HAMISH HARTLETT
On how they adjusted their game in the second half
“Coming into half time the game was pretty much in the balance, but we tweaked a couple of things – we really just wanted to get the ball moving forward. We felt like around the ball we were getting our hands on it, but St Kilda were just forcing us to turn it over. We changed up our method coming out of the stoppage and it seemed to work for us.”
On the Saints running into open goal
“When you turn the ball over in the middle of the ground, trying to play a really aggressive style of game, sometimes it can come undone. Certainly in the first half St Kilda were pretty hot onto us, getting the ball in the middle.”
On Whitey’s injury
“It’s disappointing for Whitey, obviously he provides a lot of outside run and carry for us and his ball use is really elite as well. It looks like he’ll spend a little bit of time on the sidelines but being the guy he is, he’ll rehabilitate himself and he’ll be out there soon I’m sure.”
CHARLIE DIXON
On pulling on the Power Guernsey for the first time at Adelaide Oval
“It was pretty unreal, to runout to the song – it was pretty special really….to have that amount of people cheering for us is really something I’ve never experienced for. It’s ridiculous. It’s so loud, you can barely hear the umpire….I can’t wait to get back out there.
On Ken's coaching
“Ken’s always pretty inspiring, he just says we’ve got to keep to the basics and do what we know best, and just get the ball forward. I think we knew we had the run. We were peppering in the last half, and we kept at it, we knew what we had to do.”
ROBBIE GRAY
On what they did right
“[We were proud of] way we were able to run out the game and finish off – it was a pretty tight contest there for the first three quarters, and it was obviously really pleasing with how we finished off the game.”
On what went wrong early on
“There were probably the right options, but the skill execution stuff just let us down. We were able to get that under control as the game went on and also in the mid field. We were able to wrestle back some control in there and give our forwards an opportunity.”
On Dixon’s first game
“It was fantastic to have Charlie in particular out there – he’s just a huge man and gives us a massive contest, so I think he enjoyed playing his first game with us and we certainly enjoyed playing with him. It was good.”
ALIPATE CARLILE
On playing hard, Port Adelaide footy
“It was good the way we fought it out – we knew it was going to be a tough slog, but the boys just grinded away and kept going and opened up that last quarter for us, so we were able to get our game going. We hung in and played tough footy.”
On what Ken said post-game
“He said he was just really proud of our effort – the first half probably didn’t go the way that we wanted it to, but we just kept sticking to the game plan and it eventually turned the way we wanted.
He was really happy with how the forwards chased and tackled – particularly Westy, Shulzy, Chad, Neadey – even Jarman Impey was getting up there, it was really good.”
On Dixon’s influence
“He was really good, he gave us a focal point up front, but in saying that, the other boys played their roles as well. It’s good to dump it in there for him and watch him go to work!”
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