Q: You've had a bit of time to reflect now, do you see the season as a pass or fail?

A: It's a pass. Everyone will look at the win-loss column and that looks like a fail but the growth in the group was fantastic. From the early part of the season where our average losing margin was 67 points to the second half of the season, you obviously take out the Geelong debacle, we'd got it down to 36, so six goals. We made a five-goal improvement in half a season. We've learnt a lot out of the year so from my point of view, just a massive tick.

Q: What disappointed you when you look back?

A: Just that expectation. Because you're a competitor – I'm the first one to lean on the senior group and tell them to just be patient – but every game I went to we picked a team to win, we expected to win, and then you'd start and be seven goals down and have to play catch-up football. That wasn't a pleasant taste in the mouth.

The major disappointment for me was Josh Caddy, to see him struggle through a pre-season and then to see him go down again and miss the majority of the season. Michael Coad was another one who tore his hamstring off the bone, and footballers just want to play footy and when that's taken away from them that's sad. Your heart goes out to them and that was probably the most disappointing thing from the year.

Q: From the outside you're such a positive character, a glass half-full man, was there times through the season you had to rip in when you were disappointed with them?

A: The North game (round 12) we were flat, the Sydney game (round 16) we were flat in front of our home crowd and they were on the back of two Perth trips so there's circumstances there. But we tried to mitigate against that by freshening them up with extra massage and less training to try and limit the damage, but when it unfolds like that you do get cranky because you think you've done everything you can.

It's easy for the coach, but the impacts of that travel are massive on a group that in essence probably 50 per cent of them have never had to do it. You can understand it, but during the game you can't. And our game against Brisbane (round 21) was disappointing as well, but – and not making excuses – but it was on the back of a really good showing against Collingwood, St Kilda and Geelong, which I know sounds silly because we got whacked, but the boys were having a crack down there. The fourth game was the Brisbane game and I think the boys were spent. I thought we passed the test against Collingwood, we passed the test against St Kilda … then we play Brisbane and it was a lack of effort, so just those three games.

Q: After the (season opening) Carlton match did you ever think 'gee, this is going to be tougher than I thought and we're in for a hell of a long season'?

A: No, not really. Not being a smarty pants, but prior to the match I said blokes would run around like headless chooks and they did. Carlton were wound up, we had a bye in the first round and it was a perfect storm. Even the Geelong game (round 20), what you get out of it is experience. If you don't learn from the previous week, then it is a failure and you haven't got better. Our chairman talks about continuous improvement and that's what you saw and that's what kept you coming back to work each Monday with some hope and excitement and enthusiasm. You could see the small gains these young players were making individually as young footballers and that's not to discount the efforts of Gary Ablett, Nathan Bock, Campbell Brown and Josh Fraser, you saw those blokes grow as well and then collectively we slowly grew.

Early in the season we played 30-40 minutes of good football in patches, and towards the end of the season you could legitimately say we had an arm wrestle for half a game, which was good. Next year we're aiming to put three quarters of footy together. The ideal world is to play like Collingwood and play three-and-a-half quarters, which, the way they play, is good enough to win most of your games. Our game is to make sure we can play 90 minutes of men's football and we think in some cases that'll be good enough to win more games of football.

Q: It was your first year at senior level, did you doubt yourself? How did you find the year personally?
 

A: Not really. There's more media, more crowd, more expectation, but coaching's still coaching – 18s, VFL, then AFL. There's more pressure because there's more people involved but it doesn't change things. You obviously become smarter as a coach. I don't think my message has changed a lot since 18s, it's all still fairly basic. I think coaches try and complicate it too much and the players just want to hear the truth about how they're going individually and collectively and you want to give them a goal and a target and hope. That's what coaches do, we're dealers in hope, setting high targets for them and the group.

Q: Paul Roos criticised you a few times for not sending your young players to follow or tag some of the competition's superstars to help their development. How do you respond to that and was it something you ever considered?
 

A: We kind of did that. It's a different system now. As an opposition coach (assistant at Collingwood), I followed Sydney a lot and they had four or five run-with players so when Collingwood started rotating a lot, you'd see these blokes follow players on and off and I think Sydney blokes would even say it got confusing.

