Adam O'Brien
Round 1 pre-mach press conference
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 Get around as quick as you can?
00:02 Yeah, it's exciting. Obviously, other than last weekend in May, just to open up the competition out here.
00:13 Thursday night footy, it's good. It's a good play first too. I think the boys have waited long enough, so yeah, looking forward to it.
00:19 Do you feel confident after what you've previously said has been a good off-season, that going into this game you're feeling good?
00:27 Yeah, after Fiji, we weren't happy with our performance at Fiji, but the response in the training has been very pleasing.
00:36 I feel like it's probably a good thing that we got a bit of a kick in the backside after Fiji. The boys have responded really well.
00:45 Do you think that will help set the standards early? I know that's probably something you've been talking about in camp, back in August last year and then that big run back into the year.
00:53 Yeah, I hope so. We're certainly motivated to continue on what we managed to do last year. The first part of that is certainly starting well.
01:03 The team you've named, obviously there's plenty of people out there who like to name the team and think they know what they're doing.
01:10 But looking at your hearts, was that something you couldn't go back on? They played well last year, they did the job, even though Jack Coggan's come in.
01:18 Did you feel like you needed to stick with the pair that had done well?
01:23 Yeah, there's probably a few answers to that. I think a lot of the commentary was around Jack Coggan starting when Rayleigh was available.
01:35 Rayleigh hasn't been available for three weeks now. As soon as that changes, you need coverage for your nine and Jack's the perfect person for that.
01:42 He's played that role for Penrith off the bench. I'm really comfortable with the team for this week. We've got halves covered, it's a big ask for Phoenix in round one to go 80.
01:53 You need coverage for Rooker, so Jack's the perfect man for that. Loyalties are a really strong value of mine and any time that he can show it, I try to do so.
02:05 You can't always, there's decisions that are taken out of your hands. But ultimately, Cogs done a really good job for Penrith in that green final.
02:12 I won't take that away. It's very, very good astute signing for the club. But those other two boys had a hell of a season for us last year, so they've had their way.