Absence of players is no excuse for failure

Yes, we had a number of players missing, but that’s no excuse.

We were confident in the side we had on the park.

Each of those players deserved to be playing league football.

We couldn’t win control of the footy, East Fremantle smashed us at the stoppages and we lost by 73 points.

It was a terrible end to what was a positive first half for us and a wonderful day for the football club in front of more than 6000 fans.

It was promising to see Frank Stockley play solidly in the absence of ruckman Chris Keunen. He did a tower of work ” it was a big step up from playing 80 to 90 minutes of reserves footy to play more than 100 minutes in the league side.

He held his own in the ruck, there’s some things that he needs to work on, but he was far from disgraced.

We have discovered Anthony Tsalikis’ injury was quite serious, having torn ligament from his collarbone so surgery has rendered his season over.

It’s disappointing for him as he was having a terrific year.

We expect Chris Keunen, Andrew Strijk, Jay van Berlo and Matt Guadagnin to return from injury against Swan Districts in two weeks.

I would be very surprised if Luke Tedesco and Michael Pettigrew are fit for that match.

I’m expecting to have Mark Hutchings for the remainder of the season, unless West Coast has a significant number of injuries.

Whether he will play against Swans or not ” we don’t know ” but my main concern is having him in finals.