PORT ADELAIDE senior assistant coach Matthew Nicks says the Power’s win over Melbourne on Friday night was the best kind of win, because it came with a big lesson.

The Power was dominated in the contest and finished well behind in the inside 50 count but managed to hang in the game until it grabbed the lead late in the match.

The 10-point victory was Port’s third in a row and fifth in six games.

Nicks said the game had a finals-like atmosphere and it provided some key learnings.

“Sometimes you can come out of a win that you’ve dominated, and you think ‘what did we learn from dominating?’” he said at a press conference on Monday.

“We can’t have had a better win on the weekend because we got a pretty large lesson from a high-quality midfield group.

“Melbourne are right up there with the best and we knew that going in.

“We’ve got things we have to work on and as good as the feeling is that we performed well, we’ll be looking at the tape and looking for some growth areas.”

The Demons had 19 more contested possessions, 16 more clearances and 29 more inside 50s, yet Port Adelaide’s defence stood firm, allowing just seven marks inside 50 to the Power’s 10.

“You don’t win too many games like that,” Nicks said.

“With the stats lined up the way they were the percentages say you’re not winning too many of those games.

“It was an unusual way to win against a real high-quality side that probably touched us up between the arcs, in and around the football.

“But that’s their strength and we knew that going in that their contested game is of the highest quality, so we were stoked to get the win in the end and we thought our guys fought it out, showed some grit, our back six was outstanding on the night, and we came away with a good result.

 “We’ve got a lot that we still want to improve but our last five weeks have been right up where we want them to be in terms of playing the style of footy we want to play and challenging the opposition.”

Nicks said his side would have preferred to have had more of the ball and more of the territory on Friday night to give itself more opportunity to score.

But he said winning a finals-like game against a top eight side had shown how far the side has come since last year, when it had trouble winning against teams in the eight.

“If you want to win the whole thing you’ve got to beat sides like Melbourne, and that’s finals footy.

“That’s what the weekend felt like, it was a finals footy feeling with the pressure numbers, the way both teams went at it.

“There was no doubt that the stats were there that we couldn’t beat top eight sides last year.

“It was something that was our Achilles heel.

“We’ve been able to do that this year but the challenge is now buttering up again.”

The Power will butter up again on Saturday afternoon against Carlton.

The game is the side’s first opportunity to play at the MCG as one of only two fixtured games there this season.

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