Monaghan proud of Sharks response

East Fremantle coach Bill Monaghan was pleased with his side’s resolve after their round one hiding at the hands of South Fremantle, with the Sharks defeating Peel Thunder by 42 points at East Fremantle Oval on Saturday.

Speaking on WAFL World on Monday, Monaghan said he was impressed by his side’s response after a 95 point round one drubbing at the hands of the Bulldogs.

“It’s been a really long pre-season and we thought we had it right, and it least mentally we didn’t get it right in round one,” he said.

“It was a really frustrating time, not only just for the coaches but for the players as well, we were all really disappointed with what we dished up.

“What we had to do was we had to go back and identify why from a mental side of things we weren’t right, we just went back to the things we know we had to tick off to play good footy and most of them are around your effort and your attitude.”

“The boys jumped out of the blocks really well and then maintained that for the majority of the day.”

Despite Peel being severely undermanned due to no Fremantle aligned players in season 2020, the Sharks were also missing key personnel on the day.

“We lost Kody Manning and Kyle Baskerville during the week with slight hamstring strains at training, so we were two quality players down,” Monaghan said.

“We picked a side, then Saturday morning I had three players ring me before 8 o’clock and they didn’t get up, Cameron Eardley was 50-50 all week with a corked thigh and then Nick Kommer and Brodie Riach had little hiccups.

“By 8 o’clock Saturday morning I was five quality players down. The fact that didn’t phase the players, they processed that, the young kids who came in late played their part, it was a real team effort. That was the most pleasing thing.”

The former West Perth premiership coach also clarified his comments made on 91.3 Sport FM before the opening round of the season, around the state of the game and ways to improve it as a spectacle.

“One of the comments I made is that if we want to increase scoring we should ban tackling. That’s not exactly what I said. What I said was, that since tackling has become more prevalent scoring has dried up,” he said.

“Now in AFL footy and in some WAFL games you can have as many as 200 tackles and that’s an unbelievable amount. I get asked all sorts of questions and sometimes I give dumb answers and annoy people.”

Monaghan, who is embarking on his second season as coach of East Fremantle praised his leaders for their impact against the Thunder.

“Griff (Jonathon Griffin) was fantastic, he was as hurt as anyone else the week before, he takes great pride in wearing the jumper. His week was outstanding, him and Juppy and the other leaders really stood up and led the way,” he said.

The Sharks are set to welcome back Eardley, Kommer and Riach for their round three clash with East Perth, with a win likely to see them soar in to the top four.

“Last week it was all about our attitude and effort to make up for a poor performance, so this week needs to be good attitude and effort to continue that,” Monaghan said.

“We can’t be a side that plays well one week and then poorly the next week. So that’s our challenge.”

You will hear the Royals-Sharks match on 91.3 Sport FM on Saturday at 2:00 PM from Leederville Oval.

IMAGE: The West Australian.