On lessons from the Essendon win…

“We definitely deviated from some of the things that we’d been executing pretty well in the previous few rounds. We spent a fair bit of time just in a one-on-one sort of approach, sitting down with players and reminding them of what they do well, and continuing to focus on it and the things that feed the team. 

“As I said after the game, you always give the opposition a bit of credit, if they force you into doing things that are out of character, and to a degree that happened. 

“There were things that we shot ourselves in the foot with…we can’t afford to do that against the Hawks.

“Today’s a really important session where we do everything at reasonably high octane, and we test ourselves and not be concerned about making mistakes per se. 

“Coming out of today’s session, there should be a level of confidence in the way that we execute our skills.”

On Tim English…

“He’s still pretty ginger and I think our medical staff are just waiting to see how it settles.

“Nothing’s ever definitive as far as when the player might be available again, but that’ll probably come through the airwaves or on the digital space mid-next week I would have thought.

“When you consider Hawthorn’s lads in Reeves and Meek – it’s a week where if those two guys are playing…you’re robbing Peter to pay Paul if you’re committing to (Lobb and Darcy) to the first ruck role. 

“This is a week where it’s inconvenient to say the least, especially with the centre-bounce side of things which we’ve been going pretty well at. 

“We need to compete and make sure that we don’t compromise any of the other boys who have been playing really important roles for us.”

On Louis Emmett…

“He’ll make his debut on Saturday. He’s a first-yearer and he hasn’t missed a beat. 

“It’s amazing actually, when you consider what usually happens with young key position players when they enter an AFL system. It normally takes them a long time to make the progress and be selected, compared to the midfielders who are picked in the draft. 

“He’s done really well to put his name up to be able to play this week. We’re looking forward to seeing the impact on the game that he makes.

“He’s very athletic for a boy who’s about 6’7” – so a really good blend of speed and endurance. And a great competitor – he just throws himself at everything. 

“He played a little bit like a tall ruck rover, the way he moves. He’ll compete in the ruck and he’ll probably play forward…and from what he’s been doing, he’s changed momentum for us in both of his games against Casey and Essendon VFL.”

On Hawthorn…

“I think most of us were absorbed by the (Easter Monday) game. It was a great contest and a terrific game to watch. For them to win in the end showed a great level of perseverance. 

“They’d be on cloud nine coming off that win. We haven’t beaten them in a home-and-away game for a while – we tend to beat them in pre-season, then they just sit us on our backside when we play them. 

“It’ll be a huge challenge for us.