Key Quotes: Dean Cox, Round 12

Sydney senior coach Dean Cox spoke to the media on Friday (May 30) about the side’s upcoming clash against the Adelaide Crows at the SCG. He spoke about team selection, the 2005 Premiership reunion match, and Justin McInerney’s milestone game. 

On coming up against Adelaide

“We have looked really closely at the last month of the games Adelaide have played and spent a fair bit of time in the last six days to make sure we can get that right. Rankine’s been in unbelievable form through the middle of the ground and ahead of the ball, and Rachele, takes his opportunities from there, but not only those, you’ve got the three talls that have been phenomenal for that football club, they target them really quickly and heavily. So, the ability to be able to try and support that is going to be crucial. And then obviously, they’ve got Dawson and Soligo too, they’re where they are for a reason.”

On Justin McInerney’s 100^th AFL game

“Justin, since he got here, has been a real energy giver, and the personality that he has, you want to see him play with that as well. I think that the ideal Justin is that he’s a really strong two-way runner, and we need to cover as much of this SCG ground as possible. And, you know, he’s been in and out of the team, we need him back permanently now. He has had some misdemeanours, that’s why he’s missing football games, so he’s aware of that. He can’t wait to represent this club for his 100th game, and we can’t wait to see it.”

On Ollie Florent being omitted from the team

“He’s had a great career to date and still will for the footy club, but I think one thing you want the players to do is to play their role in a trademark game consistently and Ollie hasn’t been doing that, so when you don’t do that, your position gets put in jeopardy and as a footy club, we need to make sure that we’re rewarding the right things. He was disappointed when I said to him last night, it’s about what I need to do and to work through a plan on how to get back to playing in the form that he knows he can play. He’s aware of that, and at one o’clock in the VFL tomorrow, he’ll hopefully address that.”

On Caleb Mitchell

“Caleb Mitchell gets a chance because in the three or four weeks in the VFL, he’s been playing really strong footy, and he warrants selection.”

On the movement of players in and out of the side

“I think you’re always looking to change up your team and trying to make sure the players are, first of all, doing the right thing for the team at AFL level and then to keep them on edge, making them play at the level that’s required. So, that’s something we have to do

with or without players, that won’t change from the remainder of the year as well.”

On getting back to playing their best

“We’re inconsistent at the minute, week to week and throughout games, and players are inconsistent with their form. So, that’s one thing that we need to address. We’ve spoken to the players about that individually and collectively, about making sure that we address those areas, and we’re going to have to because we’ve come up against a top-four team in Adelaide. You want your best players playing well. That’s one thing that you want consistently, but you can’t rely only on that. We’ve shown glimpses, just not enough, individually and how we can cover when certain players aren’t playing at the level that they need to. That’s what makes great teams. You know, that’s why teams are where they are, and when we played great footy and amazing football last year, players were playing well when others weren’t. We are still finding out what we want to do as a football team, and there’s going to be some challenges along the way, and we’re going through them now. So, we’ll work our way through it, doesn’t mean we don’t speak about it any less or any more.”

On the anniversary of the 2005 Grand Final

“I was fortunate enough to play against the 2005 Grand Final side. The players are aware of what that team stood for and how they played through that period, and their little subtle messaging that we’ll play throughout the week about how we can try and emulate some of the things that they were doing. We will still focus on ourselves, but you certainly need to identify the amazing team that was. I think we always want to be a hard team to play against. You know, that hasn’t changed, I reckon, since 2000 here, we still want that, so, we’ve got to get back to doing that.”

On Errol Gulden

“He’s going well, he’s ticking off everything he has to do. I’ve got some other issues I need to address before we worry about when Errol is coming back. But so far, he’s ticking off everything he has to do, which is pleasing. But, you know, post-bye week is probably the start of where it will look.”