Even though it has been really tough, what's it been like to have him as a head coach this year?

He's been really good.

As I mentioned, we're obviously not happy with where we are, but he's been really good at keeping the mood up at training.

Obviously, giving guys a crack when you probably could just stick out the same team, but we've been giving young guys their debuts.

Rightly, they've deserved it.

But it's also good seeing the young talent we've got coming through our junior system get a crack.

I think it's also sparked a bit of energy in the group when we've probably been lacking it after losing the majority of the year.

How do you as an individual keep your mind focused on getting through that 80 minutes as best you can?

What's the role of a key forward against a team like the Giants that like to bounce out of defensive half of the ground? What are you concentrating on from a defensive perspective?

Well, yeah, not necessarily just the key forwards, but the whole team is, you know, we're really going after our blitz, our pressure.

When the ball hits the ground, so I think when we played the Giants early in the year, we got the win at Optus.

It was one of our highest pressure rating games for a long time because, yeah, as you said, they're a very fast team when the ball hits the ground and they've got some really elite running halfbacks who look to take the game on.

Yeah, the best thing we can do is try and slow them down and put pressure on.

when the ball's in dispute.

So if we can do that and give our action mids a chance to set up behind the play, then we can get a forward half game going and that'll really suit our chances.

But do you see some of that leadership influence in Harley? You've been around him for a while now.

And what about your expectations around the Giants defenders? Who are some of the players that you're expecting to spend time on and the challenge that it represents playing against those guys?

Yeah, obviously they've got some very talented key defenders.

Sam Taylor, especially.

Connor Iden and Harry Himmelberg look to be the main ones in the team at the moment with a couple of injuries to some of their other players.

So, yeah, not sure what the match-ups are going to look like at the moment.

I guess we've been playing a pretty tall forward line the last couple of weeks as well, so you know, we find with that look that, you know, you get opportunities sometimes with the third tall or fourth tall with a matchup that, you know, we really like and we want to take advantage of.

So, you know, if that's the case again...

What's the role of a key forward against a team like the Giants that like to bounce out of defensive half of the ground? What are you concentrating on from a defensive perspective?

How do you find that balance? Or is there, you know, someone that you've been talking to or getting some advice on with your role being a leader and playing? Yeah.

To be honest, it's been actually probably good for me.

I wasn't in the best patch of form at the start of the year.

Probably didn't really pick up where I left off last year.

And I think having those guys out that we've had in our leadership group, when I got elevated to the captaincy, I think it just put more of an onus on me to get myself right and to really just simplify our game plan, I guess, with all the younger guys we've got in the team.

I'm lucky enough, I've got Dylan Walker and Jack DeBellin.

Ron's young, but he's a great leader and They've made it super easy for us.

Just from you personally, what's it been like transitioning from edge to middle and playing big minutes still?

Let's Go Places.

The first half, making errors and whatnot, gave them too much possession, and then were sort of on the back foot defending in the first half, and blew a bit of our gas.

But, um, mate, very happy to come back in that second half, and a lot of boys taking opportunities when they saw it, which is what we've been building for.

And yeah, we, we fell short, probably, um, a few little disciplinary errors, and that's just, that's just what comes with inexperience.

So mate, we'll learn from it and, you know, we're, we're starting to bank a few good games, so, um, I think a win's around the corner for us.

What's been the message inside the four walls?

Uh, it's been pretty, pretty happy, to be honest.

Like, as you said, we're, we're down on troops and, um, you know, it's, it's, it's hard when you, when you've got those, those experienced guys out.

Sorry, mate.

Yeah, Heine.

Yeah, mate, I think our bench was a turning point for us, to be honest.

And the guys who were on there from the start as well, like us, me, Junes, And we sort of had our spell and the boys came on and started rolling through the middle there.

And then we got some freaks in the back line there.

Don't really need to name them.

But yeah, I think the bench was probably our most important part there.

How difficult is it to halt momentum if it's going against you? And these new interpretations of the rules and the six agains that are coming through, how is that physically and what sort of toll does it take?