VFL Senior Coach Damian Truslove spoke to Carlton Media following the five-point loss to Williamstown in Round 2.
Carlton Reserves coach Damian Truslove pointed to a slow start as the key takeaway from his side’s narrow opening loss, while still highlighting the effort and competitiveness shown across the remainder of the match.
On lamenting the first term:
“The boys put up a great fight, we know Williamstown are a fantastic outfit.
“I think our first quarter is something we’ve got to look at the way we played there, we didn’t really play the brand of footy that we wanted to. For three quarters, we played our way and we were in front in a lot of key statistics around that - we’ll look closely at the first quarter and then make some adjustments for next week.”
On a slow start after the bye:
“It’s always good to come off a solid game which they had against Frankston last week and our boys had the weekend off, however I think we can learn just around our decision making and some of our execution when the pressure’s hot early in the game.
“We’ll review that closely and we’ll certainly be better in that area for next week against North Melbourne.”
On debutants and standout performances:
“It was great to have six debutants for the Club, with four of them VFL-listed plus two of our AFL boys.
“They all put up a really good fight. I thought after a slowish start, our midfield was good for three quarters. Our backs were undersized but fought really hard, plus our forwards were also quite undersized but competed well for most of the game.”
On looking ahead to North Melbourne:
“It’ll be fantastic down at Arden Street on Good Friday. They’re a really talented list and it’ll be a tough game for us, but we’ve just got to recover well and work on a few of those areas -- particularly in the first quarter.
“We need to improve and just come out red hot and ready to go next week.”
Bailey Walsh is a student at La Trobe University, undergoing his Bachelor of Media and Communications (Journalism and Marketing). He is currently undertaking an internship at the Carlton Football Club as part of its partnership with La Trobe University.
