Dale Morris’ return:
He’s as eager as he was, I think, when he played his first game all those years ago. Hopefully he gets through alright and the boys can have a win against Port Melbourne out there.
Our lads and girls in the return to play area do their best to prepare the boys to come back and play pretty much a full game, so I can imagine he will play around 80% game time.
When he came back from the other (ACL injury), he needed a few (games) and he hurt himself along the way there, so I’d image it’ll probably take a little longer than one game.
The younger players around him will get a lift, all that experience and that presence especially in that back end and the leadership that he can provide, that will help.
Easton Wood’s stance on gambling:
Easton’s got a really strong personal opinion and stance on gambling; he stands pretty strong in some of those social justice and social custodian type of outlooks, and I support him and his opinions. He’s a man of great integrity.
I learnt this morning that he mentioned something about being prepared to take a pay cut and that’s a strong message from Easton. As I said the other week, it’s a real issue in our game and in society. If he feels that strongly, then I support him and his opinion absolutely.
The team:
We’ll probably go in unchanged. We still need to train today, but it’ll be the same 22.
Facing Port Adelaide:
Our key defenders – it has been a bit of a revolving door based on different circumstances, like availability and player movement – last time we were really compromised with who was available.
I don’t think Jackson Trengove has ever been in our backline when we’ve played against Port Adelaide, but he will be in there this time. We’ll obviously be looking for a better result.
The future:
I’m really comfortable that we’re heading in the right direction. Would we have liked to win more games, absolutely? But again, there’s nine opportunities to win games and there’s no reason why we can’t push the envelope there.
I’m really optimistic and positive about the whole thing. You just need to keep fronting up and giving it your best and hopefully it results in more wins.
