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* "I've realised now you're only a short time in football. You can be in the seniors one week and in the seconds the next. So you have to push hard every training session."
* "If I'm not good enough, well, I'm not good enough. It's as simple as that. But at least I'll go down having a crack."
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On showing some emotion after the 1point loss to Bulldogs last year...
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* "It's my job, I'm passionate about it, and if something like that happens I'm not ashamed of it. But it probably would've been better if I'd kept it in check."
* "I wish I hadn't done it so people could see it because I'm going to cop a lot of flak for it,"
* "They (teammates) were already handing me the Kleenex . . . I don't mind, though."
* "All you're thinking about is nine weeks of frustration built up and you get disappointed with yourself."
* "I'm sick of talking about it, but I can understand where people come from when they want to talk about it because everyone talks about how it was a 'great moment in footy'. But i dont really concider it a great moment in footy because its given me grief and will probably hound me for the rest of my life."
* "It was nine weeks of frustration built up inside of me - we'd flogged our guts out and tried our arses off, and we got so close to building a really great win that could have taken us somewhere for the rest of the year. Just to bottom out in that last quarter did get to me a bit."
* "We haven't worked hard since October to lose eight games . . . it's a confidence thing, it's an attitude thing, it's a mental thing."
* "The last 10 minutes it was a pretty intense game of footy, and I was absolutly stuffed, so I've shed a bit of a tear and then i've squirted water all over my face."
* "I guess because they (channel 7) put it in slow motion and all the photos showed water streaming off my face, but the ridiculus thing is I dont cry from my ears; I mean there were drops of water coming of my ears"
* "They (team mates) dished it out to me and I guess I was a bit touche on it at the start, I was a bit embarrased. But I copped it that hard from them that I just got a thick skin and didnt have to worry about it anymore."
* "I was called Cry-baby and Kleenex Boy. I remember one day I sat at a function with Peter Everitt in front of about 2000 people and he said something like, 'Dont hang it on him, he'll just start crying,' so i learned to get a thick skin very quickly. I even offered Kleenex a sponsorship if they wanted to sponser me!"
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On his game and performance in 2000...
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* "One of my goals at the start of the year was to hold down centre-half back and I've managed to play every game so far there, so thats been a bit of a positive for me."
* "We've taken (this year) pretty hard, but I think the best thing about the club is that everyone's really stuck together, and that's the most amazing thing I've found. I think we've always been pretty tight and I think this year has really tested how tight we actually are. I think we've come through the whole process quite well. We haven't won games, but we've still stuck together as a group and tried to work and spend time together and so forth."
* "The hardest thing is people think that you dont try and you dont care - but you do. I can understand why people would think that - sitting down watching a game of footy where you get flogged by 100 points - and thats what you've got to cop on the chin for our performances."
On Tim Watson in 2000...
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* "He's just been the most positive bloke. In the situation we've been in, he's been really positive and motivatiing towards the guys, and he's just stuck at his job when I couldn't imagine what his life would have been like carrying the burden"
* "I think he's said its his fault, but its got a lot to do with the players. It's just really, really disappointing that we've let him down in such a way."
On the team of 2001...
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* "I think as a club in its whole it really has changed."
* "It's a really interesting one because I know it was Stewart's game and a lot of people will say 'Gee, they were passionate for Stewart' but I really hope this time we learned from the weekend and take a step forward and not just be passionate for a single occasion,"
* "I sat down with Aussie Jones and looked at the guys and we looked at the team and there were only about four guys who played in the '97 Grand Final which is quite extraordinary."
* "There's a lot of new players at the club and we have got to learn to play together."
* "You go and get new players from the draft and other clubs and it takes time to get to know guys and its like you could go out as a major company in the world IBM or someone and get the best chief executives and managers and they won't click as a unit until they know each other's strengths and that takes time."
* "I think that's what the club's come down to and it's knowing not only skill strengths but personal strengths in knowing how to get along with blokes. I am still getting to know guys, you know I don't know the little nicknames for Aaron Hamill -- oh I know he gets Sammy -- or Fraser Gehrig gets the Big German, the Big G, but I am learning them now so those little things are really important."
* "I really think we will get better as the year goes on as we learn how each other plays and learn Malcolm's style, Ken Hinkley's style."
* "I know every draft year if they draft a six foot, four young bloke its fantastic for the club but I think well there's another guy that I am going to be good mates with but it is going to be competitive between us for a position."
* "You bond as a team but that's the funny thing about AFL football because at the same time you are competing with each other."
* "I think it keeps you on your toes and makes you play better footy."
* "I guess its just a bit more belief in me, a bit more licence to do things. If I think I can get the ball and make a bit of an impact on the contest well I've got to go. Instead of sitting around waiting for things to happen and letting others kick goals its taking a few risks and leaving my man and just having a go at trying to hold play or turn the ball over and if the ball is there to be marked I will try and mark it from now so its just a different approach."
* "I am in the middle of my career so I guess I am trying to establish myself as a consistent player."
* "But you can never stop improving as a player, I can definatly improve in many, many areas... its just a matter of whether it happens for me."
* "Its all to do with consistantly. I just want to be known as a player who was a consistant player for the StKilda Football Club over a long period of time who could be relied upon. If im given a job I'm seen to be able to do it, no matter what."
* "Obviously I want to play in a premiership side and the personal goal to go with that is to be a good player. And i'd obviously like to play 200 games for the Club and also become a life member one day. They're long term personal goals."
