PORT ADELAIDE SANFL coach Matthew Lokan said there are plenty of positives to take from Saturday’s 10-point loss to South Adelaide despite it being ‘bitterly disappointing’ to be overrun late.
The Magpies led by 28 points midway through the third quarter before the Panthers rampaged home in a shoot-out, booting five of the last six goals.
The loss means Port Adelaide remains winless after two games, but Lokan saw better effort and application from his side.
“If I was a neutral supporter, I would say it was a pretty good game of footy,” Lokan said.
“There were lots of goals scored, a pretty close finish in the end, but at the end of the day, South were just too good. They ran over us at the end of the game, and the result was what it was.
“I thought they had a few more legs than us probably in the last 10 minutes of the game especially, but you could probably play the same game 50 times over again, and the results are split 25 apiece.
“Unfortunately for us, we now go zip from two, and it wasn't the ideal result.”
Jeremy Finlayson booted six majors in his best performance for the club and Trent Dumont had 21 touches and 13 tackles after playing half a game as the medical substitute in the AFL side on Thursday night.
In addition to Finlayson and Dumont’s performances, Lokan heaped praise on the returning Kane Farrell, who had 17 disposals and four tackles in his first game since rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament nine months ago.
“We have to take positives away from that game,” Lokan said. “We didn't play very well last week, so to be able to come out and play a really positive brand of football is great for the development of our younger guys and also gets some guys that have played some AFL football back into some form, which is good.
“I think I have to mention the story of Kane Farrell – he played after nine months off from a pretty horrific knee injury and it's a credit to the guy to be able to get back in such a short time.
“The nature of that injury is huge and generally does take over 12 months (to get back to playing).
“For him to be able to get back and I thought he certainly had an impact on the game and was really important for us.
“It's a credit to Kane and the work that our medical guys have done to be able to get him back in that period of time and to be able to play in a hot game like that is important for his return from his knee injury.”
Port will next travel to the Parade to face traditional rivals Norwood on Friday night.
