Why would Roly be interested in confidence?
Do we want him to go to the huddle at quarter time with "Clearances are down -3, we need Sandi and Fyfe in the centre more this quarter. Our confidence KPI is at 87%. We'll sub in our team mascot to run around the ground to give you all a pat on the back and tell you just how good you are. We need that confidence KPI up to 110% or we just can't win." If you permit the word confidence in your club, players will use it as an excuse for poor execution.
It's a nonsense emotive word that Roly gives no value to. I would have thought it was pretty obvious to all and sundry that Roly was frustrated by such a question about something that he feels should have no bearing on a Fremantle result. He doesn't go using words like momentum and luck. He'll refer to effort, because he can measure that with stats. For two weeks in a row, he would be looking at the stats and thinking we should have won that game. But some poor goal kicking, poor decisions by players and umpires and some good opposition have left him on the wrong side of the ledger and having to talk about whether he has belief in the top team of the competition.
I expected the media to give him a hard time over the way he reacted to that question, but I'm surprised to hear Freo fans strongly questioning it.