On the bye in Round 3…
“It’s not weird, but it’s different because we haven’t had it before. It’s part of the challenge…two weeks into a game against a club that has had a significant amount of commentary around their performances.
“There’s a pretty decent amount of ridicule, as we know. So we’ve got a big challenge to make sure that our own preparation is on point.
“I think we’ve trained really well, and it’s a pretty important session today but we’re obviously still three days out from Sunday.
“I think the good thing is that we’re actually playing our fourth game of the season proper, so we catch up to the rounds now. That’s a bit less of a head-spin in a practical sense.”
On replacing Tom Liberatore…
“(Adam Treloar) will be considered, there’s no doubt about it. He’s getting into the space where he’s close, but there are a number of boys who’ve prepared and played well over the last month or so with Footscray.
“Where Adam is in the pecking order, I can’t really tell you at the moment, but he’ll be considered.”
On facing Essendon…
“Things can fall away quickly and they can go up dramatically. And obviously Essendon are after that.
“We can’t underestimate human nature and the value of wanting something so much that you’re prepared to put everything on the line.
“We’ve got to expect that from Essendon on Sunday and bring our best to counter it.
“I think we’re being spruiked a little bit at the moment just purely because of our ladder position. There’s a vulnerability in that.
“There’s a vulnerability in that. When you’re down at the lower end of the ladder and things aren’t going so well, in a sense it can be all bets are off.
“(Players) galvanise and can come together really quickly, so it can be really dangerous if you haven’t got your wits about you.
“Our objective is to get into Sunday with an intensity and an adversarial approach to the game that we've brought to the early games in the season.
“If we do, then we'll be okay.”
On Cody Weightman…
“He’s still building, but he's getting through a lot more training which is very, very encouraging.
“We know what sort of a player Cody is - he's just such an influential player for us, so to miss him for a whole year and then (have) the prospect of him maybe playing again in maybe a month or so is quite exciting for everyone.
“We've got to make sure we set him up to succeed. As you know, he's missed so much footy, but he's involved in more and more drills as the weeks go by.
“And we're building him up to probably playing some state-league footy around about that time.”
