What when wrong today, you were so competitive against St Kilda last week? From the word go today you were right behind the eight ball.
Yeah you’re right. Last week we were pretty good at clearances and this week we got smashed there. Quite often early in the game we had hold of the ball and we fumbled it or had it pulled out of our hands. Some of the stuff that Juddy was doing at the end there was right up there wasn’t it? It’s interesting to look at his stats, they’re quite similar to Kane’s apart from the clearances. Both of them kicked a goal, and both had the same sort of possessions. (Judd) had a lot of blokes working with him that kept going. I thought Gibbs was outstanding. Nine clearances today and yeah, it’d be good to get him back to Adelaide, is he out of contract?
I think he just signed.
Did he, that’s bad luck isn’t it
Was the non-competitiveness in the first half the most disappointing thing?
Yeah I’d agree with that. It certainly hasn’t shown up in the last few weeks in that regard. Without much on the end of the game, it’s probably difficult for young people and the club to keep themselves up week after week. We played here last week on a Sunday and we were back to play on Saturday and we have to front up on Friday this week. So each time there’s not too much time to regroup. You don’t spend too much time on this game, you get on with the next game, and that’s what I certainly focus on. There’ll be some players that won’t be playing next week and some players will get an opportunity to show what they can do.
A lot of times when your players had the ball, there seemed to be no-one down the field.
Well if you look at the game and I obviously spend a bit of time thinking about it, I think after 12 minutes into the first quarter, they were 3.4 to two points and at that stage we decided it wasn’t going well. I think inside 50s were double, and ended up double for the whole game, that’s just ridiculous the amount of inside 50s, so our forwards didn’t have much opportunity to do what they can do today. It makes their backs look better than they are and our backs look worse than they are due to the fact that there is uncontested ball coming forward. The amount of times they went forward out of stoppage and could link up and find someone, it made our backs look really under pressure and to that extent I thought Alipate Carlile was just brilliant on Fevola today, I thought he was outstanding for a young bloke. The amount of times that it went to that one-on-one contest for the amount of times that he succeeded was just terrific
Are you saying after 12 minutes into the first quarter, the game was over?
No, the question was we didn’t have any forwards in the forward line to kick it to and it was suggested that as a tactic, you probably need to get some extra players in defence to help out to try to calm the tide, and that was the reason. We kind of battled on from there – they only kicked one goal and we kicked a goal and then Rodan hit the post on the siren so it actually did hold the stem of play for some time there.
Did the free kick count surprise you?
No, it has been pretty well that all year. The free kicks at stoppages, just so you know, absolutely kill you. Because if you’re out going one way then they call a free kick the opposition are going the other way and if you’re five metres away from any of those players good luck trying to catch them. We’re not complaining about the free kicks but they don’t surprise me.
Have you been part of a side that has been smashed so much in inside 50? It was 72 to 30-something.
No, that’s right up there. You look at the players who kicked it inside for them and the ones who did for us and who didn’t for us and we’ll look at how they got them and how we got them. If you get 15 more free kicks, most of those are going inside 50 because most of them are from stoppage. So those purists that look at the hard ball gets, it was good to note that Port Adelaide won the hard ball gets today. I’m not sure if anyone will be hoisting that up the flag pole, it’s a bit of a bizarre stat isn’t it. It’s only used when you lose that stat.
Have you already decided who’s not going to play next week?
Yeah, I’ve got a fair idea.
Who are they?
Good luck! No it will be some time before that’s known but it won’t be tonight.
Do you expect to make a similar amount of changes?
That’s an important point as well – you asked what the difference is from last week – there’s four players different this week to last week. Some of those players that are out of the side, we’re saying we know where they’re at, we want to give other players an opportunity so that could happen again. People might want to read into the fact that we drop someone this week and you write up that they’re omitted and that’s the end of them but that’s not the truth. We’re focused on making sure we give people the opportunity. For Ryan Williams to play his first game this week, you try and play under that sort of onslaught. It’s pretty tough. So he’ll be playing next week. On your worst day at work you don’t want to be judged either. If everything’s falling down around you and the stock market’s crashing, it’s pretty hard to be a stock broker that day
So Lonie and Bentley are still a chance to survive?
