AFL 2022 round 18 LIVE updates: Dogs too good on sorry night for sloppy Saints

Adam Treloar speaks to Matthew Richardson on Channel Seven after the Dogs’ 28-point win over the Bulldogs.

Q: You’re playing down back. Last few weeks in fact. Enjoying it?

A: I do, yeah. Hadn’t been there for 12 years. The last time I played there was under 16s. Yeah, the way the half-back is played in this day and age, a very attacking position. Obviously, got to defend first. I think the way teams are able to utilise their half-backs, it suits my strengths in a way. Maybe it’s just a sign I’m getting too old, can’t play inside any more. But, no, I’m enjoying being down there. I think the midfield tonight obviously spent a lot of time forward early.

Q: Did you get what you wanted in defence?

A: Yeah, that was the key. I think we’ve been really disappointed with the way teams have been able to move through us in the last couple of weeks in particular. In our losses, teams have been able to cut through us. That’s mainly the gap between the mids and the defenders, not being … just not having the intensity in defence. A lot of teams say good defence leads to good offence. When we defend well, we tend to score really well. We were fortunate enough to do that.

Q: You had a few different faces down there. Khamis down there, Mitch Hannan down back as well.

A: Buk has great strength. I think his aerial ability, his athleticism really shows when he’s down there. When he has the confidence to go for the marks and his teammates telling him he’s out, to just fly for it. More often than not, brings the ball to ground which is a key strength of ours. Mitch is very similar vein to Buku. For him to come back after 10 weeks of being out due to concussion, pretty much play one game of AFL in the absolute wet up in Queensland, then come in and play a new role, full credit to him. I think that is the recipe for going forward and how we want to play. The footy we bring, we’ve got. We don’t look further than next week which is against the Melbourne. We have top eight teams and we want to finish in the eight, we have to beat those sides. We started off well tonight, hopefully carry it into the next few games.That gives a chance to build momentum, beating good teams.

Q: Before we let you go, you kicked a nice snag there. What were the horns? Daisy didn’t know. I didn’t know. BT didn’t.

A: No little trend, just something we spoke about internally. Won’t go into too much detail, but something the boys spoke about. We all did it.