Power cruelled by free-kicks: Williams
Mark Williams has lamented his team’s poor finishing and relationship with umpires in its loss to Geelong on Saturday at AAMI Stadium
The Power matched the Cats for intensity throughout the 18-point loss, but attracted the attention of the umpires in the process.
At least three of Geelong’s 11 goals at AAMI Stadium came as a result of free kicks.
Port Adelaide struggled with the same free kick affliction last season and Williams suggested having the umpires over to Alberton to help sort out the lingering issue.
“The free-kick-count was 15-5 at half time and that absolutely wrecked us as. They had shots on goals from free kicks and that really does hurt you. It also stops the momentum of the side, so we have to get better at that,” Williams said after the game.
“Some of them (the free kicks) were questionable, so you’d like to be able to talk to (the umpiring coaches). There are a lot of development umpires out there so they’re going to make mistakes and you can’t do much about that.
“It’s really difficult to get the umpires out to training; we’ve tried. We want to get some of the Victorian umpires over to Adelaide, so that they become aware of our players, know who they are and get some sort of relationship with them because we want to have even footy in that regard.”
Only one point separated the two teams at half time, but the Cats kicked away with six goals to two in the second half.
A tricky breeze made things difficult, but Williams said there was no excuse for the eight behinds his side kicked after the main break.
“We were probably in the game until the last 10 minutes, but we kicked six or seven points-in a row. If you want to keep in the game, don’t ever score that many points in a row. It does knock everything around and it doesn’t add to the flow of the game for your side.”
“We marked the ball more inside 50 than they did and if you look at the hardball-gets loose ball gets, contested marks, clearances and you add those things together, we were very much on the money”.
The Power will be without young gun Hamish Hartlett for two weeks with the classy onballer suffering an AC joint injury in a fierce tackle from Ryan Gamble.
But former skipper Warren Tredrea, who pulled out of the side citing general soreness, should be available next week.