GAVIN WILLIAMS: Can you let us know about a bit about where you played your football growing up?

KIERAN McGUINESS: I played for the club from the suburb I grew up in until I was about sixteen then played for the Eastern Rangers for a couple of years. After that I changed schools and played at Carey Grammar for two years. The Western Bulldogs drafted me when I was eighteen and I stayed there for five years. It was pretty frustrating being on the list for so long and finishing up playing less than thirty games. We went through a few coaches in that times as well. Obviously there's a link there with Norwood because Peter Rohde was my coach for two of those years. I heard a lot from Norwood people when I was thinking about coming over here and I understand why they hold him in such high regard because he was a great guy.

GW: Is footy a bit easier these days for you as your not having to move back and forth between your AFL and VFL club?

KMAC: Absolutely. It's also better because you're simply playing to win rather than either retain or regain your spot in the senior team. Knowing where you sit each week and who and where you'll be playing makes things a lot easier. It's a real relief and makes my footy a lot more enjoyable from week to week. While I was playing for Werribee I always had the feeling that there was somewhere else I wanted to be and that's not really the reason you should be playing football. Rather than playing to get your team across the line you were playing to impress and I reckon that's not the way to go about things. By the halfway point of my last year I wasn't really getting close to the senior team and I knew at that point that my time there was nearly up.

GW: After you got delisted how did you go about making a decision about where to play the next year?

KMAC: There were a few factors to be honest. One of the main things was my looking for where I wanted to be as a person and what I was after from life away from football. Moving interstate seemed like a good option, I wanted to be away from the people I'd known before and try and do something different. The SANFL is a great competition and despite a bit of interest from a few clubs in Perth I realised pretty quickly I wanted to play my footy in Adelaide. After that it was just a matter of speaking to a few clubs over here and seeing which one best suited me and where I'd like the most.

GW: Given all of that how did you finish up at The Parade?

KMAC: There were a whole series of reasons really. The main one was the people I met while I was over here. I chatted to Stazz a fair bit, had a lunch with David Wark and Gags while I was here and a couple of the boys took me out one night as well. Basically I thought I clicked better with these kinds of guys rather than a few other people from other clubs that I met. I really got the feeling that Norwood wasn't too far off being a successful club again and that they just needed a couple of players to play well and they could really turn it around. I felt I could do that for this club and help take them to bigger and better things. The club were looking for someone fairly versatile but who would play predominantly down back and read the ball well and could run and carry the ball out of defence. Hopefully these are the kinds of things I can bring to the side.

GW: Given that results didn't go Norwood's way in the first few weeks what was the mood around the club like?

KMAC: Surprisingly good actually. We really felt we weren't too far off to be honest. Against Port and South we played well for a fair proportion of those games but couldn't get across the line. Last week though there was a real focus on how our form ebbed and flowed during those games and how when we were ordinary the other sides were able to rattle on five or six quick goals. Last week against Sturt we didn't do that and that was the real difference. Speaking personally I was a bit nervous before the Sturt game because I don't have history of playing that well in the wet but it turned out OK I guess. They're not usually conditions I excel in and I thought going into the game that I just had to be really solid and contribute to the team.

GW: You provide a lot of creativity from the backlines but are you also given a specific job to do on an opponent?

KMAC: Very much so. When you're playing defence your number one goal is to beat your opponent. It's no use getting thirty odd possessions if the guy you're playing on kicks six goals. It's striking the balance between creating run and beating my opponent that's the hard thing to get. But if I can create it means the ball is in our hands and the other team can't hurt us on the scoreboard because they don't have possession. It seems to be working pretty well at the moment.

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