TS: You'd be having a lot of chats lately with the doc?
MP: Yeah I'm spending too much time with him & not enough time with the players at the moment which is unfortunate but that's the game sometimes & where handling it.
TS: Look it's still a good starting lineup, still a lot of talent out on the field, Do you now have to juggle that to maybe be getting more game time out of some of your players that would of normally been rotated?
MP: That is the way it is at the moment but what I'm really pleased with, is the likes of Jack Buchanan & a few of the other young guys that are playing more time than they fought they were going to be doing at this stage of the season. Even in preseason, I would of thought Jack Buchanan perhaps would of made the bench & got a few games in but he's one of our main props at the moment & going very well, I'm really happy with they way he's going. We've got young Sue coming off the bench & I think he's an exciting prospect, He's certainly by no means a finished prospect but he's got good aggression, good drive to him. Were just after winning games, it's a big ask for our young blokes but it's a great challenge for them as well.
TS: Benji Marshall in or ruled out?
MP: He's a chance, he trained for most of the session this morning but were going to see how it pulls up because being a toe injury perhaps it's not the training you can replicate the day before a game with match conditions, but I want to see how he pulls up & he'll have another run in the morning.
TS: On the bright side Mick, by my calculations there's about eight or nine deadset first graders out injured at the moment, which is just normally disaster but it gives some of these young blokes a chance to step up. There's plenty of talent there & experience obviously brings confidence so that stuff will come but you might uncover some real diamonds?
MP: I think your right, I'm hoping that's going to be the case, What I really like, is to say to some of the guys that are coming back in a month or so, is well you've got to earn your way back in because these young blokes are going too good to change, that would be ideal but whether that happens or not is another thing. Anyway they've got their chances in their hands & they'll make me pick them in the future when there's competition for places again & their future is in their own hands type of thing.
TS: If Benji does make it & is fit for Friday night, does he play 6 or 7?
MP: He'll probably play 7
TS: So you would leave Curtis out there?
MP: I don't think there's a reason to change two positions & Benji's done it before & done it with ease, so perhaps having a senior guy helping you out a little bit more than putting it all on Curtis, would be the way to go.
TS: Jacob Miller, hows he going & has he been doing it a bit tough on & off the field during the year?
MP: He started ok for us but perhaps just took his foot off the gas with taking the line on & he went back to reggies & acquitted himself well, he's got better in the few games that he played there & I was happy to bring him back in this week. It's a case of, he's got the confidence of himself & the players, He's a bright prospect still but sometimes when you haven't got those more senior players around you to just give you a tip here & there & push & pull you around, it makes it a little bit tough for him.
TS: The other night against the Broncs, I thought that they were going to lap your blokes & it was a real danger they were going to put 50 on you but somehow they dug deep & really in some ways be proud of their effort.
MP: I think they were, but they certainly weren't happy when they got into the sheds because they knew it was there to win but they just messed up a couple of simply defensive decisions & that's what young guys do, there enthusiasm gets the better of them & they have a rush of blood & they come up with poor decisions, its time but everyone's very impatient & everyone wants to make it in a hurry. We just have to do the simple things right more than we are doing them at the moment.
TS: I really like the form last year & this year now of a really mature Aaron Woods but this is a really good challenge for him this Friday night?
MP: It's been a challenge for him ever since he came back from his knee op, he's getting better & better as the games go on, he's playing a lot of minutes. I'm very happy with him & he's by far & away our best front rower, best middle unit type player & playing by far the most minutes except for Robbie, his contributing meters have been great, his tackle percentage has been really good & he's talk out there is good,for a guy I think who has just he's turned 23.