PORT ADELAIDE co-captain Tom Jonas knows there is still plenty of belief within his side, despite the inconsistent form that has plagued it so far this season.
Jonas says the group is in a positive and united mind frame, and the training standards are of a high level, which will allow the Power side to attack the last portion of the year.
“It’s been really important to stay positive and connected as a group,” Jonas said at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.
“There is a lot of outside noise and that can create fractures, but we are in a really good position where we believe what we are doing.
“We have been drilling down on the basics and the fundamentals that helped us play good footy at the start of the year.
“We are making sure our training standards are elite. We make sure there is nothing we can fall back on as an excuse.”
With five games remaining of the regular season, the 28-year-old says the team is up for the fight and knows the importance to its finals chances of a strong performance against Greater Western Sydney on Saturday night.
“Absolutely it’s important,” Jonas said.
“When you’re sitting ninth and you look at the teams above, I think we are equal with three or four teams just below.
“We can control our own destiny by winning each game, and it starts this Saturday.
“(Finals) is absolutely what we are striving for. At the start of the year, that is where we wanted to be.”
The Giants have had the wood over Port Adelaide in recent times, winning the last four encounters, and the key defender says quelling their outside run will be a deciding factor.
“I think we have really let them get on top of us with their outside run,” he said.
“If they can feed it out to their quality mids - blokes like Whitfield and Kelly can be really damaging and they can really hurt us.
“If we can stop the ball getting out to them and hopefully curb their influence, that will go a long way (to us winning).”
Jonas says the Power will be without co-captain Ollie Wines (thumb), but he is expecting Travis Boak and Sam Gray, who missed training, and Dan Houston, who came off against Richmond last week after a head knock, to be right for the crunch game.
“(Ollie) was still on restricted duties - running laps and getting a little bit of touch in,” Jonas said.
“He was pretty eager to play this week but I think the doc says he is a better chance to look at next week. He won’t be out there on Saturday night.
“(Boak) is just managing a couple of little niggles but he is absolutely no doubt for the weekend.
“He’s played 250 games - he’s got a few things going on, but like I said, he’ll be right.
“Similar stuff for (Sam), he is managing a couple of injuries. At this stage of the year you’ve just got to do what you’ve got to do during the week to make sure you’re right for the weekend.
“(Houston) will go through and do the concussion test on Friday and give him every opportunity, and we are pretty confident he will be good as well.”
The final teams will be announced on Thursday evening ahead of Saturday night’s huge clash at Adelaide Oval.
