Port Adelaide’s backline coach Tyson Goldsack says he could not be prouder of the way the side’s defenders stood up in the win over Hawthorn at the weekend.

Missing regulars Dan Houston, Kane Farrell and Ryan Burton and with five players aged 22 and under in defence, Port kept the Hawks to their lowest score since Round 17.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Goldsack highlighted the efforts of the inexperienced Jase Burgoyne and Josh Sinn in particular.

Goldsack also provided injury updates on a couple of key backmen and explained how much the side will take from its recent win over the Swans in preparation for Friday night’s Preliminary Final.

Tyson Goldsack on his pride in the backline’s performance on Friday night:

“I probably couldn't be more proud than what I what I was after the game. It was a phenomenal effort, really, considering who we had in there. You know, would I pick that side at the start of the year, or thought I had (those players in it) at the start of the year? Probably not. But the way they committed to the task from early in the week, as soon as they found out they were playing, and the detail they went to to get their roles right and then execute, which is always the hardest part. It was an unbelievable effort.”  

Tyson Goldsack on what having five defenders aged 22 and under in the side does for the group:

“We talk about them being goldfish in a way. They can make mistakes, and they just front up again and go again. And they might try the same thing out again, and it'll work the next time, but they have this energy about them. I speak about Josh Sin. He's like a golden retriever. He's just so happy to be around and energetic and just wants to do his best and be his best. And he was his best on the weekend.”

Tyson Goldsack on Jase Burgoyne’s performance after being shifted back into the defence:

“He has played a lot of footy there. In his first year he was a defender and was really good. And then now he's played every game on the wing, but still knows a role in there. They're pretty similar, like a high back and a wing role is pretty similar the way that we play him. He adapted nicely and I thought he was outstanding. His contest as well as his ball use was great.

“We knew he could play the role. We knew he knew the details of the role. We didn't need him because we liked him on the wing, and then it was required that he played there on the weekend, and as we expected, he was good.

“He's got this really laconic way of life, where he just kind of floats through. He works hard, and his attention to detail is there, but you don't see it, you don't really feel it, but he obviously has done a mountain of work in learning the roles he needs to know. (He) can go out there and we talk about the unfazed mentality of him, probably helps him out in big pressure games like that, and they perform really well.”

Tyson Goldsack on Kane Farrell’s rehabilitation from a hamstring injury:

“He's training. He started kicking over the weekend and is feeling okay. He kind of needs to hit high speed probably more often then (give) repeat efforts. We'll just keep training him, and he'll keep pushing along, and we'll just see where the next few days leads to. It's probably not a risk we really want to take. We know the quality player that is, but do you risk it in a prelim? We don't know yet. It's only Monday today so we'll just see how he progresses over the next couple days.

“He wouldn't be training if he didn't think it was a chance. He's got nothing to lose. He can push it as hard as he wants, knowing that if he reinjures it at training, then at least he gave it a go. So that's kind of his mindset. He'll just keep pushing along. And whether it's for this week, whether it's for next year, he'll be in a better spot by trying.”

Tyson Goldsack on Ryan Burton’s calf injury that kept him out of the Semi-Final win:

“It definitely a one-week injury. Whether it's a two-week injury, we'll wait and see again. It's only Monday. You want to test them out so we want to get him to train it in our main session and perform and train well, and then we'll make a decision.

“It's a weird injury that he had. It actually wasn't muscular. It was more a blood vessel issue that caused some swelling and irritation in the area so he didn't actually hurt a muscle. There was a chance that he would, though, because he had tightness in certain movements he had, so we're going to make sure that that subsided and he didn't do all the movements necessary for four quarters of footy.”

Tyson Goldsack on Todd Marshall’s condition:

“It's unfortunate, and he's had a history (of concussions), so we want to make sure that him as a person is okay. And you know, footy is second to that.

“I don't think there's anything to speak about, other than making sure that he's okay. Mentally, he's okay, and we're there to support him and the footy parts - that's a long way down the road for where we need to be thinking right now.

Tyson Goldsack on how much the side can take from beating the Swans in Adelaide in round 21:

“The last game was to our favour and not to theirs but the two sides are different since then, and we know it's not going to be the same this week up there in Sydney against a team that's played really well since that game here in Adelaide.

“We'll do our opposition review today. We won't put that game in it. We'll focus more on their last four weeks, six weeks, every game since that game, and how they’ve performed since then. And we'll go off that and reset and go from there.” 

Tyson Goldsack on coach Ken Hinkley since being fined by the AFL over the weekend:

“He's focused on this week. He's glad that what's happened on the weekend is now behind us, and we've moved forward now.

“The fine is what it is. The AFL sets the fines and we just move on. There was a lot of emotion involved. And we'll just go eyes forward from now.

“We just want to have it behind us. And now the AFL put the line through it, and now we can move on.”

Tyson Goldsack on feeling for the supporters who can’t get to Sydney for the Preliminary Final but would like to:

“That is tough. Like you'd want to have a home final, wouldn't you? But that's our own doing. I can apologise that we lost the Geelong game and we have to go to Sydney. It'd be nice to have a whole heap of fans go up, but we understand the struggles with that, the cost with that. Any support we can get, whether it's at training, whether it's watching online, we’ll take.”

Tyson Goldsack on how to match up on Isaac Heeney:

“He's a quality player. We'll have match ups whether he's playing in the mid, whether it goes forward. We'll have lot of a match up in each part of the ground for where he goes. We know how damaging he can be, how damaging he was two weeks ago against the Giants. He's a quality player, and he's not alone out there so we've got a few tasks ahead of ourselves, and we'll deal with that during the week.”