, Dent, Haydon and a lot of other guys who haven’t played much footy out there. Brendan Verrier hasn’t played much footy in the last 18 months, Jake Florenca is playing inside-mid and you forget that Dragovich, Chad Pearson and Noah Strom are still early in their careers. It's exciting for us.

Q: You mentioned Brendan Verrier and it's a great story after he missed all of last year through concussion issues, but he has come back and not missed a beat?
A: He's just such a popular and fantastic person. He's a real Bulldog person. It would have been easy probably with all the challenges he's had to not play, but he's worked really hard and tried a lot of different things. Finally there was some light at the end of the tunnel for him and it's great to see him run around with a smile on his face, and play footy with his mates.

Q: Dragovich has been around for a little while now and he is still young, but he's played a fair bit of footy now. He looks like he's in career-best form and ready to continue stepping up?
A: The only real opportunity to get better for him and guys like Florenca is to get the opportunity. They didn’t get much opportunity to play inside-mid with Hockey, Cook, Kelly, Marlion, Hams and those guys around the last few years. There's been a bit more opportunity there and they've relished that, which provides more depth for us and gives us more competition for spots.

Q: Haiden Schloithe seemed to thrive on being run-with this week and produced just about a best on ground performance?
A: Obviously we've had some experience go out so it's important that the ones still here play well. He played really well this week, he hung in and whenever the game needed a bit of class he stood up. But I thought our strength was that we were pretty even. It's not all about stats, but if you go through them you'll see that most blokes weighed in and did their bit. That was important with McIntosh getting hurt early and a few other challenges popping up. Some boys needed to step up and thankfully they did enough to get us through.

Q: A massive start to the year for Brock Higgins and he dominated the ruck again?
A: He was very good for us but you would expect him to be when they didn’t really go in with a recognised ruckman. So you would expect him to have an influence and he did. His second efforts were especially good and he also pushed forward and caught the ball, which is also good for us. He was very good, but we'd probably be disappointed if we didn’t win that area with them not having a genuine ruckman.

Q: What do you know about Adam McIntosh's shoulder injury?
A: I don’t know much and won't know more until he gets some scans. He copped a heavy knock to the back of his shoulder so he's pretty sore. Nick Suban tightened up as well and he went back out and thought he could get through, but we didn’t risk and don't want to lose him. He feels pretty good after the game so I think he'll be fine.

Q: What about Marlion Pickett, is he getting closer?
A: He is back training so if it isn’t this week, it will be the week after. He'll be a pretty handy addition.

Q: The ANZAC Derby has become an annual fixture now and you'll expect East Fremantle to throw everything at you?
A: No doubt and they were pretty good against Peel. They competed pretty well and probably should have won the game. They've got some class coming back into the team and have some dangerous forwards. It looked like they competed pretty well. Derbies are always a scrap and this one will no doubt be the same I'd say.