JohnK
2 Apr 2006, 13:57
Press conference
Round One, April 1, 2006
Port vs Kangaroos
Williams: It was a disastrous start for our ten years celebration. I thought we started off particularly well. They changed the way they were playing a little bit which then made it difficult for us to score. We dropped so many first possessions off clearances ... it was ridiculous the number of times we won the tap and lost the clearance. That caused the ball to be going the wrong way. There were a lot of free kicks out of the stoppages. You know, when you are going one particular way and the ball is going the other way, we got caught offside a lot of times as well. To the credit of the players, I thought at the start of the last quarter, we had a bit of a crack at it to give ourselves some sort of a chance. But I am really disappointed with the discipline of the side in the last five minutes when those three or four goals were given away. We will have to address that. That was very poor.
Rucci: For long periods of the game Port was very short and very slow.
Williams: It has a lot to do with what the opposition are doing. If they have extra players back, you just don’t want to kick it to them. Obviously we didn’t have Tredrea in our forward lines. I thought White and Lade did particularly well there early when we could move the ball quickly out of stoppages. When we were losing possession of the ball put of stoppages, it was rebounding. We were getting the ball put of the halfback line rather than from the middle of the ground. It made it much more difficult to get the ball into the forward lines. You had to work your way through, rather than from winning the ball from the midfield.
Rucci: Did you make that an issue at three quarter time asking for more run?
Williams: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We tried to do that... I thought North played well. They hunted the ball very very well, they tackled very well and they made good use of the ball when they got hold of it.
Question: How much did the lack of discipline at the end of the game sting you?
Williams: yeah, well I was disappointed with it. It’s a fine line though when you are trying to work out... you want to fly the flag for the players and there is a little bit of angst coming from wherever, the opposition... the players want to fly the flag and at the same time you have to play within the interpretations. Sometimes it’s a fine line and they certainly overstepped it and got it wrong.
Question: Damien White and his dislocated thumb. Is it broken?
Williams: I am not too sure. It was dislocated and he had to come off because of it. He went back on. I’m not too sure how bad it is.
Capel: Mark, back to the clearances. Can you remember being smashed like that before?
Williams: Oh, I’m sure there have been times like that before. But they had some very experienced and very smart on-ballers. They certainly dominated the play.
Capel: And you’ve lost a lot of smart onballers. You need a bit of redevelopment in that area.
Williams: There’s no doubt that... I gave Thompson, Salopek and I suppose Pearce and Ebert, all those sort of guys some time on ball and we have to continue to do that.
Kingsmill: Mark, do you take any positives from tonight?
Williams: I don’t think so. Probably that we were prepared for the game. We started particularly well. When you get into that situation, you should perform much better than we did. How the game was going in the third quarter, we were going against the breeze... I felt the start of the last quarter, fifteen minutes of that was pretty good. We had some opportunities, we missed a couple of goals... If things had of gone right for us at that stage, who knows. But, as i said, finishing off with them getting giveaway free kick goals was just a joke.
Ashley: Mark, how disappointing was it given the fact that it was Gavin Wanganeen’s 300th? Did you talk about that?
Williams: Yeah, but Gavin wouldn’t have thought that he played too well either. While he was certainly in amongst it, you’d like to think that you could honour him with your best performance but a lot of players didn’t. But certainly gavin didn’t play very well either.
Hamish: Mark, did you have any thoughts on the big discrepancy on the number of frees? The Kangaroos were 30-12 or something like that. Is that something you can talk about or will you keep that to yourself?
Williams: I’ve really got no idea. You guys will have looked at it. I’ve sure you’ve seen the replays and all those things afterwards. We don’t get to see that stuff as the game is going on. So that’s a little unsure. I’ve watched a few games. I’ve watched the three games so far and I am sure that each week we hope to learn more and more and understand more and more.
Hamish: Are the new interpretations playing a part of that as well?
Williams: I imagine so. There were a lot of holding the balls and that sort of stuff. We’re certainly not blaming the umpire for how we played.
Rucci: Mark, the skills error - does that mean you have a lot of catch-up work to do or is that an attribute of what the Kangaroos did?
Williams: It’s a combination of both. The quality of the players you have, their quality and their ability to kick, and at the same time the ability to shepherd and the ability to take balls cleanly and give yourselves space and time to make good decisions. So you have to work out which is which. Today, we did a bit of both . We turned the ball over under pressure but sometimes it was open field kicking where there were poor kicks as well.