My philosophy is it's about team defence. Yes, sometimes it's important to take out a particular player, but how much of an impact will that have on your structure? I can understand the merits of it, but does David Swallow need to learn how to run? I'd argue that he knows how to run and he also knows how to defend. We're trying to teach a team defence and we're trying to do a lot of one-on-one work. We tried to tag 18 players of the opposition because that's how we played this year.

I think it's more the coaching philosophy and we were teaching our boys a different style of defence rather than a sole tagging role because I think there's chinks in your armour when you sit on players. It can help you but it can also take away from your team defence. I look at Collingwood and I don't know who they tag on-ball? They don't. It's just the choice of the coach. Our players are aware that if you struggle in that area, like Mav Weller has, you go back and play on half-back and learn to play on someone and once he gets that he'll come on-ball and have that same mentality.

Q: You'd dealt with Swallow, Smith and McKenzie (in the VFL last year) and while the general public was probably surprised by them, I'm sure you weren't. Was there anyone that jumped up and did surprise you once they got their chance?
 

A: He probably hasn't got a lot of credit to a degree, and from my point of view he played more games than I thought – Seb Tape. He's probably cut from the old defensive cloth of sticking to your man like sticky tape, hence his nickname. Offensively he still needs to understand the game and find the footy and use the ball better, but defensively for such a young kid … I thought some of his roles, he played on Adam Goodes in our (NAB Cup) win up at Greater Western Sydney, he really fought above his height and weight division and did very well. He made some mistakes like we all did but I thought he was one that really jumped out of the box.

We know Brandon Matera is a unique talent but the size and shape of him, the way he came along was fantastic in a small forward role. Even Dion Prestia too, he played 18s footy last year. The McKenzies, Materas and Wellers, some of these blokes were 17 and playing against men at VFL level so had a year of warming up, but Dion Prestia didn't, Seb Tape didn't, so a couple of those boys have stepped straight in and hit the ground running.

Q: With so much talent, it's going to be hard to keep all those guys isn't it?
 

A: That's our greatest challenge. I've seen it happen, I've been part of it at West Coast where we had the opportunity to take bigger contracts from other clubs. It's very hard to squeeze 26 really good players into 22, so they (other clubs) chip away at the fabric of your footy club and ultimately you're not going to get paid as well as you're valued but are you going to chase money or are you going to chase success? We did that (chased success) at West Coast, I lived it and breathed it. I had the opportunity to go elsewhere but chose to stay. I was comfortably paid and could have got more, but 11 of my 13 years I spent playing finals, which equated to another season of football which produced three Grand Finals and two premierships. That's what it's all about, it's all about playing in September and making sure you're seen as a great player because you performed well when it counted. You can get more money to go to another club and don't ever play a finals game, speak to players that have done that and it's a very sad, sad and lonely existence I would think.

Q: That's obviously the culture you're instilling into your young blokes?
 

A: Having said all that, there's going to be players to move, we understand that. We upset some clubs through the uncontracted contracts and because of the draft, you're going to upset people and they're gong to come back and you're going to have fights. For example if Geelong wanted to come back and get Gary Ablett, we might be able to fight and keep Gary here, but then Carlton wants to come and get Trent McKenzie and Essendon wants to come and get Josh Toy. That's what happens and that's what's going to happen and we understand that and that's the player and manager's call. We're trying to produce a list and club that has sustained success and that's what it's about, playing in September. Having lived and breathed it at West Coast, I'd much prefer to be playing at this time of year than talking to media people, with all respect.

Q: Looking at your list, what type of players will you be looking for come draft and trade time?
 

A: Having pick four helps as far as getting good young talent, because we can keep stock-piling good, young talent, but if young players do leave (in future years) we can fill the void with a draft pick, but we think in the near future we're going to be successful and we're starting to miss out on that young talent.

We've got a fairly skewed list at the moment. I'd think for any mature player that wants to come to the Suns we'd certainly look at that. I think we've got enough good, young kids, very happy with the kids we've got, we can see them developing into bona fide AFL players. What would help? Danny Stanley helped in our forward line taking the hits, which helped Luke Russell and Brandon Matera late in the season, no different to Brown and Bock down back helping our young defenders get through. The balance of youth versus maturity, I would think out of the trade slash draft period we'd be looking for some more mature players. With pick four you'd hope to get a good young kid that's for sure.

Q: Jared Brennan mentioned this season was physically more difficult than he thought, Browny said he wouldn't mind another experienced player or two to help, so would you consider trading that pick number four to get an experienced body?
 