Absolutely.
Why does Carlton have such a mental hold over Port Adelaide?
Gee that’s a big question. How many times has Carlton beaten Port Adelaide in the last 15 times we’ve played them?
I’m talking about this year.
Oh, so you just mean the last two? I’m not sure, we were miles up the first time against them. So for three and a half quarters you wouldn’t think what you said is true. But certainly today it was. I think our side has nine players in it today who weren’t part of the team that came second last year so we’re very much a developing side. We’re a team looking for opportunities. They’ve been able to recruit very well. If you look at the centre square and look at how they got to the club you’d say ‘yeah they’ve been very, very good at doing what they did’.
What do you think of Alan Didak?
He’s a very, very good player.
Will you get him to Port Adelaide?
Well for starters, he’s a contracted player to Collingwood so it will be up to Collingwood to decide what they’re doing with him but we’ll consider any player who is offered to us.
Do you think he will be offered to you?
I have no idea.
Does his off field indiscretions play a role in your considerations?
Certainly people come as a package, they don’t come just as players, the whole package is considered. Like all the other 15 clubs I’m sure we’ll be thinking about Alan.
Have you or anyone at Port Adelaide spoken to his manager?
I certainly haven’t, I’m not sure. We know where we are as far as on the ladder which gives us an opportunity. Some of the teams we’ve been playing have certainly taken those opportunities. In the professional environment the AFL is, you need to investigate all the opportunities you can and that would include talking to anyone who is almost available or is available so I’m sure the recruiting people, led by Blair Hartley and Peter Rohde, will be doing exactly that.
Would you like a small forward that kicks lots of goals?
Everyone loves forwards who can kick goals. I love forwards who can kick goals. At the moment Tredrea’s out of our side, and Robbie Gray who is a small forward who can kick goals is out of our side and Krakouer is out of our side, there’s a few of those young blokes you probably don’t see too often that we feel like have a good future. Unfortunately they’ve been injured for the last few weeks but they’ll be back, maybe before the end of the year but certainly for next year.
You talk about taking opportunities, you’re in 14th now, you’re in pole position to get one of those star three draftees, is there a temptation to sit where you are, I don’t want to use the word tanking…
Well Buddy Franklin was pick five and he could have been picked at one, two, three or four, so it’s not necessarily the truth that you’re guaranteed anything in your first three picks. The first three whoever they turn out to be may not be better than the fourth, fifth or sixth. I can’t tell you and I’m not sure anyone else can. At least you have the opportunity to pick whoever you want if you finish bottom and right now you’d say Melbourne will have that opportunity, then everyone else gets a choice after that and it’s up to the recruiting people to make sure they’re well prepared. If you look at Murphy and Kruezer, Walker, Gibbs, they’ve got a few, Nick Stevens they got for nothing, and who’s the other guy? Chris Judd. Very good side.
What now for the rest of the season Mark?
Well it’s exactly what I said, we’re about playing our players and giving them opportunities and making good decisions. I’m going to two games in the U18s tomorrow, I’ve got no idea who I’m going to see but it’s about being well prepared. Tonight I’m looking at some tape and having an idea of what I’m looking at tomorrow. Part of a senior coach’s job at this time of year if you’re not playing finals is to get on your bike and get ready for recruiting and get up to the talent camp and talk some sense to them and see if you can pick some good players.
Do you think next year will be your last year as Port Adelaide coach?
That will be entirely up to Port Adelaide.
Would you like to stay there long-term?
Yeah, I would. The fact is you go through these cycles if you like and two years ago people were a little bit along the same lines and within a year we beat Geelong, we were the last team that beat them at home. Obviously we got smashed in the grand final but we were very competitive again in Round 1. We developed a side from about this position that came second last year and we’ll have confidence that we can do it again. There’s a stack of young players coming through. Chad Cornes is out of our side who is such an influence to us. There’s a lot of people not playing who will be playing next year and we have confidence we can get it back on track. We’ve lost eight games by less than three goals – there’s a lot of factors there that you put together and say yeah, the club’s done it before and the environment has done it before, yeah they can do it again.
What about all the rumours that you’re going to the Gold Coast?
I don’t know them. They don’t get over to Adelaide.
