Simon, that was a terrific performance in the second half by your boys. Beacy was only eight points up at half time but it felt like it was really dominant around the stoppages.
Yeah, we were probably bees to honey in the first half, they dragged us into the contest, but we addressed that issue at half time. We’ve been fairly good at the stoppages this year, and I thought our two young ruckmen, (Mitch Lindsay and Dylan Barfoot) did a good job on (Scott) Meyer, I don’t think he was much of an influence on the game at all after half time.
What are your thoughts on Max Gearon because it felt like he was the key instigator in gaining that momentum around the stoppages after half time?
Max runs the lines really well, he’s really brought into the program and he’s been great for us this year. He and Luke Bee-Hugo started to get them on the outside after half time and that made a big difference in the end. We were reasonably happy how we set up in the second half.
And you made that stoppage work count in the third quarter. You had 11 inside 50s and kicked 6.2 for the quarter. For someone like you, who has kicked a lot of goals, that must have made you happy?
In a perfect world that’s what you want, for all your hard work up the field to be finished off, that’s really important, and we did that really well in the third quarter.
That’s two good teams (Berwick and Beaconsfield) that you’ve run over the top of now, that hasn’t been a Cranbourne trademark in recent years, you’ve obviously put a stack of work into the boys during the pre-season.
That’s something we want to pride ourselves on, to run games out, it was a hard pre-season and we trained like we want to play … to gut run. We also use a lot of rotations and that’s all designed to run the game out.
Even your defenders, like Matt Rus and Nick Barker, who have spent most of their time on field in recent years, have been getting a decent spell.
I think it’s important if you want to play the game style we play, it’s important we get the right rotations to allow them to play that way. I’d be kidding myself if I think the players could play 100 per cent of the time that way.
Your two first gamers, Chris Johnson was fantastic off half back today and Daniel Kitto was impressive across half forward.
Yeah, Johnson was good, and we fully support him trying to play VFL, and Kitto, we took a bit of a punt on him on Thursday night, but we’ve pretty mindful of getting the kid in. He just wanted an opportunity to play senior football and he’s a kid that could really take his football further.
Simon, you’ve had a tough draw and plenty of injuries, you’ve set yourself up nicely -being three and one – after four rounds haven’t you?
Yeah we have, and we had Ossie (Glenn Osborne) and Ryan Jones come back today through the twos, Micky Boland and Stu Morrish are still to come back, but we’re mindful of not bringing them in too quick. We want them to get through and get a fitness base before they start playing. As a club, we’re proud that we had four kids playing today from the under 19s, (Chris) Johnson, (Daniel) Kitto, Marty (Leinmueller) and Dylan Barfoot … four kids.
Simon, you’ve had a look at the stats board. What impressed you most about today?
Our team defence was really good, they had 16 scoring shots from 32 inside 50s and we had way over 50 per cent, we were 23 from 41, I think, which is right up there. Our two-way running was pleasing as well.
Have you had a close look at Pakenham heading into next week? They’re obviously a very fast running team.
Berwick and Beaconsfield are probably very similar, where if you allow them to get you on the outside they look good, they’re fast running sides as well, so it will all come down to our team defence and influencing the contest, not just around the stoppages, but around the ground.