Question: Mark, were you surprised by what the Kangaroos got out of their younger players and their ability to impose themselves at this early part of their career?
Williams: Who are you talking about?
Question: Gibson.
Williams: No, no. He’s been playing very well. It’s well documented that on the players he played on in the preseason, he’s done a very good job.
Question: Do you expect Tredders to be available next week or miss another one?
Williams: I’m not sure. It was a great opportunity tonight for White to kick three goals and he did a pretty good job up there in the forward line. We’d like to have Wayne back but we are not going to play him until he is ready. It’s a long season and you want to make sure that when he starts to play, he can continue to play.
Question: There were brief moments there in the first five minutes where the forward line worked pretty well with Lade and White doing their stuff. Was that kind of a freak kind of aberration or perhaps a bit of proof that your forward line can work effectively without Tredrea?
Williams: You have to consider where the ball was coming from. When it was coming from clearances we were doing well. Anyone who brings the ball out of clearances with some sort of certainty -- if you look at all the teams in the AFL, you’ll work out that that makes their forward lines look absolutely magic -- if you fumble it out, if you bumble it out, it gives the backline a great opportunity to show how good they are. Certainly, the forwards are made by the onballers.
Rucci: Mark, of all the roles you gave Chad Cornes tonight, which one is going to be the most difficult to decide?
Williams: Chad is going to be a very versatile player. We put a lot of pressure on Chad. When you are changing people from back to forward to onball, that’s his role. His ability to be a utility -- the best thing about Chad is that he does what is best for the side. He will play wherever we want him to. He’ll accept any challenge we give him and most times live up to that challenge. Kane Cornes did a wonderful job at the start of the game. I thought Michael Wilson played particularly well. I thought Shaun Burgoyne was very good as well. So we had some positive players come through the game. Lade and Brogan won the taps decisively but we didn’t take the clearances very well.
Rucci: What is it about first games of the season that makes it difficult for Port Adelaide to win?
Williams: What is the record?
Rucci: Three-seven.
Williams: Hmmm. That’s no good. I’ll think about it this time next year and make sure we win.
Injuries
White – dislocated thumb.
Chaplin: concussion.
Round One, April 1, 2006
Port vs Kangaroos
Williams: It was a disastrous start for our ten years celebration. I thought we started off particularly well. They changed the way they were playing a little bit which then made it difficult for us to score. We dropped so many first possessions off clearances ... it was ridiculous the number of times we won the tap and lost the clearance. That caused the ball to be going the wrong way. There were a lot of free kicks out of the stoppages. You know, when you are going one particular way and the ball is going the other way, we got caught offside a lot of times as well. To the credit of the players, I thought at the start of the last quarter, we had a bit of a crack at it to give ourselves some sort of a chance. But I am really disappointed with the discipline of the side in the last five minutes when those three or four goals were given away. We will have to address that. That was very poor.
Rucci: For long periods of the game Port was very short and very slow.
Williams: It has a lot to do with what the opposition are doing. If they have extra players back, you just don’t want to kick it to them. Obviously we didn’t have Tredrea in our forward lines. I thought White and Lade did particularly well there early when we could move the ball quickly out of stoppages. When we were losing possession of the ball put of stoppages, it was rebounding. We were getting the ball put of the halfback line rather than from the middle of the ground. It made it much more difficult to get the ball into the forward lines. You had to work your way through, rather than from winning the ball from the midfield.
Rucci: Did you make that an issue at three quarter time asking for more run?
Williams: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We tried to do that... I thought North played well. They hunted the ball very very well, they tackled very well and they made good use of the ball when they got hold of it.
Question: How much did the lack of discipline at the end of the game sting you?
Williams: yeah, well I was disappointed with it. It’s a fine line though when you are trying to work out... you want to fly the flag for the players and there is a little bit of angst coming from wherever, the opposition... the players want to fly the flag and at the same time you have to play within the interpretations. Sometimes it’s a fine line and they certainly overstepped it and got it wrong.
Question: Damien White and his dislocated thumb. Is it broken?
Williams: I am not too sure. It was dislocated and he had to come off because of it. He went back on. I’m not too sure how bad it is.
Capel: Mark, back to the clearances. Can you remember being smashed like that before?
Williams: Oh, I’m sure there have been times like that before. But they had some very experienced and very smart on-ballers. They certainly dominated the play.
