PLAYING with a banged up left eye, Travis Boak delivered a big captain’s performance on Saturday afternoon against Melbourne.
Boak had copped a finger to the eye in a training drill back in Adelaide, and admitted he was racing the clock to be ready to go on Saturday afternoon.
Satisfied with his performance during the game day warm up, he pulled on his guernsey and led his team out for an important clash with the Dees.
“It was touch and go, the docs gave me until the warm up to see how I went, and Youngy [the emergency] was on the edge,” Boak said to portadelaidefc.com.au after the game.
“But I got through the warm up fine and could see all right, I was pretty confident.”
When the chips were down in the first quarter as Port Adelaide was run around by the Demons, the skipper lifted his game to a new level, playing with a steely resolve to try and contain Melbourne's mids.
REPORT: Power banishes its own Demons
His efficiency was down, but his contested game was crucial to keep the Power in the hunt.
When the tables started to turn midway through the second quarter as Port banged on six straight goals on the back of poised and steady ball use, Boak lifted again to all but dominate through the midfield.
His direct opponent in a captain-v-captain battle was Melbourne skipper Nathan Jones, who ended up with just nine touches after quarter time.
Boak finished the game with 31 touches - including 18 contested possessions - five tackles, eight clearances and a swathe of simple, yet crucial hard efforts across the day.
Not bad for a bloke with a black eye.
HINKLEY: Boak super on Saturday
Of course, good football isn’t just about what do you with the footy, sometimes it’s about what you do without it.
In the first quarter, the Power wasn’t doing much with or without the ball but it held strong against Melbourne’s early control to grind back into contention.
Then it got back to doing what it does best, but hasn’t been able to produce all May – tough, hard, contested footy.
“We came out really sloppy in the first quarter and Melbourne came out and hunted us and went after us,” Boak said.
“We just need to stick with what we believe in, we weren’t doing that in the first quarter – we had to grind our way through it, fight through what wasn’t working for us.
“I thought after that we were able to really hunt the ball, be clean inside to get the ball forward and I thought we were able to structure up on our terms a lot.
“That’s what really got us back in the game.”
Loathe to comment on his own performance, Boak pointed out that many of the stellar individual efforts of the day – like those of Brad Ebert, Robbie Gray, Schulz, Westhoff and Monfries – only came about through the team work.
Few could hang their heads after the collective effort produced after quarter time, with a return to selfless, team football key to the win.
“There were some great individual performances today, but that came off everyone playing a role, and team effort,” Boak said.
“The first quarter and a half it wasn’t there, and that’s what Kenny talked about at quarter time – to get back to doing the team thing; helping out a teammate – once you get back to helping each other, that’s when you start getting results.”
As for taking home four points, the feeling within the poky Traeger Park dressing rooms was compressed elation.
After a hot and tough slog on the rock-hard Alice Springs surface, the Power certainly earned its post-match celebration, but the hard work continues with Hinkley happy, but unsatisfied with the performance.
That first quarter showed there’s plenty of work needed to get the Power back to the form it wants.
“We’ve had to keep working at the structures and the belief of what we stand for as a club,” Boak said.
“We’ve trained really well in the last couple of weeks and that’s where we set our standard, that’s where we set what we are as a group, the little things you do during the week, the little things you do at training, when you’re at home - you continue to do those things, you get the results you want.
“We’ve got a lot we need to work on.”
And as for Boaky’s black-and-red eye, that will continue mending over the next few days and he'll be primed for a scrap with the Bulldogs.
“The specialist said it will sort itself out after a week or so, it’s just a bit swollen, but that will go away after time."
