MICHAEL Voss admits his side needs to respond the right way after their performance last weekend.
As they head to familiar territory for Voss, he is adamant that there has been no change to their focus and that they will continue to take the season one week at a time after last week's outlier.
Here’s what he had to say.
On training intensity:
"We’ve had intensity in our training and we’ll have more today. We’d like to think that we’ve been fairly predictable, reliable and consistent in the way that we’ve gone about it.
"Clearly the intent of our group was off last week in that particular phase of the game.
"We need to go to work on it, we need to own it – most of the review was about that – that’s one area we need to address quite urgently. Not much works when you don’t bring that intensity for the contest."
On focusing on outcomes:
"You rely on a body of work, really. You can focus on one game or you can look at how we’ve been over the course of the whole year, and there's been an appetite for this group to get their hands dirty, so we have to correct ourselves a little bit in that area and make sure we bring that intent when we go to Brisbane.
"We tend to look at the process, the way we do it – we value that a little bit more.
"We’ve had some games six to eight weeks ago, where we’ve walked away and we lost our system, we weren’t quite executing the way we wanted to – I feel like we’ve gone to work pretty hard on that and been fairly consistent with our approach."
On looking ahead to finals:
"One step at a time. We haven’t changed that narrative for the entire year, so I’m not sure why we would change that now.
"It’s what the players have been able to do and how we’ve stacked our weeks up. Our preparation has been really good. We’ll focus on getting that right and clearly we also accept that we’ve got plenty to work on.
"Repeat behaviours is something we’ve got to emphasise and keep training and keep rewarding, but obviously the focus goes firmly on Brisbane. I think if your mindset goes anywhere else, you’re putting yourself at risk."
On the run home:
"Everyone is looking for that momentum. We’re all looking at how we hone our games at this particular time, but we’re not recreating anything.
"Maybe the emphasis goes back a little bit to the fundamentals and the really simple things in your game and making sure that they’re really strong, but there’s not going to be any reinventing ball movement or the way we defend at this time of the year. We’ll keep focusing on the little things and just make sure we get it right. "
On embracing the moment:
"I think the moment is really exciting for our group and we should be standing here today looking forward to what’s ahead of us.
"That’s not something we need to be afraid of or be fearful of – we’re going to step into it and we’re going to embrace it. We’ve embraced that excitement the whole year and we won’t change that approach.
"All the players have talked about it and they’re all excited about it and what’s ahead of us and we should be approaching it that way.
"It’s a collective movement here, it’s not on the back of one person.
"Unfortunately with where we’re at, or fortunately, we are trying to create change. We are trying to create transformation and sustainability – there’s going to be parts we like about that and some parts we don’t like.
"What we are going to be is a collective movement. It wouldn’t matter what we did last week, we just weren’t up for the battle, so we need to make sure we correct that pretty quickly."
On Adam Saad:
"He’s been really good. It’s still with the AFL Integrity Unit so that’s still to be dealt with.
"I loved his line saying ‘I know me’ and when you know your identity really well and you’re comfortable with that and what he represents, that speaks volume to the man.
"In my time with him, he’s just been exceptional. I’ve loved having the long walks and chats with him and understanding his beliefs and what he really holds dear to him, to get a really strong understanding of that is important to learn about the person.
"I think as an industry, we’ve got a responsibility and this has fallen short, so we need to approach it right and do the right thing but Adam’s doing well."
On Caleb Marchbank:
"It’s nice to see 'Marchy' back out there. He’s had a couple of games back in the VFL so he’s got himself ready to go and we feel like that’s a really worthwhile addition to the back six or seven.
"They’ve copped a fair few hits back there and they keep owning it and stepping up. They’ve been really impressive throughout the year with some of the things they’ve had to deal with.
"Hopefully it gives us an opportunity to work through those combinations and relationships and get that connection going."
