On the Sydney Derby

"I'm really excited. I think that's what. Certainly, in the eight years I've been in New South Wales and in Sydney, seeing the game grow has been a phenomenal effort by the AFL and the two New South Wales teams. So, I think Derby 30, I think it is, really excited and also about our players having to respond."

On the injury list

"I think you saw last night in some games, Essendon, they have injuries and a lot of sides do. How you deal with them is the sign of a really strong club, we've got to make sure that we get back to the players that certainly do play. My message all the way along to the players has been that there are 23 that go out and represent this footy club, you do it in the manner and the way that we normally should, and at times we've let ourselves down in that area."

On the loss to the Suns last week

"We had a meeting on Tuesday to address that and to speak through that, I think that's the only thing you can do is to identify the standards of which you want to play and set and we fell really short of that. It's a fluctuation in and out of games, but the way that that happened was really disappointing, we get a chance now on Sunday to make amends for that."

On the rivalry

"I've had a part in some cross-town rivalries over my time, and I think the more you certainly understand the dynamic of football, we want to promote it in New South Wales, but we also don't want to lose against our team that are across the road. So that's one important thing, is to identify the difference between growth in New South Wales of AFL football and actually winning games against your local team, so I've always been strong on beating the local team."

On how he's found the transition to Senior Coach

"A lot gets thrown at you and you're continually learning every day, whether it's with a player, whether it's staffing, whether it's you want to change something with the way you play, the training program, dealing with a lot of things. That's just the nature of the job so there's not one thing that's stood out, it's just been a number of things that are different to when you're an assistant. You've just got to adapt and that's what I ask my players to do, is to try and adapt to situations they're faced with and I've got to do exactly the same. So I'm loving every minute of it and through these tough times you find out a lot about everyone at the football club and we're doing that now."

On the need for players to set up

"That's what I said to the players, it's not the young ones or the players like Riley Bice or Corey Warner or Caden Cleary or these ones that are going to turn around the way we play. It's the middle tier of players that we need to perform at a level that they've played 80, 100, 150 games so they know the standard, they know how to get in form, they know what playing at their best looks like. So there's a band of players in that area of the ground or that many, they're those experienced players that we need to play a bit more consistently, so they're aware of that and you can't leave it all to too few."

On filling the void of missing senior players

"I think everything we say to our players is that we want all players to lead, and everyone leads differently. We understand the dynamic of when senior players aren't there that someone has to fill that void, and when Tom's (Papley) so vocal, we need Will and we need Hayden McLean and we need the like that have played a little bit of footy, we need them to take control of their area. So that's one thing that we've mentioned to them and hopefully they do that this weekend."

On the Giants

"I think one thing they do is they're the number one or two switch team and corridor team as well from their defensive half. So that's something we've got to be aware of,  and those two (Lachie Ash and Whitfield) provide massive run through that part, but also their mids, Finn Callaghan, they get back to support to generate ball to allow them to go with that high transition speed.  So we've got to make sure that where we enter inside 50 is really important for the way that they can counter, but on top of that as well, we've just got to be wary of their runners and what they can do, because both of those players have been really important for us."

On Aaron Francis

"The thing with Aaron is he's come back as fit as he's ever been at the start of pre-season. Every week when he wasn't included in the 23, he would come to me and say, what do I need to do? Which is really admirable for a player to come when they're not playing, "how can I get in?"  So from there, he went back to VFL, he performed really well wherever he was playing, so he was really important for us. Certainly ahead of the ball, it's not about goals all the time, but once he took the ball, he slowed the game down, he can assess what's happening ahead of the ball."