PORT Adelaide coach Matthew Lokan said his side was comprehensively beaten around the ball in its 47-point loss to North Adelaide on Saturday afternoon.
The Magpies were well-beaten in all the key statistics in the 12.16 (88) to 5.11 (41) loss, and it was perhaps in the clearance numbers (40-24) where the Roosters got on top the most.
North held a ten point advantage at half time before making the most of that clearance dominance.
“Credit to North, they were more desperate,” Lokan said after the game.
“They won contested position by 23, clearances by 16.
“Aaron Young has had 41 touches - there's a snapshot of the game.
“We just weren't up for the fight and weren't good enough to be able to stop them getting on top all for about maybe 20 minutes in the second quarter.
“You won't win too many games when you lose in those two areas by that much anyway. We knew that was their strength.
“They're a very good clearance team, and they're able to suffocate sides around the clearance and they walked over us for pretty much three quarters of the game.
“We do pride ourselves on regardless of who we got in there that we need to be better in that area.”
If there was one shining light for the Magpies, it was the form of first-year defender Jase Burgoyne.
The teenager led the way for the Magpies with 33 touches, 11 rebound 50s and six marks in a side robbed by injury over the last few weeks of fellow defenders Sam Skinner, Jake Pasini and Jackson Lee.
“(Jase) is taking some small steps and today, I thought he was in our best players,” Lokan said.
“He's a smooth mover, he's got some areas of his game that we've been working really hard on and he's starting to take some small steps.
“One positive thing out of the day today was that Jase found plenty of the ball and I thought defensively was really sound for us.”
Both Orazio Fantasia and Mitch Georgiades returned to the Magpies line-up, with the former ruled out early in the first quarter with quad awareness.
Lokan explained the severity of the injury was not known but the club was not prepared to take any risks on the fleet-footed forward in his first game of the season following knee surgery.
“He had some awareness in his quad,” Lokan said. “As soon as he felt that we just pulled him off.”
“I thought Mitch competed really well and (pleasingly) he ended up with two goals,” Lokan continued.
“I wouldn't have liked to play too much in our forward line today. The ball wasn't coming in all that freely and the conditions played a part, certainly early in the game.
“I thought he was okay, I think he presented well, he's got some really good attributes of being able to use his legs and run and obviously takes a really strong contested mark.”
The result means Port Adelaide remains on two wins for the season while the win sees North rise to the top of the ladder.
Port Adelaide will have a bye before returning to action on June 11 to take on Central District at Elizabeth.
