Injuries

I think (Marcus Bontempelli) will be right. He trained pretty well the other day and should come up.

(Jason Johannisen) will be out for a few weeks now, which is unfortunate. You don’t like those late ones – he just turned up to the game, had a bit of a bleed from a shin knock and that’s turned into a little bit of a calf injury.

(Caleb Daniel and Bailey Dale) are both fine – no dramas.

Last week

I put the statement out and then tried to move on pretty quickly. I get that it lingers a little bit, but I am really good - I am energized and really looking forward to Thursday night. We did a lot of things really well against the Demons, we won some areas that they totally pantsed us in last time. That gives us some encouragement going into the game against Carlton. Personally I am good.

I’ve just got to cop it on the chin, but (reports I’m unfit to coach) are far from the truth. I’ve never been fitter, never felt healthier. I swam in the bay yesterday, rode on the ergo (bike) this morning and spent a lot of time on Carlton and strategy yesterday to best prepare us. I couldn’t feel more passionate about what I do - the players and I have a really strong connection. We are going well internally.

Midfield mix

We had five mainstays that went through the midfield last week – Tom (Liberatore) had a little bit of interruption coming into the start of the season.

Our primary focus was to make sure we won centre bounce (against Melbourne), which we did quite considerably. We compare that to last time and it was a bit of a horror show.

Everything around the stoppage really worked, and Tom did play a bit of a different role. His role will continue to evolve week-to-week. He might play more midfield minutes on Thursday night but we’ll wait and see.

Team

There’ll probably be a couple of changes based on form and what we need to have the right recipe and formula to beat Carlton.

Stef is another one last week who came out late last week and didn’t play at all – didn’t even play at Footscray. He just wasn’t himself. He’s unlikely to come back into the team, but is definitely in the 26.

Jamarra Ugle-Hagan

He ended up coming in as the sub after the changes last week, so he’s always under consideration. There is that aspect of giving him game time and hastening his experience, but he’s been going okay. He played pretty well last Thursday against Casey, so he’s definitely in the mix based on form lines and what we’re after.

As I’ve sort of pleaded and asked, we’re not expecting him to go out and be second in the Coleman after round two - we just need to make sure he plays the role he is asked to do, and we’ll see his natural talents come out.

Ash Hansen

Ash did a great job with us, and was a great support for me over his time. He had a lot of different roles here and even coached our Footscray team to a flag in 2016. He’s a great pick-up for the Blues.

It’s kind of ironic that Ash is going to have the reins (against us). My form against stand-in coaches isn’t too good actually. Hopefully it doesn’t repeat itself.

Their understanding of some of our systems, and the inner sanctum stuff is hard to get knowledge of. With Ash, there are probably some things that haven’t changed but we continue to evolve. Gameplan-wise, week-to-week is not static. (Having Ash there) might help them a little bit.