Hawthorn are Through to a Semi Final | Full Press Conference

qu quar a time it seemed fairly even they probably made more of their opportunities do you feel the shift in power if you like in the game was was it an attitudinal thing on the part of your guys or did you flick a few switches what what caused it do you think um I mean firstly I say I was really proud of the players for dealing with the whole game you know there was a lot of ups and downs particularly in the early phase thought they controlled a lot of the game and we were hanging on for different periods and um I think when you when you're able to handle momentum swings it obviously gives you much better looks and then we once we got the momentum we were able to maintain it so I was I was really proud of them I think from halfway through the second quarter I think we really controlled a lot of the game after that they they obviously threw a few different things at us um but the players handled it you know for the most part really well you stifled the inside 50s particular that second James Sicily was huge in defense as well yeah they they obviously resourced the Midfield heavily and they're very very good in there um and that that meant that our Defenders were working in a fair bit of space which this um he was his first first half was obviously out outstanding and um he um he made them I'm not sure what B would have said but I thought that they had to change a couple of things just because of him really but and the the way that our Defenders were were moving the ball and getting it out of there you know re reasonably comfortably so um I thought I thought I thought we were quite mature you know it was 97 half thousand so thank you for everyone that came out it's biggest crowd that um certainly I've ever coached or most of them would have ever played in front of and the players just handled every aspect of the game um pretty well whatever was thrown at us whether it was tactical whether it was um you know even little things like score reviews or blood rolles or all those little details in a game which you can lose your way um you know even Bon Pell's first five or eight minutes of the last quarter was you know I think everyone was saying oh no here we go and then you know the fact that the players were able to handle things like that I was just just thought we showed a level of maturity which which gives me a bit of confidence did you have a specific plan to curb bonon P's influence um I mean we have go-to things that we would use but he was playing um he's he's such a dynamic and dangerous player he doesn't I mean he can beat you with total numbers but normally he just beat you with impact um and he certainly looked like doing that a couple of times and David hail I thought coached the Midfield really well today it was quite a challenging they're a challenging team to coach against so I thought um David halil did a really good job with the mids and um the Midfield you know I think it was a pretty good battle I think nuke ended up with some big numbers but it was quite an even sort of contribution from and that's what we've relied on for the majority of the year is not any individual players but been able to share the how do you think your group this young is over to handle these big moments as you say like K Deer Nick Watson just really young players are able to step up and play in front of 100,000 people it's a it's a good question I wonder if it's the naivity of Youth you know I wonder if they just don't know it's a big deal they don't really know any different um but they're enjoying their footy and they're they're playing with a high amount of energy and and I mean you'll look at the scoreboard and the um and and the the goals on the points that they kicked but I mean I thought I thought whiz was a little bit off early but he had a couple of chases and a couple of pressures he just got a fingernail on someone and then a goal came and so that's the stuff that we'll show probably won't be the the goals it'll it'll be the chasing and the pressure and I think that's where we looked we looked on song tonight I thought for the majority of the game our pressure held Us in good stead and it meant that their ball use wasn't good wasn't sharp enough to to give their forwards the look that they they needed to to put a score up just a word on your defense because you know there's a lot of focus on the excitement and the forward the other small forwards and but so much of your good work seems to stem from both the pressure but the the back six as well they've done a great job really and it probably doesn't get enough Q dos almost yeah it's I mean it's interesting I was talking to the players after the game you look at every player and there's a story you know I think you know someone like Frosty you know we wouldn't have thought he was going to be the number one big fullback this year and he's been able to do it for the whole season really and just held up fantastically well someone like Blake Hardwick did the whole preseason as a forward but we've needed him in defense for the majority um so two guys who you know they don't get very many headlines um but they're just so valued within our within our four walls and I I think when you build when you've been trying to build something consistent for a for a period of time sometimes what you get is um just a collective belief over over the time and I I think the Defenders have got a great confidence in each other they've played a lot of footy together now um and so they they trust that the midfielder put on enough pressure to give them a chance and then they trust each other to to win a half their contests and and get it out of there quickly so when you have all of those things working together for a longer period of time I think that's what's giv them great um Great Value as a collective when did when did you realize he was going to be so influential this year um I mean Micky is another one with a good story I mean he didn't start in the in the team he started at playing a Box Hill the early phase of the year and obviously the new rock rule that they brought in um or um that you could come across the line with a bit more freedom has has helped him he's obviously big and strong and that's his his strength but um he's he's a guy who from a work ethic point of view no one no