PORT ADELAIDE SANFL coach Matthew Lokan says while his side doesn’t accept losing, he was pleased to see some improvement in the effort and intensity on display in the 35-point loss to Glenelg on Saturday afternoon.

The Magpies sprayed numerous opportunities in the first quarter and never managed to catch the Tigers after that despite dominating most of the statistics at Alberton Oval.

It was a fourth straight loss for Lokan’s side and he said it was tough to accept.

“I was really pleased with our guys’ effort and intensity today,” he said.

“We were really poor at the contest and with ground ball and clearance numbers were well down and we were well beaten by Adelaide in that area (last week) and today our ground ball, our clearances were fantastic and we won the hit-outs.

“We don’t like losing and the boys touched on that after the game and we certainly don’t accept losing but in a couple of the key areas we tried to improve in we were so much better today.”

With Jarrod Lienert given a shot to prove his AFL credentials, Trent McKenzie injured and Jack Hombsch playing consecutive games with the Power, Lokan was robbed of tall defensive options.

Up forward he was also missing the injured Todd Marshall, leaving him bereft of key position players.

It proved to be telling as Tigers Luke Reynolds (6 goals), Lachlan Hosie (3 goals) and Josh Scott (3 goals) did the damage on the scoreboard.

“We put a lot of responsibility into our key forwards and key backs today and we brought in Dale Finnie and Darcy Ginever today who aren’t key defenders but they had to play on Uebergang and Scott and E-Man (Emmanuel Irra) later in the game had to go onto Josh Scott and he did a really good job on him,” Lokan said.

“We were really undersized today, we were really inexperienced as well – I think eight of our nine top-ups had played ten games or less so Glenelg were by far the better side and we weren’t able to get the result we were after but we saw some growth.”

Skipper Steven Summerton and William Snelling toiled manfully in the midfield and Jimmy Toumpas was busy in defence, while Kane Farrell booted three goals.

But Lokan singled out ruckmen Billy Frampton (19 touches, 19 hit-outs, 7 marks, 4 tackles, 2 goals) and Peter Ladhams (15 touches, 23 hit-outs, 4 tackles) for praise.

“We wanted some growth from Billy in regards to his craft and I thought he had a real impact today,” Lokan said.

“He and Pete Ladhams had to go back early and then forward later and I thought they both had an impact on the game.

“We saw some growth from our guys today, it wasn’t good enough and it didn’t win us the game but those two in Frampton and Ladhams certainly grew today and played some better footy.”

The Magpies next face South Adelaide at Alberton on Saturday.

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