Dean Solomon is ‘incredibly confident’ Essendon can finish their season with a good showing against Port Adelaide on Sunday.
Although added motivation isn’t required for the Senior Coach, Solomon says the 200th career game for skipper Andy McGrath should serve as a driving force for the Bombers in their pursuit of a final round win.
Solomon praised the Captain’s leadership over a difficult 12-month period at this morning’s presser, while also discussing their method to attack the Power and an attempt to sustain the footy that kept them in the hunt against Sydney last week.
Solomon on… the milestone man
It’s Andy McGrath’s 200th game and he's an incredible human who’s been incredibly selfless.
His beautiful family came in this morning, his dad Mike had some beautiful words and his teammates also celebrated him.
It's our last game for the year and we want to get off the bottom of the ladder.
He's carried so much this year, so much responsibility within the four walls of our football club and he has been incredible. The support he's given so many players and staff through what has been a difficult time, he’s just led in an elite manner.
It's been difficult navigating these 12 months, but he’ll be much better for the experience and (our leaders have) all grown a lot in that period of time.
It's critically important that we carry him off and then put him in the centre of that circle and sing that song on Sunday.
Solomon on… strategy, amending first quarter fadeouts
We felt like our second, third, and fourth quarters against the Swans were at a high level.
Our last five weeks, our forward half takebacks have been really positive, good forward 50 pressure.
We made a shift in the way we play, I think we're third for forward 50 tackles, so ‘gritty not pretty’ would look exactly like that.
Port have a method where they own the ball and they're able to build their uncontested mark game, which are challenges. Obviously it takes the opportunity to apply pressure away, so we’re really aware of that. They took 155 uncontested marks against us last game so it's not lost on us.
We know they’ve got a few injuries but we're not going to fall for that. We know what’s coming, they’re a proud football club and they want to finish well.
Our first 10-to-15 minutes have actually been really competitive (in games). It's the backend of the first quarter where we've fallen away.
We need to be proactive in the way that we play around our structures. The opposition get a run on early and we tend to unfortunately shy away and that becomes two, three, four goals against us. Then we reset at quarter time and become stable again.
It’s part of our growth and evolution, identifying that live and then providing solutions. We'll continue to empower this playing group to be able to do that.
Solomon on… the faithful
There's no better supporter group in the country.
I understand the disappointment and I said that really clearly post-game. It’s a really disappointing position that we're in as a club, and the crowds are low as a result, but I totally understand it, and we all do.
But also, being glass-half-full, there is a young group starting to form in front of their eyes that are really quite exciting. We had seven or eight players who’d played 20 games or less against the Swans and they (lost by a point over) three quarters.
Now is a great time to jump back on and support this young group, because the Essendon experience - one I was lucky enough to go through - when you're young, when the crowds are full, and they're supporting you, and they have you back through thick and thin, there's nothing better.
Solomon on… the group
I feel like as a club, we've actually navigated the last 12-to-13 weeks quite well, and we've seen a huge amount of growth in some of these young guys who've developed really well.
Pushing the standards to a higher level, there's a lot of stuff that's starting to move in the right direction, and we haven't seen it game day as much as we would like but I'm incredibly confident about this weekend. It’s our last game of the year and we're finishing the right way.
They've got a lot of resilience as a group and they're also incredibly connected. They're really tight.
I keep leaning into ‘this young group’, but the first, second, third, and fourth-years who are ‘thick and thin’, they've navigated through this really well.
They've been heavily supported by our leaders and that gives you a great foundation to launch from.
Solomon on… exit interview process, the road ahead
The most important part for (the Club) is just the alignment piece and remaining really strongly committed to what we're doing moving forward.
I have shut down a fair bit of the external noise over the last 13 weeks just to really concentrate on my role. I’m not responsible for the decision of the new coach, but I have a lot of trust in the decision that they’ll be the right coach for this football club at the right time.
Of course (I’ll be a part of player exit meetings) and I would have been anyway, a line coach will be a part of that as well.
We’ll summarise each player’s year, what they've done well, areas they can work on and improve. We expected our new coach will be a part of that also.
Early next week, we’ll announce our coach and they will most likely be available to be part of those meetings, which is a good thing.
My discussions will probably form on the back of the exits, I'll start talking to the club – with a new coach in place, it all makes a bit more sense because the structure will be clearer.