one out work Micky anywhere um and so when you have that that and you've had it for I think he played his 50th game last week or maybe the week before um you know seven years in and he's earned every one of his 50 you know he's not a guy who like an early draft pick who might get gifted a few early days he's earned every one of those games and uh and now when you put his magnet up you have a level of confidence that you know what you're going to get and I think when you have Ruckman who are like that goes a long way to making you play consistent football which we've been able to do so from a 05 start to the Season 75 yeah I wasn't aware of the 05 it uh hasn't come up it was um is there any part of you that's surprised at what's happened this s and how it's unfolding um I mean I um it's not the first time I've been asked if I'm surprised that the the 05 it sounds really bad um but I did think we played some good football in that time and we were right in a couple of those games and we could easily have won a couple of them so um we knew that we were better than that did we think we were as good as we've become as quickly as we have maybe maybe that would have been a stretch at the time um but I knew progress and we all knew that progress was coming was just needed to to click into gear and um we're obviously running on a fair bit of momentum at the moment which is which is good fun you're you're part of a side that in say 0708 really sort of exploded almost you know found the self-belief and went on to achieve great things do you see parallels between that and I don't mean you're going to win a flag but what do you see parallels between that and this group well I think one of the great traps is to Look Backwards um what I know about the 0708 is we weren't looking back at anything so um I think this group has been outstanding at looking forward you know this is we've been playing Elimination finals for 10 weeks really um and we we had a real one today which is another step maybe a slightly bigger step in the right direction for us um but I think the lessons that we need to learn are in now you know we're going to play Port Adelaide in Adelaide next week and so I'm sure last last time we played them they they ran us down by point right at the end of the game and what lessons have we learned from those but they're the lessons that will be focused on the ones that we've learned B goal and a celebration from Jack inovan does he sort of Thrive when he has a relaxed approach I to get Define us um I mean you guys would love to to cover everything Jack in of it I'm sure so I mean he we know how he plays we know how he um celebrates we know how he goes about it and I don't think there's any surprises in anything Jack does I thought actually thought he was enormously influential um in the in the second quarter when he got up a bit higher he went up closer to the stoppages and I thought he was a big part of getting the game back on our terms not statistically necessarily but if you if you look at his game impact through the second quarter I thought he was one of the the players that really led the turning point for us and we actually got a lot of momentum from that period for and we really were able to maintain it for the the rest of the game so um there'll be a lot of focus about his celebrations and where he has dinner and all those things but we're very focused on what he does on the field and we're wrapped with that cbra was that that best celebration oh wasn't uh no I've enjoyed some of his other ones um yeah I uh I enjoyed the ones that he that are you know I like the ones that are from our coaches or from our other players and I always like it when I know what's coming I didn't know about that one so you know you know serious that was a non issue for the club last night yeah absolutely I didn't I didn't ask I probably should have I wonder how many of our players went out for dinner to a public place last night probably I would guess maybe half um so I don't you know what I think most of us have watched Friday night footy or Thursday night footy at a public venue for the majority of the year and does that he played well and he lives how he lives and and knew about it as long as he went home around the half time Mark then I was going to be pretty happy with what he's doing and it's no issue for me at all s do you think Luke Bruce would get to 300 this year um I don't know how many had he played at the start of the year I knew it was on the cards if he played I knew if he played every game that he would roughly get there um he's got a whole another year in front of him now so he's got plenty of time but I think that was 299 was it do you expect L day to be next week un unknown um so he's running but not doing any contact at this stage so um we'll talk to the medical guys and obviously he was um pleased that we won because he gives him a chance doesn't it so um yeah we'll we'll wait and see we'll have some training Sunday Monday Tuesday I think so we'll find out around that time take one more can I just ask you um bigger picture one but uh given you've been playing sort of defao elimination finals a lot of pressure end of the long season um there's no doubt that pre- finals by sort of given the bottom four of the eight a bigger chance than it used to do you feel that's a huge benefit to you in over the next few weeks yeah so someone asked me that last week and I really don't know there was a part of me that thought I wish we were playing last weekend so we could keep the momentum going obviously I sit here now and I'm quite happy with um how it's how it's panned out but um I mean I I haven't been here often enough to have an answer for it what I know is the players are um played with an enormous amount of energy and vibrancy in that game and you go in there now and they're all bagged up like every like after every game so um we'll we'll take what's in front of us we have no control over the rules but we do know that um you know we got a Port Adelaide side who obviously would be disappointed with their performance from last night and um you know we're not too pleased with the last time we played them so it's going to be a it's going to be a great one and um you know we'll rest and recover for the next day two and then we'll start getting ready for the next game it's just exciting [Music]