Head Coach Tony Popovic spoke to the media after Victory’s Grand Final defeat to the Central Coast Mariners.
On the game…
“Firstly we have to congratulate Central Coast.”
“For our boys it’s tough. It’s tough to take.”
“You concede in injury time. Then in extra time you have that good chance for Benny (Folami) over the top at 1-1. We didn’t take it. They took theirs. And that’s it.”
On reflecting on the season…
“Now it’s about the finals, not so much about reflecting on the season.”
“If you’re in the Grand Final you deserve to be there. So we’ve had a very good season.”
“In the end we lost in extra time. That’s how close we came.”
On dealing with the Mariners’ late surge…
“I don’t recall another shot that they had.”
“They were coming, they’ve got the crowd behind them.”
“Yeah we could have done better coming out of our half with the ball.”
“We got punished in that moment, then in extra time when we had our moment we didn’t take it and they took theirs.”
On the relevance of fatigue in the extra time period…
“Look I think when you look at the result it’s easy to say that.”
“But we had the best chance in extra time and didn’t take it.”
“They’re moments. To win a big game, it’s crucial. The moments are important.”
On the substitutions…
“I think if you watch the game you would’ve seen that there were a lot of boys struggling.”
“Jordi Valadon was hanging on for five or ten minutes…Bruno was hanging on.”
“We made the changes with literally a minute to go in normal time.”
On the future of the squad…
“There were so many great performances (tonight).”
“Ryan (Teageue) and Jordi (Valadon) were outstanding tonight in midfield.”
“With some of those young players coming through, the future’s bright for the club.”
On the travelling fans…
“I feel for them.”
“These fans are special.”
“They created a special atmosphere tonight.”
“It’s a shame that we send them back on the long journey without the trophy.”
