Power assistant coach Dean Bailey stood in for senior coach Mark Williams in the post-game media conference. After such a positive start, it was a disappointing result for the team, but Dean did find a couple of positives, namely the performance of both Justin Westhoff and Robbie Gray on debut. Here’s what else he had to say.

Dean you kicked 2 goals 9 in the second half. You won’t win too many games doing that. What was the biggest concern for you today?

Exactly that - 2 goals 9. We started well in the first quarter but if you kick 2 goals 9, you’re really going to give the opposition a chance to get back in the game. Scoreboard pressure wasn't there today and you saw the result.

On Friday you were looking for a big response for the players, do you think you got that over the four quarters?

First part of your question. We got a response in the first quarter, but the next three we really didn’t get the response. That goal kicking certainly affects the score, there’s no doubt about that. I thought our start was really good. I thought we played some pretty hard positive footy. And then the next three quarters we couldn’t get enough scoreboard pressure on them, and when you do that you give a team like Hawthorn the opportunity to get the ball back in their hands and their skills were pretty good today. We let ourselves down in that area, our start was pretty good, but we didn’t maintain it.

What do you think of the midfield set up, when Lade’s getting a tap to your player, but you can’t get quick clean ball movement out of the middle. Is it time for a re-think on that part of your game?

I think what we really need to do is turn first possession into clearances for us. The ratio is not quite there. We’re getting first possession, but the gap between that and clearances is too far apart. We’ll continue to work on that at training. We know we have to get better at that, and that’s been a little bit of a hangover from the last couple of weeks, but we’re working on that and we need to do that better this week.

Dean do you have something more for that rotation, can you mix it up a bit more to get something different out of it?

We actually do put a number of players through. We will look at the stats to see who was in there but we think Chad Cornes, Shaun Burgoyne, Peter Burgoyne in the middle is best for us, their clearance rates even today, are probably acceptable to some degree. Rodan, we probably need to bring him through centre bounces a little bit more, we have in previous weeks. So, we’ve got the guys who can do it, at the moment we’re just not clean enough with our hands in tight and I think there was a bit of fumbling today as well.

What’s changed over the last three weeks?

I think what’s changed is our inability to play four quarters of footy. It’s as simple as that. When we were up and going our pressure was good for most of the game, we had clean ball use. The last couple of weeks teams have come and really tried to shut us down, and they’ve done that effectively, the scoreboard says they’re winning and we’re losing.

Is it fitness, skills or better opposition?

I don’t think it’s fitness, our fitness is pretty good. Our skill level at training has been pretty good, but in game – and that’s what we all get judged on – we’re just not quite finishing some of our skills off in games.

Dean just before the game there seemed to be a bit of confusion on the boundary with Peter Burgoyne and a fitness test, was he playing, wasn’t he playing, can you talk us through that?

Peter just thought he was a bit sore in the thigh in the warm-up and we tested him and he seemed to be okay, I’m not sure what it was, but the doctors put him through some tests. If there was any problem we wouldn’t have played him. He felt reassured, the tests were for Peter mentally as much as anything, to make sure he was okay.

What did you think of the first games of Westhoff and Gray?

Westhoff kicked three goals and Robbie Gray could've ended up with two. I think they showed a lot of promise. We’ve spoken about the fact they’ve had really good SANFL form and I thought their contribution today was pretty good. Westhoff kicking three goals in his first game was an outstanding achievement.

Dean, I thought the tempo footy in the second quarter changed Port’s momentum more than the opposition. Why did you use it at that point?

They had the momentum at that point, and hence the decision to try and take some of the sting out of their game.

Do you think too many of your players who should be key playmakers are now being dragged too far back and out of the play? (question as heard only)

There’s certainly something in that, our players a little bit out of position. But then again you like Shaun and Peter to have the ball in their hands because they’re very creative and although their stats have been down a little bit the last couple of weeks, I thought Shaun today was probably more on the way up, he had six clearances today and did a couple of nice things during the game. But again when you get the footy, how you use the ball is really important. We weren’t clean enough with the ball today and as you saw, Hawthorn were able to fast-break us on a number of occasions on our turnovers and that really hurt us.

What about yours when you try to counter break, did you find you didn’t have enough options?

I think when we got the football we probably didn’t find the free player or go the instinctive decision first, we might have been a little bit hesitant. I say that without reviewing the game to see if that was true or not, but again ball use is what it’s all about and we didn’t use it at all well today, especially the last three quarters.

Dean, Steven Salopek’s collision in the first quarter is the sort of thing that people find inspirational, but on the flipside you lost a key midfielder for two quarters?

If you think back to it – and I do remember Sal getting knocked into the ground and Shaun Burgoyne picking up the loose ball and kicking the goal – it was fantastic! Sal had eyes for the ball only and that was a real focus for us in the first quarter. For him to get hurt and come back on the ground I think was a testament to the young man. He’s come a long way with his footy. For him to come back and still get some possessions on the ground was really good.

Dean with five minutes to go and the game was not totally lost, your players at times were kicking backward, were you disappointed by that?

I think when the players had the football they looked up the ground and they obviously didn’t see the best option to go to which was forward, and their second best option was back inside. They (Hawthorn) had a couple of extra numbers back and the option to go forward wasn’t quite there for us, so that’s why we had to keep possession of the football before we went inside-50. Dean, three in a row you’ve lost, what’s the key to turning things around, how quickly can you turn things around?

We just have to get back on the track and work hard. Our whole process this week has to be about getting confidence back into players. We have to do a lot of skill work on the track to make sure we get that confidence back and we look forward to Carlton. If you dwell on it too long then it becomes a bigger monster than it is, so we get back on track, work hard and look forward to taking on Carlton this week.

A few weeks ago you were 6 and 1 at the top of ladder, now you’re 6 and 4 near the bottom of the eight, do you think that’s an apt position for you to be at?

6 and 4 is what we are, so it’s an apt position for us to be at.

I’d like to know what you guys are actually thinking. If at 6 and 1 you were perhaps ahead of where you thought you’d be, where’s 6 and 4?

6 and 4 is probably not too far away from where we were at with 6 and 3 last week. We’ve got to put time into young players, we picked Westhoff and Gray this week and they were the two who came forward today and they showed a bit. If you came to watch them play their first AFL game I think you’d be pretty pleased with what you saw.

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