Q – You were confident about the team’s chances in 2001, having had sometime to reflect how disappointed were you with the final result?
A – Very disappointed - very disappointed on the day and still very disappointed now. I suppose when you look back on the actual day itself probably the better team won in Brisbane - but you are still left with that hollow feeling because you think we could have done better.
Q – How did you cope with it personally, did it flatten you? I know working in administration or around the club there was a lot of people flattened by it. How did you cope with it?
A – I think it is pretty tough but I think you have to be pretty realistic. I have two assistant coaches here and we basically sat down immediately after the Grand Final and just went through – not on a witch-hunt – where did it start going wrong and try to identify key areas we need to address, not only next year but in coming years. It started there but I don’t know if I have addressed it properly yet – I think you get into things and do the work again. Away you go again!
Q – What were the key areas you looked at – what in particular came back to perhaps haunt us on Grand Final day?
A – I think what was haunting us wasn’t just Grand Final day it was probably evident midway through the year. We had a lot of injuries to knees and I look back now and think perhaps we didn’t give them long enough to rehabilitate and we tried to get them back too quickly and didn’t give them the due respect that I now would. I think we tried to carry too many players and we ultimately paid the price for that on Grand Final day. I think the other thing was because we’d had such a successful 2000 there was a couple of things - I think everyone had too great an expectation we’d just steam roll every team we’d play and that was very unrealistic. Teams were coming after us and they’d say that all of their planning was three weeks in advance for Essendon and a lot of them would fall in a heap after they had played us. So we copped that for 22 rounds and then went into the finals and I think that caught up with us.
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