Extremely proud of the players tonight?



Yes, it was exactly what we thought it would be. We played a very good team who had a couple of personnel challenges coming in like us but everyone seemed to get to the line. It's not perfect for everyone but we know it's really important to win your first one and gets some momentum. We knew it was going to be on. It was a pretty warm night, I think 29-30 degrees, on a big ground. You're always a little bit anxious coming, but your experience guides you through the summer, the preparation, minutes and all those things. But as you watch other games, there's a couple of blow outs, a couple come from behind so that form line is not really strong. You come in with maybe a little bit more anxiety but I knew our group would give great effort and that's what they did tonight. Their last quarter was fantastic for will, power and desire. Twenty entries, 4.4, against a real quality team. Both teams would look back and (both) made some fundamental errors. I thought we were really sloppy with the ball, missed handballs, drop marks, missed kicks that made it really difficult. But I thought we took the game on. We had 60 entries, basically, but we weren't slick, we know that. But there's plenty of upside. We walk away and we bank four points and that's probably the most critical thing and we've got a clean bill of health. We know we're up and running in a physical, mental sense.



Huge tick for your summer program?



It sort of firms it up. I've been asked the question. We knew we'd done more work. We measured it, what percentage and all those things. But at the end of the day the players have got to bring it out within themselves. You can possess it but, to bring it out under the heat of quality and when it's going to the wire is pretty important. It's not easy to do but we did that. So we take that away as well, we're mentally up and going.



You touched on that final quarter, David Mundy had 13 possessions and five clearances, can you talk about how influential he was?



Yes, our players vote for our leaders. It's all about character and competence. Your leaders have got to lead and I thought all the six in there, or whatever it is, like Sandilands and Fyfe and Pavlich, I thought was superb, and McPharlin and Spurr, with Mundy they all stood up. That’s what good teams expect their leaders to do and David was no different. He really got going. When he gets going we know we're not a bad team so it was pleasing.



Do you feel those guys dragged everyone else?



Well I think they had support all night. I thought earlier in the night they all had their moments. None of them were slick but their effort was undeniable and their mental toughness to help drive the group across the line was strong.



Pavlich and McPharlin, is that the message for us tonight, not to write the two of them off?



You can write whatever you like. It doesn't really interest me that much. Not being disrespectful but I've heard plenty of things written. Who's going to win the premiership, who's retiring. But they'll write their own story and they've been written off before and written up before, written off. It's not that they don't care but they've written their own story for a long time and they'll continue to do it. I think the landscape is changing, how long players play for. I think you're accurate in that they're at the back end of it. Is it definitely the end this year? I don't want to speak for them. I think they've earned the right to, and that's probably the thing I'd say to you guys, I know it's an ongoing storyline, but they'll talk to you when it's appropriate. I mean you can keep writing it, and at some point if you write it enough you'll be either wrong or accurate at some point. I think they're just enjoying their footy. They're more at the end. But I saw Bernie Quinlan play until he was 36 and win a Brownlow. We're using Matthew smarter, and I think that’s evident tonight. But yes, they'll choose their time.



Clancee Pearce on Travis Boak tonight?



I thought Travis got on top in the last quarter and Clancee would acknowledge that. There's some great players out there and Travis is one of them and he's got great character. He never gave up and he tried to get his team across the line. I thought Clancee, new to the role, got a bit of ball himself and played on a very good player. So he'll learn from that.



Pearce rises to new challenge



What was the message at quarter time as far as the ball use was concerned?



We were just sloppy. I just thought, we were going super quick and it was helter skelter and that's ok if you're hitting targets but if you're not you're getting counterpunched against quality. There was just a little bit of composure and do the basics really well. Then at half-time we just worked… (at) having a forward structure in front of the ball. We got disorganised a little bit and that's why we didn't score as effectively. So we tried to work on those things.



Intensity looked pretty high, how good is that?



Yes it will bring you to a hard edge. You want to play in those games, and you want to see how you go. It's always hard for me to measure intensity, because sometimes my own intensity is up in the box. So you don't know whether it's yourself, and sometimes you lose the game. There were bodies flying everywhere right until the end and the crowd was roaring.

We won the ball really well and won the clearances really well. But to their credit (Port), they had 73 tackles to our 40. I thought our tackles weren't strong enough. I thought, when we were winning the ball really well, if you don't tackle and pressure like they did, we'd be a lot more effective than we were.

I said to the group, if you keep winning the ball, the tackles can't stick as much, and you're going to get a bit of space. So keep winning the ball.



Ballantyne and Duffield?



I'm not great at analysing anyone's performance. I thought Duffield's kicking was elite tonight. Hayden played on a really good player. I thought he made some fundamental mistakes. He'd be disappointed, but it wasn't his fitness. He played Melbourne, got up to Sydney, did it in the third. The guys we picked had done nearly every minute of summer, so we knew they could run.



Mayne?



He's ok. He would say, 'I didn't have my best night tonight', and he's been in superb form. Sometimes you can't win. But Aaron fell across his leg. I saw him hobbling off. We subbed him out for that reason. We knew he was a bit sore. Matty De Boer came on and contributed.



Matthew nailed some big set shots, big tick for goalkicking?



I'm a blamer. So if they're missing, I'm blaming the person in charge. So he can take the credits tonight. But we missed some sitters - Suban and Fyfe. But Matthew, since I've been here, he kicks goals at clutch times. He's a clutch goalkicker. That's one of his great attributes.



Game breaker: Pavlich the difference