Sydney Senior Coach Dean Cox spoke to the media ahead of Friday night's Marn Grook clash with Carlton.

Cox spoke about the importance of Sir Doug Nicholls Round, provided an update on the side's injury list and how the side can return to playing their best.

On the significance of Friday night

"I think this week provides a huge opportunity, Friday night, SCG, Marngrook, GO Foundation being the match day partner, there's a lot for the footy club, the players and the footy team there to deliver on."

On the importance of Sir Doug Nicholls Round

"I think it's a great opportunity for the club and the broader AFL community, with a Sir Doug Nicholls round as well, to be able to acknowledge the impact that Indigenous players have had on this great game. And that's not just the players that I played against or the ones that are currently playing, it's generations that have allowed young kids the dream and hope to play AFL footy."

On the 50m penalties given away last week

“We haven't given away too many 50s until the weekend, I think the disciplinary thing, it's important that we know what the rules are and how they adjudicate them. And that was one thing that we wanted to make sure that, obviously, the stand rule's been in play for a long time but once it happens once, we need to adjust pretty quickly about they are hot on it and we need to rectify that.” 

On getting back to playing their best

“I think one thing I've always done throughout my footy career is always focus on what you can control,  one thing for us is about not looking at what happens 15 rounds down the track, about making sure my role is to get the players playing the best footy as quickly as they possibly can. We're still confident that our best footy, and we've shown just not consistently, that we can match teams no matter where they sit. We've played a lot of teams in the eight currently now, and we've actually performed well against them for periods, just not long enough.” 

On Taylor Adams

"I think one thing you find with the VFL, they probably didn't perform at the level that we needed them to, as a team and a collective.
So Taylor was a part of that, we need to make sure that he gets back to training fully but speaking to him after the game, he was good to get through the first one and now really confident in his body that he's available for selection."

On Callum Mills

"We've got to have a look at that at training tonight and then from there, with Callum, we've always said we'll sit down with him following each session about what the next one looks like. This is the last one he needs to get through before he decides to play a game so hopefully that can happen and then the dynamic of what that looks like with the physios, medical staff, about whether it's restricted, we're going to work our way through that. So I don't like getting too far ahead before players actually tick off what they need to."

On Joel Amartey 

"Joel's a little bit different, he's missed four weeks with a hamstring injury so he's trained for a week and a bit so we expect if he can get through training today that he'll be available."

On Carlton 

"I think also that you talk about a lot of their backline, Haynes, Silvani plays tall, obviously Wietering's been in great form, then you've got Young, Curnow, Harry McKay as well. They do have a tall team and the ability to be able to make sure we can mitigate their defenders because they are the number one intercepting team across the comp so we need to make sure that we can do that with the right match-ups."

On movement of players in and out of the side

"That's one thing that I want to make sure that we want to try and settle our team as much as we possibly can, as quickly as we can. How long that takes? It's still going to take a little bit of time, but that's all part of the challenge, and that's why I enjoy doing the job."