Stuart Waitley

Okay, the ball's going there.

I'm willing to leave my direct opponent to support the next contest and knowing that if I leave mine, man, someone might come and replace my role as well.

So it's all about being connected as a defence and one and a half men is critical for the defenders.

The culture check.

So Sunday night, rather perfectly, has Essendon and Carlton playing the battle of the interim coaches.

And you've kept tabs here, obviously, with Josh Fraser throughout and then the day-to-day for Dean Solomon as he gets his feet under the desk.

So give us a bit more on what you think is going on at the Blues with Josh through this first month.

Well, I'm working with Josh a little bit.

And not to say I'm going to give any state secrets away, but...

I don't think it's been a revolution game plan change, Gerard, and I think he's openly admitted that as well.

You get the sense the players have really freed themselves up mentally, which for whatever reason, it's been holding them back a little bit, the whole narrative around Carlton.

So there's the one piece to go, okay, there's some freshness amongst the group, but what do you do?

from a delivery point of view on game day and how do you actually play to win.

So I think they found that balance really well.

What I'm intrigued more on is what are these interim coaches doing day-to-day with their players when there's so long to go?

And they'll be looking, like Dean Solomon's saying, they're looking at these interim coaches going, well...

You're not really my coach, but I'll buy into a degree.

So the ability for an interim coach to get that buy-in, it's such a big challenge.

It's like the old substitute teacher.

You would have been still sitting at the front of the class doing your thing, but most of us go, well, you start giving out fake names in the roll call.