PORT ADELAIDE senior assistant coach Michael Voss is very bullish about what the club has built in season 2019, despite the fact they sit eleventh with one round left in the home-and-away season.
Port must win its final game of the season against Fremantle on Sunday, and have other results go its way, if it is to feature in finals this year.
Voss is realistic about where his side sits with a game to go in the season, but is confident the club has built a strong foundation for the future.
“The fact is, we look at the ladder at the end of the day, and we see where we sit in the pecking order,” He said at a press conference after the Power’s Captain’s Run on Saturday morning.
“We have had a lot of positive things. We are quite aware of where we need to get better. We’ve fallen a little bit short of what we’ve wanted, if the results don’t go our way.
“From our perspective, we’ve had a lot of things that we’ve put in place this year that are reasons to be really bullish on going forward.
“That should only make us stronger into the future.”
Willem Drew is set to return to the AFL side for the first time since Round 15, with Voss praising the 20-year-old’s attitude in his third year at Alberton.
“It’s interesting with Drewy – he’s come from the clouds, as far as we were concerned in pre-season,” he said.
“We hadn’t really factored him in a lot of the planning, but his pre-season form from January was compelling.
“He rightfully earnt the chance to get first look at it. We also respect the fact he pretty much missed almost 18 months of footy with his foot.
“The season got a bit of a grind at various stages for him. Not by his attitude – he’s always got a fantastic attitude with the way he goes about things.
“His last 4-6 weeks have been really good again, and he forces his way back into the side.”
Looking ahead to Sunday’s clash with Fremantle, the senior assistant coach said the side is looking to build on the positive aspects of the year, and play a strong brand of football regardless of how other results go this weekend.
“The way we play is obviously very, very important,” Voss said.
“We’ve gone about this implementing a lot of different things. We’ve been able to get a new playing group, a new coaching group.
“We’ve seen some really exciting players come into our team. We’ve played some really exciting football.
“We understand we haven’t been able to execute that exciting football for 22 weeks, so there are some things that we need to make sure we finish off really strongly with.”
There has been a strong emphasis on building a strong connection at Alberton in season 2019 – with a number of changes in the football department, both playing and coaching – and Voss says the feeling within the group is as strong as ever.
“The group has been really consistent with the way they have presented themselves,” Voss explained.
“The feeling amongst the boys is extremely positive. We have built a lot in that connection space, going back to the camp. We’ve made a lot of inroads in that particular area.”
“We are also realistic in that we’ve still got a lot of work to do. There are some really obvious things that we need to make sure we get right going forward.
“They are lessons that we get to talk about in the next little while. For us right now, it’s about the job we need to get done tomorrow.”
The Power hosts the Dockers at Adelaide Oval on Sunday afternoon with the first bounce at 4.10pm ACST.
