PORT Adelaide's SANFL finals campaign ground to a halt on a 29-degree Sunday afternoon at Adelaide Oval at the hands of Central District, but despite the result, SANFL senior coach Garry Hocking believes the young group is full of promise.
Speaking after the loss, Hocking said he did not expect the side to fall away next year.
Hocking, who has been in charge of the Magpies for the past two seasons and in that time took it to consecutive finals appearances, said the loss would better prepare the side heading into its 2016 campaign.
He was however left to lament a slow start to the match against the Bulldogs, which left the Magpies almost six goals down at half time.
MAGPIES: Port bows out of finals race
"We have to understand that it's at the start where we need to set the tone, be physical and win your own ball," Hocking said.
"We didn't use the ball well enough at the start and they clamped us up a bit and we won it back, but we couldn't get our mojo going offensively.
"We spoke at half time about being a bit more braver and testing them a bit more.
"We won it on the outside and we started to move the ball better and started to look the way we wanted to, so I was happy with that, but not happy with the start.
"I thought we fumbled the ball a bit early and that's something we will have to address in the coming pre-season with our players.
"We showed that our best is good enough though, so if we played 15-20 minutes of good footy in the first half, the score would've been a bit closer."
The Magpies battled hard to get within a straight kick in the final term, as Biemans marked and scored a major with two minutes left to play.
Port Adelaide had an opportunity to level the score with less than a minute to go, but Frampton's attempt at goal was touched on the line.
It was however, the response the group showed which most impressed Hocking.
It is something he hopes will carry the Magpies forward.
"They [Central] missed a few shots in that third quarter and could have out us to sleep, but we held on and that's what I like about this group," Hocking said.
"All during the year when we were tested, we showed courage, we were brave, we either won or got close to winning.
"I feel good that all of the players that played for our club, we can be proud in the way that they fought back."
Port Adelaide's AFL and SANFL league campaigns may be over, but its Academy side has a chance at a grand final berth, when it plays North Adelaide in the SANFL reserves preliminary final next weekend.
The Port Adelaide Academy has been another aspect of the club's structure that pleased Hocking this season.
He was confident the side would bounce back from its semi final loss agains Woodville-West Torrens.
"All teams, the SANFL league, the Academy and even the AFL team showed right across the year that our best is good enough," Hocking said.
"The Academy have had a fantastic year and (Mark) Clayton has done a great job with them.
"They proved they could hold their own, so they go into the prelim pretty confident that their best is good enough."
