PORT ADELAIDE assistant coach Michael Voss says his side won’t be dispirited by consecutive nail-biting losses, insisting both come with lessons that could be vital in the last two games of the regular season.
The Power never trailed West Coast on Saturday but lost by four-points when Eagles defender Jeremy McGovern marked and converted after the siren to steal
The Power was forced to see out much of the second half without ruckman Paddy Ryder, forward Charlie Dixon and defender Dan Houston who each went off injured in the third quarter.
Voss said his side was in a position to win the game, but failed to seal the result.
“The players showed incredible resilience in that last quarter after those injuries happened,” he said in a press conference on Monday.
“We had one rotation on the interchange bench and they really toughed it out.
“But in that little moments we didn’t get it right and it cost us the game.
“That’s happened a couple of weeks in a row so we need to make sure that we’re tidying that up.”
The Power had led the Eagles by eight points but conceded two goals inside the last 70 seconds in scenes reminiscent of the loss to Adelaide in the Showdown a week earlier.
Voss said his side’s tactics in closing out the game had been evaluated and critiqued.
“If we looked at our game at the moment we think we’ve got the old 90-10,” he said.
“We’ve got 90 per cent going alright, and we’ve put a lot of work into our game over the last couple of weeks playing against some really good opposition, but we’ve got this 10 per cent of some moments that we haven’t quite got right in big situations and our ability to be able to complete our plays and finish off our plays is something we’re still continuing to tinker with and make sure we get a bit better at.
“What we can’t be dispirited by is the 10
Voss said the coaches had owned what had happened as much as the players, with discussion amongst the group about how to avoid a repeat.
“They’re really important learning moments and we just hope that with every one of these that does happen to us, that we’re just learning a bit more about each other and the choices we need to make, and that’s for coaches and players at the same time,” Voss said.
“And so, if presented with that situation again then we can get through it again.”
With Dixon out for the remainder of the season with a fractured fibula, the question arises about who replaces him.
Voss said that hadn’t been discussed yet, but it was likely the Power’s forward line would be smaller against Collingwood in Melbourne on Saturday in his absence.
"From our point of view, it means we're forced to go mobile," he said.
“But injuries come, and they’re important players to us but I see no reason why there’s not the personnel there that can’t get the job done for us.
"At the MCG, big ground, if we can use all the grass with the way we move the ball and if we can put enough pressure on in our forward half, that's what we'll probably look to do."
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