LAST year, Port Adelaide coach Matthew Primus was sick of losing. Now, he's sick of not winning.
What is the difference? For Primus, plenty.
Primus has seemingly restored Port Adelaide as a competitive AFL outfit, and after his club's worst season returned just three wins and record defeats last year, beating Port this year has become a challenge again.
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But Primus is far from satisfied with merely being competitive in Saturday's 22-point loss to the Sydney Swans, and last week's 25-point away defeat to Essendon.
"We're not saying we're happy we were competitive and had a crack," he said after the AAMI Stadium clash.
"We lost a game we thought we could have won, and should have won.
"It was the same as last week.
"The guys have got the platform now to be competitive in games - that is a given.
"We now need to win games and we should have won today's game."
He said skill errors in the Power's defensive half cost them the game on Saturday, with the home side gifting the Swans easy goals.
The Power fought back manfully in the third term to trail by just three points heading into the final quarter, but turnovers in their defensive half allowed the Sydney Swans to run out comfortable winners.
"Their tackling was outstanding today, which forced us into a lot of turnovers and, the same as last week, a lot of our turnovers really hurt us," Primus said.
"It would have cost us the game.
"We handballed it in our back half and put ourselves under immense pressure, so we've got to kick the ball and just spread and get some uncontested play because otherwise we're going to play a style of footy that's not going to win us enough games."
Primus hit out at his side's hunger on Saturday, claiming it simply wasn't up to scratch.
After winning the clearances in their first two matches of the season, the Power were found wanting in the middle of the ground, giving up six more clearances and 14 more inside-50s.
The Power also struggled to tackle the Swans, the second week in a row their tackle count has been less than their opposition.
"We just weren't intense enough," he said.
"It shows you some NAB Cup teams are going at some level and then it steps up again and we haven't been able to replicate that for three weeks in a row."
While the Swans are well known for their contested inside game, Primus praised their ability to play quality outside football as well.
"They don't get credit for how well they spread and their uncontested stuff," he said.
"They've got some terrific outside players who can move the ball really quickly, so their squad is really developing."
