PORT Adelaide's SANFL finals aspirations are under threat after its worst display against Sturt last weekend, and needing to defeat Central District to keep a firm hold on its top five position.
The Magpies sit in fifth place, one-and-a-half games ahead of Central District – which they play this weekend – in sixth.
Port was beaten by Sturt by 27 points at Unley on Sunday afternoon and squandering a chance to take advantage of losses to higher-ranked Norwood and West Adelaide during the day.
PTV: Port Adelaide 1995 premiership recall - part 1
The performance displayed by Magpies against the Double Blues was a world away from that which accounted for competition benchmark Woodville West-Torrens by 41 points the week earlier and has gone over a month without consecutive wins.
Senior coach Garry Hocking was visibly frustrated and disappointed post-loss to Sturt, admitting his side had too many players not willing to put in the hard yards and work for each other.
He said easy goals were coughed up after his midfielders failed to take advantage of Redden's top ruck-work, after the big man finished with 30 hit-outs.
"[Sam] Gray was pretty good, but I think we only had three or four good players," Hocking said.
"I thought Butcher was in good form down back and then we tried to make him a focal point up-forward, but we struggled to get the ball in there at times.
"Other players didn't play their role around John [Butcher] to help him.
"[Sid] Masters did okay down back as well, but for our mids, our first possession was 35-71, their [Sturt’s] way.
"We had the hit-outs, but we weren't able to get enough from that.
"Our guys just need to learn to play anywhere, whether they are 19 or 25 [years old], they just have to turn up and do the little things well and we didn't do that."
PTV: Port Adelaide 1995 premiership retrospective - part 2
Hocking has demanded a much stronger performance when the Magpies do battle with Central at Alberton Oval on Saturday 1 August.
"There was an opportunity for us to make some ground [on the ladder], but we just didn't play well," Hocking said.
"We've lost touch with second and third place so we've got some work to do.
"We try to play four quarters, we are a young group, and we just have to work on putting together four quarters and that's probably a theme we haven't got right for most of this year.”
