PORT ADELAIDE’s 2021 initial season review has identified a number of areas where the club needs to be better next season and footy boss Chris Davies says the improvement will need to come across the program.
Davies reiterated there was no one area of focus, with the whole program - game plan, players and coaches - all needing to get better.
Port won 18 of its 24 games in 2021 but its season ended with a disappointing showing in a 71-point preliminary final loss to the Western Bulldogs – its second straight exit at that point of the year.
Speaking on AFL Trade Radio, Port’s General Manager – Football said the disappointment being felt by supporters was certainly amplified inside the Club.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt that we need to get better from a game plan perspective, there’s no doubt our coaches have got to coach better, our players have got to be in a better spot to cope with the heat of big games when they come because we had a fantastic minor round but when the heat has been on for whatever reason, we just haven’t been able to cope with that.”
Davies explained that there was no one area which needed more attention and instead the club would chase improvement “across the board”.
“We need to attack this as a group,” he said. “The coaches have put their hands up as a group and said ‘there were some things we could have done better from a preparation perspective’ and I don’t think there’s any doubt we’re not just going to rely on natural development, we’ve got to put some real time into our players to get more opportunities in important positions.
“(Connor) Rozee, (Zak) Butters, (Xavier) Duursma – the fact that those guys had pretty significant injuries throughout the year probably stopped their development in some ways because we weren’t able to get them through the midfield as much as we would have liked.
“But equally then we can’t turn our attention away from some of our older players who needed to play better when the time comes as well.
“We need to be better as a group. We’re aware of that and I would hope that would put us in a good spot but at the same time we need to get back to work when pre-season starts and be better across the board.”
While there is clearly significant room for improvement, Davies highlighted some positives to come from the season.
Port Adelaide navigated the challenges posed by COVID-19 lockdowns and border closures as well as a host of injuries to key players throughout the season to have its best home-and-away win-loss tally since 2004.
Davies said he also thought there were a number of players who had scope for ongoing improvement including youngsters Rozee, Butters, Duursma, Miles Bergman, Lachie Jones and Mitch Georgiades.
But he reserved special mention for Brownlow Medallist Ollie Wines and one of his up-and-coming midfield sidekicks.
“I thought Ollie (Wines) was one (who improved in 2021). I know he had already set himself a pretty high bar but I don’t think there was any doubt that Ol was a better player for us this year,” Davies explained.
“There’s no doubt about (Willem Drew) when you look back and think about where he came from, you know he didn’t play any footy for about a year and a half before the start of this year and credit to Jason Cripps, our list manager, and (coach) Ken (Hinkley) - they both had a great deal of faith in him so even through that period we re-signed him for another couple of years even though he had some pretty significant foot issues.
“So, for him to play basically the whole season and at the start of the year keeping Tom Rockliff out of the team, I thought was a really good effort.”
The impending trade period will see Davies and list manager Jason Cripps considering how the side can get better on the field, but the football boss will have one eye on how to improve the side off it with a need to cover for the losses of assistant coaches Jarrod Schofield and Michael Voss.
Each departed Alberton for more senior roles elsewhere, including Voss’s appointment as the senior coach at Carlton.
Davies said a range of options were being considered and conversations are ongoing.
“We’ll probably need to bring one more person in over the next couple of weeks or move our group around a little bit and that will unfold over the next fortnight.
“We’re really pleased that Michael has been able to progress and ultimately, it’s a pretty fair representation of a program that’s going well when you have both Michael and Jarrod Schofield picked off by other clubs.
“But, we’re not happy with finishing third, we want to be better and we’re happy to look at whatever to make us better.
“That will start with the way our players come back in November ahead of what is going to be another tough season again.”
