SITTING alone on the bottom of the ladder, following its much-publicised financial battles, Port Adelaide coach Matthew Primus knows his club is having its annus horribilis.
And faced with that bitter reality, he somewhat casually says: "It doesn’t sit well with us where we are at the moment... No one wants to be in a losing team down the bottom but at the moment statistics say we are."
Primus admits the players are "obviously" hurting. "It would be disappointing if they wouldn't be," he says.
"We will keep working hard. We know our good footy is good enough, unfortunately we have too many poor moments in between."
But the unflappable coach also knows that this is the start of a journey. Indeed, there is only one way from here and that is up.
"We’ve got a keen eye on where we’re going and who is going to take us there," he said, following his team's loss to Melbourne in Darwin.
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If you are Jackson Trengove, Matthew Lobbe, Cam O'Shea and Cameron Hitchcock, singled out by Primus for their efforts against Melbourne, it undoubtedly means the eye is on you.
However, if you are an older player such as Chad Cornes, one of the best in Darwin, it could mean something else.
"Chad played with some passion and emotion, as we know he does," Primus said about his former teammate and premiership player when the question came from a probing journalist.
"We've had discussions with Chad and that will play out as the year progresses. We are well aware of what he can do for us."
But clearly Primus was in no mood to think about either Cornes after the match. It was not, and is not, where his mind was/is at.
"All we can be excited by and understand is what we’re trying to build here [and] we're not going to re-build quickly," he said.
"The guys we're giving games to who are gaing experience actually stood up and played well for us and that's just invaluable for our club.
"We will continue to practice, continue to get games into the certain group of players I continue to talk about week in and week out.
"They are our future and we are going to keep working on our future. We know what journey we're on and we're going to keep sticking to it, but it just takes time playing these players, it just takes time."
