"I THINK it continues to highlight the work in front of us."
Carlton AFL Interim Coach Josh Fraser was happy his team was able to come away with a seventh consecutive batch of four points, after being made to work for it in a tight tussle with Richmond.
The Blues had to come from behind and then hold on late against the Tigers, with Fraser saying the two-point win was an illustration of the team managing the moments to get the results, albeit with more work in store going forward.
Here's what he had to say.
On first impressions out of the game:
“It’s nice to walk away with the result. There are a lot of lessons out of that game for us, I think it continues to highlight the work in front of us. Credit to Richmond, we know what we were walking into: they’re a spirited young outfit and are going to be a terrific side.
“We were aware of the challenges tonight was going to present, and I thought we started a bit slower than we would’ve liked. Credit to the players, I thought we responded after quarter time: I liked our second quarter, which looked more like the footy we’d been playing. It was a real grind after that.
“It never felt like we had a margin that was comfortable enough, but to our players’ credit, they managed enough moments to find a way to get a result.”
On the closing stages:
“We were able to find a way to get repeat stoppages, find a way to get first possession: it’s not pretty at that time in the game when there’s a small margin. We seem to be embracing those moments a bit better than what we have in the past.”
On how the team is training closing out games:
“It’s just a continuation of the education piece and zeroing in on more detail around it, what it actually looks like. The connection part of it, with how well connected we are and what our roles look like. We’re trying to find ways in training to execute that, that’s our whole game.
“We’ve been really deliberate with what we’ve gone after on Monday to Friday, we turn up game day with more belief that we can execute, albeit that tonight was a real grind.”
On lessons from the last quarter:
“That’s part of the learning for us, how much did we contribute to that chaos late? There was some method around some free kicks and different things like that where we need to be better. The great part about where we’re at is being able to get an outcome, but being able to look back and go we’ve got to be better going forward in those parts of the game.
“The competition is quite close, I really believe that: there’s not much between teams. You can have a 4-5 goal margin and that can evaporate really quickly, just through some poor execution. That was a game we’ll learn a fair bit from.”
On the team’s young players making an impact:
“They bring a level of talent, they’re so coachable. They’re no different to anyone else, they have to come in and perform their roles. Whilst they’re doing that and whilst we’re getting games into them in conditions and situations they were in tonight, that can only help our football club moving forward.
“Really proud of our youth and the way they’re standing up, they’re being led on the field really well by our experienced players. They’ve got a lot more growing to do, we’ve got to do a lot of work with them and develop them as fast as we can. They are having moments where you can see a future there for our young players. They all look like Carlton players, early in their careers.
“Wade Derksen is a great example. Wade comes in in the absence of Jacob Weitering, Harry Dean’s not there - we miss Harry Dean tonight in his first year, because of how reliable he’s been. Wade comes in and performs a role.
“Jack Ison performs a role, Talor Byrne’s performing a role. Lachie Cowan is a young player, he’s been outstanding for us all season. Jagga Smith. They understand they have to train well, they have to prepare really well and their responsibilities on game day are the same standards we’re holding for everyone.”
On Harry Dean’s availability:
“We anticipate he’ll be fine [for next week]. I’m not 100 per cent sure [how he cut his hand], but I’d like him to stay away from sharp objects for a while. He’s become pretty important to us.”
On Lewis Young’s concussion:
“I haven’t had a recent update other than he was taken out of the game because of concussion, which put a little bit of stress on us in terms of having to move McGovern back and a few other moving pieces. We’re hoping he’ll recover well.”
On the team’s stoppage game lacking against Richmond:
“It’ll give us belief that we can win different ways. I thought it was an area of the game which we weren’t great at tonight, stoppage, and we spoke about it a lot in the box. We probably didn’t get the shift we wanted to over the course of four quarters. We’re finding different ways to win, that’s been our story over the last month.
“It hasn’t always come on the back of stoppage: when our stoppage game has been strong, we’ve still found other ways to score. Tonight, our stoppage game wasn’t at the level we expected, but we were able to win the ball back and transition it. I thought our offensive game was a little bit clunky as well.”
On George Hewett’s form after returning to the side:
“You can see by his performances how he’s gone about responding. I’ve only known George since I arrived at the Club in November. He’s the ultimate team person.
“He accepted going out of the team like a true professional, he went back and took all his strengths and leadership to the VFL and found his way back in the team. At that point in time, it was the right decision. We had to keep finding out about our list and explore what that mix looked like.
“To George’s absolute credit, he’s come back in the team, he’s not just playing exclusively midfield and his leadership, his character and his ability to compete for us makes us better.”
On now being 8-8, and starting to look ahead:
“It’s really important to understand the context of where we’re at and understanding the results recently and why we’ve got them. It hasn’t been through luck. We’ve been really deliberate with how we’ve gone after it.
“I’m really keen to keep our focus quite narrow. It’s a massive challenge next week, as every week presents we’ll find out more about ourselves. We’ve got to keep stacking training sessions on top of each other.”