Capel: And you’ve lost a lot of smart onballers. You need a bit of redevelopment in that area.
Williams: There’s no doubt that... I gave Thompson, Salopek and I suppose Pearce and Ebert, all those sort of guys some time on ball and we have to continue to do that.
Kingsmill: Mark, do you take any positives from tonight?
Williams: I don’t think so. Probably that we were prepared for the game. We started particularly well. When you get into that situation, you should perform much better than we did. How the game was going in the third quarter, we were going against the breeze... I felt the start of the last quarter, fifteen minutes of that was pretty good. We had some opportunities, we missed a couple of goals... If things had of gone right for us at that stage, who knows. But, as i said, finishing off with them getting giveaway free kick goals was just a joke.
Ashley: Mark, how disappointing was it given the fact that it was Gavin Wanganeen’s 300th? Did you talk about that?
Williams: Yeah, but Gavin wouldn’t have thought that he played too well either. While he was certainly in amongst it, you’d like to think that you could honour him with your best performance but a lot of players didn’t. But certainly gavin didn’t play very well either.
Hamish: Mark, did you have any thoughts on the big discrepancy on the number of frees? The Kangaroos were 30-12 or something like that. Is that something you can talk about or will you keep that to yourself?
Williams: I’ve really got no idea. You guys will have looked at it. I’ve sure you’ve seen the replays and all those things afterwards. We don’t get to see that stuff as the game is going on. So that’s a little unsure. I’ve watched a few games. I’ve watched the three games so far and I am sure that each week we hope to learn more and more and understand more and more.
Hamish: Are the new interpretations playing a part of that as well?
Williams: I imagine so. There were a lot of holding the balls and that sort of stuff. We’re certainly not blaming the umpire for how we played.
Rucci: Mark, the skills error - does that mean you have a lot of catch-up work to do or is that an attribute of what the Kangaroos did?
Williams: It’s a combination of both. The quality of the players you have, their quality and their ability to kick, and at the same time the ability to shepherd and the ability to take balls cleanly and give yourselves space and time to make good decisions. So you have to work out which is which. Today, we did a bit of both . We turned the ball over under pressure but sometimes it was open field kicking where there were poor kicks as well.
Question: Mark, were you surprised by what the Kangaroos got out of their younger players and their ability to impose themselves at this early part of their career?
Williams: Who are you talking about?
Question: Gibson.
Williams: No, no. He’s been playing very well. It’s well documented that on the players he played on in the preseason, he’s done a very good job.
Question: Do you expect Tredders to be available next week or miss another one?
Williams: I’m not sure. It was a great opportunity tonight for White to kick three goals and he did a pretty good job up there in the forward line. We’d like to have Wayne back but we are not going to play him until he is ready. It’s a long season and you want to make sure that when he starts to play, he can continue to play.
Question: There were brief moments there in the first five minutes where the forward line worked pretty well with Lade and White doing their stuff. Was that kind of a freak kind of aberration or perhaps a bit of proof that your forward line can work effectively without Tredrea?
Williams: You have to consider where the ball was coming from. When it was coming from clearances we were doing well. Anyone who brings the ball out of clearances with some sort of certainty -- if you look at all the teams in the AFL, you’ll work out that that makes their forward lines look absolutely magic -- if you fumble it out, if you bumble it out, it gives the backline a great opportunity to show how good they are. Certainly, the forwards are made by the onballers.
Rucci: Mark, of all the roles you gave Chad Cornes tonight, which one is going to be the most difficult to decide?
Williams: Chad is going to be a very versatile player. We put a lot of pressure on Chad. When you are changing people from back to forward to onball, that’s his role. His ability to be a utility -- the best thing about Chad is that he does what is best for the side. He will play wherever we want him to. He’ll accept any challenge we give him and most times live up to that challenge. Kane Cornes did a wonderful job at the start of the game. I thought Michael Wilson played particularly well. I thought Shaun Burgoyne was very good as well. So we had some positive players come through the game. Lade and Brogan won the taps decisively but we didn’t take the clearances very well.
Rucci: What is it about first games of the season that makes it difficult for Port Adelaide to win?
Williams: What is the record?
Rucci: Three-seven.
Williams: Hmmm. That’s no good. I’ll think about it this time next year and make sure we win.
Injuries
White – dislocated thumb.
Chaplin: concussion.