PORT ADELAIDE Assistant Coach Brendon Lade says his side will go into Saturday’s Showdown full of confidence, despite its disappointing performance against West Coast.
The Power goes into the game against cross-town rival Adelaide in eleventh position having lost three of its last four games, while the Crows are third and chasing a fourth straight win.
The Crows have also won the last five meetings between the sides, but Lade was quick to remind reporters on Wednesday that his side had tasted victory in the most recent encounter in the JLT Community Series.
“21 years ago we were the new kids and our form wasn’t great and we beat them so it was a long time ago, I know, but Showdowns are always like that,” Lade said.
“It doesn’t matter where you are on the ladder, they’re always generally very close.
“We played a great game against them in the JLT series at Alberton and we go in as confident as they will, and hopefully we get the result.”
Lade said the Showdown provided the ideal stage to respond after the seven-goal loss to the Eagles in Perth last Saturday.
He played in 22 Showdowns for ten wins between 1997 and 2009.
The 2004 Premiership winner played in some of the fiercest battles between Port and Adelaide, and said he felt the rivalry is as strong as ever.
“You never like losing to the guys across the road,” he said.
“You’ve got to walk around the streets all week if you lose and that’s never a good feeling, trust me.
“We’ll do our best, and our challenge will be to compete for four quarters and get a result we want.”
Lade said getting on top in the contest would go a long way to beating Adelaide.
“I don’t think it is any secret that our contested ball wasn’t great (against West Coast), and that’s all over the ground, it’s not just through the midfield – it’s up forward and it’s down back,” Lade said.
“Each line has been working on that this week and we hope we’ve addressed it but the proof will be in the pudding on Saturday afternoon.
“We hope we can get a result because the Crows in the last two times they played us touched us up in that area.
“We’ve been training it for three or four weeks now but it’s just an area we need to keep improving at and getting better at because if you want to be a side that plays finals, we need to make sure that we’re consistent in that area.”
Lade also said the Power had been working on providing consistent performances to narrow the gap between its best and worst football.
“We’ve been generally a good side that responds so what we need is some consistency so we don’t have to respond every second or third week,” Lade said.
“You go through the Showdowns in history and it does go through waves of momentum and hopefully we can start our wave this week.”
Chad Wingard trained strongly and Lade said he was a chance to return from a hamstring injury depending on how he felt and the opinion of the side’s medical staff.
He nominated Sam Powell-Pepper and Tom Rockliff as other potential inclusions after they each put in strong performances in the SANFL.
In other good news, Lade said he hoped young forward Todd Marshall would be back in Adelaide to watch the Showdown and would slowly re-integrate back into playing when he felt ready following the death of his father.
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