THE AMERICAN basketballers have been renamed the ‘Redeem Team’ as they embark on their quest to avenge two disappointing Olympic campaigns and Port Adelaide star Shaun Burgoyne says his team will be taking a similar approach into the game against Collingwood this week.
The Power have copped some heavy criticism following last week’s disappointing 66-point loss to Carlton and stand-in skipper Burgoyne said the players would be out for redemption on Friday night.
“When you’re struggling, it tests everyone from the coaching staff to the players and everyone involved. We’re down the bottom, we’re losing and things are tough. When you’re down the bottom, cracks appear and you have to fix them,” Burgoyne said on Tuesday.
“It’s been fun captaining the side. Obviously, it would be better if we were winning, but that’s something we’re working on every week and this week, on Friday night, everyone’s got a chance to redeem themselves.”
Burgoyne, who has been handed the captaincy in the absence of skipper Warren Tredrea and vice-captains Chad Cornes and Brendon Lade, believed the players would learn a lot about each other during the trying period.
“It’s actually a very good learning experience to see how you treat certain situations and how to actually motivate the team, the players and how to get yourself off the ground and bounce back for next week’s game. We’ve got a five-day turnaround and we’ve got to bring our best this week against Collingwood,” he said.
“You find out what everyone’s made of when you come through these hard times and having the number of senior players we have out with Tredders, Chad and Steve Salopek, you find out what the younger players are about as well.
“Someone has got to take the older guys’ spot and we’ll definitely be better for it.
“We look forward to a long, hard pre-season and we’ll be back.”
The Power will honour retired club champion Michael Wilson with a lap around AAMI Stadium prior to Friday night’s clash and the club is hopeful the game will also raise awareness for ovarian cancer.
On Tuesday, Port Adelaide called in a Lockett in a bid to lift their goal scoring with Brooke Lockett, the cousin of AFL leading goal kicker Tony, joining the Power at AAMI.
NAB will donate $500 to ovarian cancer research for every Port Adelaide goal kicked on Friday night.
Lockett, who in contrast to her burly cousin is a petite member of The Australian Ballet, said the money raised would go towards finding a cure for the disease that claims one Australian woman every 10 hours.
“Not only is this campaign going to create awareness, but the funds raised will be going towards research and equipment. Hopefully, we can do enough research to find an early-detection test, which isn’t actually available at present,” Lockett said.
“Hopefully, with a bit of the Lockett blood, it will inspire the boys to kick as may goals as they can against Collingwood on Friday night.”
Burgoyne said the Power would have to improve on the miserly nine-goal tally it reached at the Telstra Dome last week.
“We did a bit of goalkicking practice yesterday and we’ll be doing a lot more this week because, obviously, it’s good to kick a lot of goals to win, but if you’ve got $500 for each goal going to ovarian cancer research, it means a lot more as well.”