Q. Your experienced players - like Dustin Fletcher, Matthew Lloyd and Sean Wellman were your stand-out players last week. Have your young players showed you that they will be ready for senior football come Round 1?
A. I doubt if they will be playing in the first match, but at some stage during the season you will take their pre-season form into consideration and how they handled it.
Q. Does it not concern you too much that you haven't had a win so far?
A. Some clubs are ready to try and have a crack at winning the Wizard Cup and just haven't been this year. We have probably had eight to 10 players out every week and we are just trying to get them right for the season proper.
Q. You face the Western Bulldogs this week in a practice match at QE Oval in Bendigo and it looks like you will have a full list to choose from...
A. We will probably pick somewhere near our best side.
Q. Another positive for the side was the return of Aaron Henneman and Damien Peverill?
A. It was good to get them back. We probably had seven players playing their first match last weekend.
Q. Dean Rioli, Mark Mercuri, Joe Misiti and Paul Barnard all played in the Bendigo Bombers side on Saturday. Will they be available for senior selection this week?
A. I will think they will nearly all come up this week. They needed a game themselves. There is no point them sitting on the bench when you are looking at young players. It is all about placement and getting the players ready for the real season.
Q. Are you where you want to be at this stage of the season?
A. We would probably like one more week just before the actual season, so we will probably play a practice match on the Friday night before the start of the season. So we have three weeks to go.
Q. Dean Solomon played the first half and finished with five touches. You must have been happy with his comeback game?
A. The game will be a good confidence booster for Dean. Lets face it, he would have been in a situation where he was happy to get through an hour of footy - it is more than he has played in a year.
Q. Are you expecting Solomon to play more than one half next week?
A. Hopefully. We will see how he trains this week.
Q. The shoulder injury to Ben Haynes is disappointing...
A. Well it is because he has been playing very, very well and his form has been good. It is the sort of break you would hope a young player like that wouldn't get. It is important for him to have an operation and will probably miss the first half of the year.
Q. Do you think he was likely to be promoted to the senior list?
A. I don't know if we will promote anyone this year - I am not sure yet. We mightn't have to - generally you only promote rookies when you have to.
