PORT ADELAIDE assistant coach Nathan Bassett says there was a lot to like out of his side’s upset win over Melbourne at the weekend, and he has challenged the team to back the performance up against Carlton this week.

The Demons went into the game favourites with many pundits predicting them for the Premiership but the Power overran and outworked them at the MCG on Saturday, and finished 26-point winners.

It was an emotional game on several fronts, with the Power blooding six club debutants including four playing their first AFL game, as well as securing the win in Robbie Gray’s 200^th game.

There were other side plots too with 2017 recruits Jack Watts and Tom Rockliff performing well after below average first seasons at Alberton, Tom Jonas putting in a customary solid shift in his first game as club co-captain and Justin Westhoff continuing the form which earned him his first Best and Fairest award with five goals.

Bassett found it hard to pinpoint the best part of the game.

“There were a lot of people playing their first game for the club, six first gamers, and it was pretty emotional before the game to see the young guys playing and people who had moved clubs,” the forwards coach said during a press conference on Monday afternoon.

“But there were a lot of guys playing for the team that also had a point to prove – whether it be Boaky playing his first game as not the captain since 2012, whether it be Tom Jonas’ first game (as co-captain), Jack Watts, Tom Rockliff, Paddy Ryder playing with a helmet on, Todd Marshall playing after an extended layoff, Karl Amon basically quit the club post season last year but stayed with us and his effort through pre-season to get into the side was outstanding and he had a good day.

“There were a lot of positives individually for the players and I think just to consolidate some of the work we’ve done on building a better connection in the off-season.”

The win was also an important outcome for a club which has made drastic changes in the off-season including bringing in eleven new players, three new coaches and a faster, more attacking game style.

Bassett said the result was an important confidence boost that the hard work and difficult decisions were worth it.

“The real positive was that we got a good result from the way we played and we’ve seen results in our pre-season games in terms of how we want to play,” he said.

“The players get that reinforced in Round 1 and they should have the confidence that the way we want to play should bring us success.

“I think it was important for this playing team in terms of the work we’d done in the off-season and how we finished up last season as well.”

But as good as the win was, Bassett said it was important to guard against an emotional plunge after the high of the win.

He said that started this week when the Power takes on Carlton at Adelaide Oval.

“It’s a 22 round season and the challenge in this competition is doing things regularly,” he said.

We’ve had good away wins early in the last three years – we’ve had early wins against Sydney at the SCG in the last two seasons – Melbourne, the expectation on them was high and ours wasn’t quite as high.

“You’ve got to keep backing it up and that’s always the challenge of this game is consistency.

“Most people can do it once but to do it week-in, week-out is a real challenge.”

Another challenge for all clubs has been getting messages from coaches out to players during the game given the new restrictions on how often runners are used.

Teams have been using an array of signage to convey timing countdowns and other important messages.

Bassett said it meant coaches had to consider what messages were most important and there had been an unintended side-affect.

“We trained a fair bit during the pre-season (on how to deal with the changes),” he said.

“You’re focussing on the important messages because you think ‘hang on, we could send out these five or six different actions, which we might have at one stage, but the reality is we’re not going to get much change if we’re asking for it’.

“So, it’s finding the most important action in the coaches’ box and that’s where now we have a bit of a discussion and work on what’s most appropriate to get the change we want on the field, and it’s probably made for a calmer coaching box.”