Q – Just on Preliminary Final day, the week leading up to the Grand Final was pretty warm. Were you concerned in that match that the players looked pretty distressed at the end of the day? How big an impact did that have seven days later?
A – Going back onto the Hawthorn game we went there with ice jackets and were prepared for the warm weather. We told the players about hydration and the importance of keeping cool. However we were probably caught out a bit in the game - we had players cramping. I don’t think it was a situation about lack of fitness. Arguably Essendon and Hawthorn are two of the fittest teams in the competition – and we both had players cramping and I think that was just a factor of the very sudden change in temperature. It was very hot. I think that did play a role the following week. We went into that game a little flat but I’d be less than honest if I thought that was the reason why we ran out of legs. I think yes we were probably a bit tired and everything else but I wouldn’t hang my hat on that being the reason why we didn’t win the game.
Q – How do you go about reviewing individuals now over the next three to four weeks. Do you look I suppose at every player and where they can get better?
A – We’ve done a report on every player and that wasn’t a knee jerk reaction to the Grand Final, that was actually put into place a week before the finals series started. We started collating all the data we’ve collected over, not only this year but the last three years, on our playing list. We’ve identified from every single player areas they need to strengthen and areas they need to maintain. We’ve talked to every single player about my expectation of them in terms of how I want them to come back to me at the start of the year and it gives them a brief overview of where we have to go next year. We’ve looked at our program and we are pretty excited about some of the changes we are bringing in – I think it is fairly revolutionary for footy and we’re looking at bringing that in next year. I’d anticipate that would have a pretty significant impact.
