Q – You said earlier you wanted to be sure the players took the loss the right away. Now you went away with them on the end of season trip. Is that something you would normally do or did you decide to do that for that reason?
A – With the turmoil of trade week and the disappointment of losing the Grand Final, Kevin Sheedy and myself took it upon ourselves to go. We wanted to get up there with the players and grieve a little bit. It was tragic what happened – to lose a champion person and champion player in Hardwick and unfortunately through salary cap reasons that eventuated. On top of that we had the Misiti saga – which has been rectified. To show some sort of strength between the coaching staff and the players it was important for us to be up there and really be part of the group.
Q – What sort of read did you get on the players mood over those three days?
A – They were asking questions and they had every right to ask. We explained the situation and where we were at and I guess what came out of it – you want your players to stay loyal.
Q – As a coaching group you will sit down and see where did we go wrong and where do we need to improve. What would you say was the most glaring deficiency in season 2001?
A – Obviously everyone looks at the premiers and thinks why and how they are so good. I guess, probably a lot of speed in the mid-field – we probably couldn’t cope with their run and how they carried the ball and how they set up a lot of their players. Having said that – we had a lot of injuries to our midfield players so I am not sure the gap is that far apart from our club to Brisbane. Blumfield, Heffernan and Misiti had missed between 6-10 games throughout the course of the year. Once again we have to look at introducing other young players into the midfield – I think Rama really stood up in that area. I think McVeigh is really developing and from a coaching point of view we are hoping another one or two players move through the system.
