PORT ADELAIDE assistant coach Brett Montgomery is not too disappointed with his side’s performance on Saturday, despite a number of “silly errors” in the defensive half in the loss to Adelaide.
The Power went down by 17 points in stiflingly hot conditions at Memorial Oval in Port Pirie.
Despite the loss there were a number of positive signs with indications that the side would play higher tempo, higher risk football.
With that risk came a number of turnovers, with several leading to Adelaide goals, but Montgomery said sometimes that will happen.
“Not for one second are we conceding that that is going to be ok either,” he said during an interview with Adelaide radio station SEN SA on Monday morning.
“We worked really hard in the pre-season on putting some mechanisms in place so that we risk manage a little bit more on that riskier ball and it’s fair to say off the weekend we didn’t go as well in that area.
“I think we made some silly errors more than anything else and I think when you play in a game that’s that hot and played at that tempo, the first thing that goes out of your game is your intent and your urgency to defend.
“I wasn’t too disappointed with the way we went about it, I just thought we made some silly errors and as the game went on the turnover ball lacked a bit of intensity to defend it.”
The Power found the new AFL rules regarding starting positions at centre bounces both a blessing and a course.
Montgomery said the new 6-6-6 rule meant teams could ride waves of momentum, as his side did when it booted five consecutive goals in the last quarter to go from 35-points in arrears to just five points.
He said it made it tricky not being able to put extra numbers behind the ball at centre bounces to stop the momentum, but it was something players were coming to terms with.
“It’s a wonderful initiative, it’s great to see centre bounce potent again and in particular in our game to give us an opportunity to get back into the game and show some momentum and keep momentum is a real positive for the game,” Montgomery said.
“In the past you were probably just one coaching move away from stifling that.
“But, it’s only a five or six second play when it is in six-six-six mode.
“Those defenders just need to hang in there and then the game goes back to normal.
“The guys do need to mark space better than they have in the past and not leverage off numbers so there has been a lot of work done in that area – I think most clubs are sensitive as to how exposed they are at centre bounces.”
And the 2004 Port Adelaide premiership player said there were enough positive signs to take into Saturday’s game against North Melbourne at Alberton Oval.
“We had seven or eight new players who hadn’t played in the colours and certainly hadn’t played with their teammates in that type of set-up before so we just wanted to see a shift in intensity, we wanted to see a lift in urgency in the way we play – whether that was with the ball or without it – and I think we got that,” he said.
“When we were fresh enough and had some run in the legs, we showed that we wanted to do things quicker and we could be quite potent.
“Apart from a couple of key players who are looking for an early season return, we’re in pretty good shape health-wise and that’s always a positive at this time of year.”
