COACH POST MATCH – TODD CURLEY ROUND 7

SOUTH Fremantle coach Todd Curley speaking after the Round 7 WAFL win against Peel Thunder in Mandurah by 35 points that keeps the Bulldogs undefeated in 2020 with two games to go before finals starting this Saturday against East Perth at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

QUESTION: If I told you at half-time when you had kicked one goal that you would end up winning by six, I think you would have taken that?
ANSWER: The scoreboard was weird wasn’t it. I thought we dominated for most of the game and just didn’t convert, missed some shots and had some shots that didn’t even score. A couple of times, I think more out of our poor ball use made it hard to defend, and they scored. We invited them back in.

Q: Do you think the goalkicking is just a one off for this week or is it something you are concerned about?
A: I think we’ve been pretty good along the way, we go about 65 per cent most of the time. There were certainly some chances that we blundered and some of them were before we even got a shot. There’s some stuff to work on.

Q: Do you come away feeling like you won by six goals but played reasonably well and could have won by more, or feeling like you just didn’t have the best day?
A: I didn’t think we played great to be honest. It probably highlighted a few things we need to work on, which is good, and to get a win was a bit of a bonus. To their credit they have a lot of young kids, are very inexperienced and I thought their pressure, endeavour and intent was way better and more consistent than ours.

Q: Another debutant as well and it’s always a big job no matter what to play in the ruck, and Jacob Warne did a good job?
A: Yeah he was OK, Warnie. We just thought it was important to bring a ruckman in rather than trying to pinch-hit and keep our structure. He competed pretty well and he’s a good story. He’s similar to Trav Abbott, has been around the group and the club for three or four years, had to work hard to get an opportunity and I’m happy for him.

Q: You talk about Peel being young, but your team was very young too and the new players to the group keep on performing?
A: I think our experienced players have been pretty good too, but our young guys have been able to come in and play their role. Most of them have been around the group for a while so they’re not first-year players at the club even if they are playing league footy for the first time. I think it probably reinforces that our program and development program, and the time that they are spending in the reserves allows them to learn their role. Then when they come in they feel comfortable enough to execute, which they are doing for the most part. They will always make mistakes and that’s to be expected from young boys, but for the most part when we’ve had to call on someone they have been able to come in and fill that hole which has been pleasing.

Q: Again you lost a player early with Noah Strom, what do you know about that so far?
A: He was just a bit tight in the hamstring. I guess the beauty of being five and zip is that we don’t need to take any risks, but really all year if there’s been any risk at all we haven’t taken it on any of our players. We took him out straightaway and the rest of the boys are OK. There was a couple of knocks but they were all keen to stay out there especially Schloithe with his corkie and Russell with his shoulder. That was important for us.

Q: It was a good effort from Kyle Russell to come back on after appearing to dislocate his shoulder?
A: We spoke about taking Schloithey out at three quarter-time as well and he just said he was going to stay out there, so sometimes you trust the player. We got through and now we have a couple of games to go and we’ll recover, and prepare for next week.

Q: You still have some guys to come in, do Brock Higgins, Chris Luff or Zac Dent come into calculations as early as next week?
A: I think Luff and Higgins will be close but I don’t think Denty will be available next week. Obviously we’ve also got Blechynden, Hamersley and Abbott who didn’t play this week but have played a lot of this year. There’s a couple of other boys in the twos who are getting pretty close as well. We’ll train Wednesday, find out who’s available and pick a team that’s fit and available to play East Perth.

Q: All of a sudden with two games before finals and so much depth, selection is going to get interesting?
A: That’s a good problem to have. Sometimes it can be tough on the players and it’s tough on the coaches as well but at the end of the day we want as many players available as we can. It’s really important that we keep winning next weekend to give us seven which would make it pretty hard to push us out of top two. We wanted six as quick as we can but it turns out now we want seven.

Q: Back at home now to play East Perth, what’s your reaction to Fremantle Community Bank Oval being announced as host of the 2020 Grand Final?
A: When the footy club touted they would be in a position to bid because Optus Stadium was financially not viable for the competition, it presented a great opportunity for the City of Fremantle as well as our footy club to put their hands up. It’s fantastic in that sense, but in terms of where we play or if we play in the Grand Final, we don’t really care as a playing group. It’s great for our members, supporters and footy club, but as a playing group and footy department we just want to keep winning and keep qualifying, and winning as much as we can wherever we are playing to be honest.