Relieved to get the points?

Yes always relieved and pleased to really bank another four points. But you don't want to just get seduced by ladder positions. We know we need to improve. I thought our desire to win in the last quarter was really strong…Collingwood certainly brought a lot of heat to the game. They've laid 90 tackles, 94 tackles, which is significant and really made it a tough, tight contest. To work our way through that I thought in the end, we were struggling to get entries, but in the last quarter we got 12 or 14 of them. We lifted our intensity or matched theirs, either way you want to put it, probably match theirs and just freed it up a little and improved our football. So that was pleasing.

How significant was Sandilands?

Look he'd been getting his hands to the ball a fair bit all night and their pressure had been really good. I thought we counter punched a little bit from behind. We've kicked 2.1 out of our D50, which we'd like to do from centre forward, so that was a good result for us. And one with a kick in. That's 3.1 out of our D50, so it was a bit of counter punch footy. We both really didn't get it centre forward and score that way. I thought in the end everyone dug in and lifted. I thought early we didn't defend that well but that was more because we turned the ball over in a really poor spot and I thought Collingwood really zipped away and were really effective. They took a lot of marks in the first quarter I think, and hardly took a mark inside 50 for the rest of the game.It's always difficult off the bye but I thought both teams turned up to play and put on a pretty good show. I thought it was pretty dour. Although scoring at half-time was OK, 46-48. But then it sort of got pretty tight didn't it.

What did you make of the conditions?

Look we've spoken about that. It's a really fascinating conversation if you want to have it with the modern player. We were brought up on moulds or screw ins and they got all these different moulds. But one of our backs, Cam Sutcliffe used to slip over a bit and he's changed to screw ins and he doesn't slip over. So probably a few could take a leaf out of his book to be blatantly honest. It's an interesting conversation and one that's hard to win.

Affected the skills as well?

No. We wanted to use the ball, we overused it short. We went a bit deeper later. We had some shocking turnovers early when we had opportunities to go to one-on-ones inside forward 50. At the end of the day that starts and finishes with me. Clearly our football program needs to improve because they should be able to do it instinctively under pressure. So if they're going to other options that just means the football program I've put together for them isn't at the level required to train them up. So we need to improve our football program.

They were doing it early in the season..as in the skills?

Yes it was pretty poor wasn't it. But look there's a bit about pressure, there's a bit of decisions, there's a little bit about footwear and there's a little bit about dew. But put it all together and you get some horrendous turnovers.

It's not a form slump per se?

We've only lost one game. Just on that, AFL games are pretty hard to win you know. They're pretty hard to win and I think we're seeing that everywhere. I don't think you can be too critical. Collingwood won five in a row. They're a pretty good team and fresh and available. (Steele) Sidebottom is back in, (Nathan) Brown's back in, they're a better team than they were four weeks ago without those players. They¹ve got some talent.

How important was Michael Walters?

That's his job though. I don't get overly euphoric when people do their job.

Hayden Ballanytne looks like her has been working hard but hasn't quite impacted the scoreboard?

Yes, that's a fair call, he's kicked one. Tough night, but he probably could've nailed that left foot snap. But he¹ll keep working through it. Everyone has got to work through it. So we're a very resilient group.

Are you still working through the forward mix?

Yes, you can’t just roll along and all have a milkshake and pretend everything is hunky dory when you’re not giving us output. We’re paid to make some calls. (Matt) Taberner’s not going to tap himself out of the team. So we just made the call and clearly in these conditions it was the right call. Really we could’ve been a bit smaller. It was a tough night for it, but you need a second ruck. Maybe Alex Pearce can start rucking in these conditions. We’ll have a look at it. But we’re pretty keen to get (Jon) Griffin a look, (Zac) Clarke played really well. Tendai was a bit stiff to go out. So we’ll have a look at the performance tonight. We just won’t roll along and pretend everything’s hunky dory.

Do conditions play a part in selection?

That always applies.

You went pretty early with subbing Hayden Crozier out?

We just wanted a bit more grunt around the ball and push Matty de Boer forward. We thought our pressure in the front half and our physicality could've been better. So Matty de Boer plays that role really well. We thought we got a bit out of him in the midfield. We know (Nick) Suban has been good in the midfield. We know he can really impact. So it was (Hayden) Crozier for de Boer and Suban for de Boer in the midfield.

Is Crozier fine?

Yes, he's fine.

Has Garrick Ibbotson slotted into Michael Johnson’s role?

No, Michael had been playing on tall forwards, Alex Pearce has replaced Michael Johnson, Ibbo has been our third tall all year. If we had to play against three tall forwards, he would have been the third tall defender but we only had to play against two so that allows him to play on the smalls and come off. Michael Johnson earlier this year had been playing as a tall defender without (Zac) Dawson and (Alex) Silvagni.

You threw Stephen Hill behind the ball, you’ve done that a couple of times this year

Collingwood have been doing it with (Adam) Oxley, sometimes it’s just the change and the balance of the game and it’s king or dunce isn’t it? If it hadn’t of worked it would have been a different question, but Stephen was important in that role.

Did you come through unscathed?

Yes we did and hopefully no incidents.