Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Big last hour coming up on Fireball. Thanks for your company this morning. Sammy Edmund with all the news a little bit later on the agenda and your feedback. But right now, West Coast come to town as the secondary story, clearly, to what is going on at the MCG in front of hopefully 90,000 as Scott Penderbury breaks the game's record tomorrow. And Andrew Walter is the coach of the Eagles.
He joins us. Mini, thanks for your time.
Morning, Kane. Morning, Kenny.
How has the week and the build-up been?
Chapter 2: How is Andrew McQualter preparing for Scott Pendlebury's milestone game?
I was strong on Monday that you could be using or should be using this as motivation. The fact that Collingwood, I think, have hand-picked you to beat you to make sure it's a great day for them. Surely you've used this as a little bit of added motivation.
I heard you were strong on Monday, Cain. They got back to me throughout the week.
Look, I understand what you comment and where your comments come from for sure and I worked with Choco for a long period as well so I understand how you were brought up in a football sense and look, I think there's a little part of it that we can use for sure but we don't really need any extra motivation as a football team or a club at the moment. We're on our own journey.
We're working really hard to improve our game and we've got a lot of work to do and we're committed to doing that work as you guys understand. So, yeah, I appreciate that it's a big game but for us, that's not our role in this game. Our role is to do whatever we can to win the game of football.
So with that, how do you handle Penderbury at all? Do you discuss how the players interact with him? Do you give him some extra attention? Is there extra physicality?
Yeah, it's a really interesting point. I'm not sure that I'm going to speak to it at all, to be honest. I don't want to make it too much of a big deal of it. It's already a big deal for these guys. A lot of them haven't played in front of 90,000 people before. So that comes with its own emotions. But I think you can get caught up in it a little bit too much as well.
No one's got as soon as the ball's bound. It's just another game of footy like any other big final or big game.
Mini, can we rule out a tag then?
I'm not going to share my secrets yet.
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Chapter 3: What insights does Andrew McQualter share about Harley Reid's performance?
It's a club that's, I think, before you got your hands on the reins, they probably won two or three games a year for two or three years. So it's bottom end of a rebuild, if you like. We always say the rebuild coach doesn't survive. Now, this is your lot at the moment. How difficult is this position?
Yeah, it has been a little bit of a challenge at times, and it's built some resilience in me and the group. But we've had so much change in my 18 months at the football club, whether it's staff or players. It's an enormous amount of change. I know that you guys understand the position we're in now and what we're building, so we're really clear on what we're doing.
We've targeted the draft the last two years in particular, and we think we've brought in talent that is at the core of building a premiership list. It's going to take some time. You don't just turn a corner. one day and you're out of this position.
It's inconsistency, it's growing, it's learning, it's adapting, it's playing together and building that synergy and that's where we're at at the moment.
And I guess it's getting the mix of experience and, well, to help the young draftees come through. So when Waterman plays, when Yeo plays, when Baker plays, well, Williams was amazing on the weekend. You just look a different side.
Have you got that balance right between enough experience to support the young group and is that an area that you can address with list management again at the end of this year?
Yeah, that's an ongoing discussion for us for sure, Kane. And last week, I thought our leaders really stood up and that was an important part for us, and we need them to every week because we do have so many younger players in our team. We need our experienced guys to stand up, and great news, Brendan Starswitch is playing his first game this weekend for us in the Waffle, which is terrific.
We're excited to get him into our team for our fans, and he'll make such a difference to our back line as well.
So is Lockie Neal of interest to you then?
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Chapter 4: How does Andrew McQualter assess the role of senior leaders in the team?
No, look, I don't know. I guess you can't live in that world, I suppose. But we're just looking for people and players, staff, anyone that comes into our organisation. We're trying to build an environment that's a winning culture. We understand it takes time.
So anyone that can help us do that, I'm just going to continue to try and find those people and players that can come in and help us do that.
How closely do you work with your recruiters, like as a senior coach, or is that an area that you're a bit more hands-off and you let them do their work in that space?
Yeah, a bit of both. It probably depends on the time of the year a little bit. During the season, it's certainly more hands-off and they're working away. But then when it comes a bit closer to crunch time, I do like to get involved. I think a senior coach plays an important role.
I'm not the decision-maker in it, but just getting on the same page with your recruiting team, I think it's a critical piece. So we're really fortunate. We've got a great recruiting team, list management team. So I trust them to do all their work. And then I just come in at the end and then give my two cents. But that's all it is.
Love looking at first-time coaches, new coaches, when they come into the system and watching for what their stamp's going to be. So we see Dean Cox comes in, really mature group that he's working with, been to a grand final. and now they're playing this forward handball game. That's his stamp on AFL footy. What's your stamp?
What's the one thing that you'd say, okay, this is a legacy of a McWalter coach team?
Yeah, look, I think it's what you saw last week, to be honest. Like the team that – what we got last week was high pressure, high contest, a little bit chaotic but controlled chaos at times. That's sort of the way that we want to play and we're trying to build to. Yeah. For us, last week was our best sample size of it. It's not going to be that every week. We know that.
It's going to have ebbs and flows still. But from a defensive point of view, that's the sort of team we want to be. We want to be a swarming defense and just be a team that's hard to play against.
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Chapter 5: What is Andrew McQualter's perspective on list management involvement?
And it's every single training session, every single minute on the football field. The kid is just locked into winning and competing. So he's such a great example. He's already in our leadership group. I think he's 21 years old. So he's a really important player for us, Ruben. And, you know, even early in his career, he's tried as a midfielder or a winger.
But we just thought we'd settle him down back. And, you know, we've tasked him with some unfair challenges at times, I think, with He's only 192 and he's played on all the big guys in the competition through necessity. To be fair, he really loses those challenges. Love the way Rubes goes about his football.
He's an inspiration for his teammates and hopefully we can get more players playing the game like him.
So having said all that, is he the obvious next choice as captain?
I think it's too early to say. I think our leaders at the moment are doing a terrific job. There's been some challenging circumstances as you guys know over the last few years and And Bakes and Duggo are doing a great job this year. But Rubes has definite leadership capabilities for the future.
I know you've got to go. So this is fireball, Mini. So we answer things honestly and quickly. Are we tagging Pindlebury or not? I'll go again. You've been doing this for long enough, King. You know I'm not going to answer you.
Have a good day, mate. Go well. Thanks, mate. Good luck.
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Chapter 6: How does Andrew McQualter describe Reuben Ginbey's competitiveness?
Andrew Walter there.
I had to ask. You had to ask. You asked it a couple of times. There is a Dacos running around as well that might need some attention.
Everyone tags Dacos, although I tried to at some point.
You want to go the double.
I just want to know whether the man who's having the greatest milestone in the game is going to be able to run around or is he going to have his day ruined and the spectacle ruined by a tag?
How do they handle him is what I'm interested in. I said on Monday, I don't want to see handshakes before the game.
Who cares? What do we get fixated on handshakes for? Because it's a sign. A sign of what? It's a sign that you're going to be nice. No, it's not. It is.
I saw Glenn Archer shake hands with everyone for 300 games and then try and kill them for the next two hours.
It makes no difference. He's one of one. He is one of one. I saw Pickett do the same.
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