A: You've got to weigh up what you can get at pick four versus that mature body. I have no doubt that if the players are saying that, they would have felt they had a load-and-a-half go through them this season because they had so many kids they were carrying. It's important we balance the list and there's an opportunity through the draft and trade that we can do that. We'll sit down with Scott and the Footy Club and work out our best strategy.

Q: Karmichael has been spoken about a lot this year, probably more than anyone behind Gary (Ablett). What value did he bring to you on field and off field, as that's some of the reason he was recruited?
 

A: The off field stuff he's ticked all the boxes. You couldn't be happier with some of his work in the community, what he's been able to do and shelter these kids from media exposure. On the field you see him like the young kids, slowly developing, from a bash and crash defender but now having the confidence to get after the footy. He has quick hands, a sidestep, and is really starting to get involved in our offensive football. His development has been fantastic. Through his nature, we'd expect the same next year. He's one of those mature bodies that Brown and Bock love to have down back. His performances under a lot of scrutiny and pressure, if you knew him you'd understand it's water off a duck's back, but any other person that had to go through that scrutiny would find it very tough so I think personally he's done a fantastic job to finish the season the way he has.

Q: It's obviously been a successful venture so far. Is looking outside the square and to another sport something you might consider again in the future?
 

A: You never say never, but you have to make sure you give yourself a better than even chance of success. Meeting Karmichael you knew he was never going to leave a stone unturned because he's such a driven individual, he's such a professional, he showed that in the gym, on the field, off the field, so you never say never but at this stage we're happy pumping the time into K to make him a success. With such a big list, probably one is enough at this stage.

Q: You were in the unique position this time last year and now it's GWS's turn. They seem to be taking a slightly different path of getting a few very experienced guys as assistant coach/players, what do you think about that and is it something in hindsight you could have considered?
 

A: We're fairly comfortable the direction we've taken. You've got to weigh up whether it's the wins you're after or the development of young kids. If we had a couple more mature players we might have won a few more games, but less kids would have got games. David Swallow, Trent McKenzie, all these blokes, and even more so players like Jacob Gillbee who played the final game against Hawthorn, he probably doesn’t play. Going into next season, Jacob Gillbee can now go into the pre-season with a taste for it. He understands how quick it is, how strong the opponents are, how quick they move. If we had an extra couple of senior players, he probably doesn't get an opportunity. Josh Caddy probably doesn't play after his injury. You have to weigh that up. That's the path we've chosen and that's the path GWS has chosen. Whoever holds up the premiership Cup first will be proven right.

Q: They've probably looked at your model and maybe adjusted, but you sound really happy with the path you took?
 

A: It's like the AFL when they dreamt up the rules for Gold Coast coming in. They saw what happened with West Coast and Port Adelaide and Fremantle and all these clubs coming in, they couldn't let certain things happen again, so they said here's the new rules and regulations and draft picks and salary cap because we don't want it to happen again. We've gone through it and GWS have sat back and chosen to do things differently and that's what you'd hope with any organisation, it's continuous improvement. That's their opinion. We like to think what we've done is the right way to do it and the proof will be in who gets to hold up the premiership Cup first.

Q: Obviously the expectation will change next year and people will expect more. What are you expecting?
 

A: Improvement individually and collectively. If that equates to win, if we just look at wins and losses, let's not get our hopes up too far. Opposition coaches, teams, players themselves would have been scrutinised a lot. All of our players have a season under their belt and would have generally flown under the radar but now they know about Zac Smith in the ruck, they know about Trent McKenzie's long left foot, they know about David Swallow's ability to break from packs, Dion Prestia's ability to do likewise, Brandon Matera, if you give him time and space look out. The opposition know that so they'll start to cover and suffocate their strengths so it's going to be harder on them.

That's why this pre-season is about us stepping up and going again and taking another step forward because if we sit back and get comfortable we'll get gobbled up. I'm hoping if we do that it translates to more men's football and it goes from 60 to 70 to 80 to 90 minutes and that could translate to more wins, but as long as we're playing more consistent football that's all we can do.

Q: You talk about players improving, do you do anything yourself in the next four to six weeks to further your coaching education?
 

A: Naturally I have a look at the other sides to see what they're doing to make sure you're ahead of the trends but you're mindful of the group you've got and you've got to be able to implement a plan your players can carry out. There's no point implementing a plan you don't have the cattle to do.