A catch up with the Coach

As we head into what will mark the half way point of the season, we face our biggest challenge to date, the reigning premiers and competition benchmark for the last decade in Subiaco. There is a mix of excitement and nervousness as we get to test how far we’ve come.

I don’t think even the most optimistic supporter could’ve expected we’d be 6 and 2 at this stage of the year and while that’s a fantastic start and gives us real belief, we understand we still have a lot of work to do in arguably the most even WAFL season for many a long year. If you don’t turn up with the right attitude every week you will get beaten and conversely if you turn up willing to work hard and put into practice everything we train for, you are a chance in every game. I stated at the season launch that our best footy will beat anyone and our worst footy will get beaten by everyone and nothing has happened to change my mind on this.

We showed our best footy of the year so far in round 1 against a West Coast reserves team with 19 listed players in it and whilst we probably haven’t recaptured the 4 quarter effort from that day, we were good enough (and lucky enough in a couple of cases) in the next 4 weeks to go into the state bye with a 5-0 record. The best start to a season for 41 years. The highlight of this run for me was the 14 point win against a red hot Claremont, where we just suffocated their hard running game style and won ugly. They still give you the same 4 points!

Unfortunately the two weeks over the bye spent basking in our glory, meant the same hard edged approach and mindset went missing in our next two fixtures against bogey side West Perth and bottom of the ladder East Fremantle. It was a timely reminder of what was required to be successful in this competition and we were able to get “back on the bike” against a plucky Swan Districts last week.

As a result of our early season form we had two players, Michael Sinclair and Michael Bennell represent the state against South Australia and both players did themselves proud. Corey Byrne and Brant Colledge were both in the initial squad, but unfortunately missed final selection.