It’s a tough, hard game football. It rips the guts out of you, certainly emotionally. The players put a lot of effort into the game. We didn’t get over the line, but we kept at it. We played Sydney pretty well how Sydney play but we didn’t the result, so we’re all disappointed.
The losses keep adding up and it makes it tougher and tougher each week. Everyone is very disappointed inside (the change rooms). I know that our supporters were terrific today and made a lot of noise.
I thought goals at the end of the quarters really hurt us, they kicked a few again. You like to think you can keep encouraging and keep the pressure on, but again there were a couple late in the quarters that might have hurt us. Certainly in the first quarter with them kicking eight goals, was disappointing for us. I think they went inside-50 15 times for nine shots on goal, which is not good.
On the other side, obviously Brett Ebert kicking six goals was terrific and Warren kicked three or four again before half-time, so the forwards did their job. The midfield, there were some that were good and some that weren’t. I think Danyle Pearce has really picked up over the last few weeks and that’s been a good effort. Both Matty Primus and Tony McGuinness have been working very closely with him to get a better result, so well done to them and to Pearcey. I think Broges was pretty good today. I think he and Ladey played better, they won a lot of taps, which gave us a chance.
Why were you so wasteful, your inside-50s were high and your return so low, particularly in that last quarter?
I think we kicked five or six balls out on the full. We’re the number one team at kicking goals on the run and we probably missed four or five today, which didn’t reflect how we’d been playing with our kicking for goal. You just have to nail your chances, especially against a top side like Sydney.
At the start of the last quarter I thought you were outstanding. Was there anything that you said at three-quarter time or a special move that helped you there?
We changed a few things around at three-quarter time but we were all about continuing the run. You might have noticed I went down to the boundary about half-way through just to keep encouraging the guys on the boundary. It’s very difficult when you’re making changes and also trying to encourage, it’s hard to give enough messages. I know the guys upstairs (assistant coaches) did a terrific job and kept rotating the players, so I thought motivationally, if we could give the players a bit extra, it might get us over the line. We got to the point where we were in front, which was a huge effort for the guys, but to Sydney’s credit they kept going.
Mark, we’re a third of a way through, where do you think you’re really at?
We’re exactly where we are. We’re out of the eight. I think if you look at the teams we’ve played, we were competitive against Hawthorn, Geelong, Adelaide and Sydney, we’ve been competitive against most teams, but we’re just not finishing or getting the result. That continues to add up and it doesn’t please anyone. It doesn’t satisfy us or our supporters.
Have you slipped back because of expectation or because of what you did last year means that they’re going to come harder at you?
I thought today having Chad and Michael was important for us. Last year Michael was available for almost all games except the grand final. Chad’s been out for a while, now we’ve got Shaun out. It’s tough, very tough. If you watched Collingwood (against Geelong), who would have believed that. It’s a hard game to win AFL football these days. There’s not too many easy games, that’s for sure.
Quite a few Power fans are driving home right now, and they’re worried about your finals chances. What would you say to them?
Yeah, I’m worried too, there’s no doubt about it. Let’s be realistic about it, it’s going to be very, very tough (to make the eight), but we’ll continue to try and win, there’s no doubt about it.
At each opportunity we’ll make sure that our players are getting good chances to develop and improve so that if it’s (finals) this year that’s good, if it’s next year that’s good and if it’s in three years time…we get ourselves into a position where we can run for finals. I thought Alipate Carlile played a fantastic game today and he’s 20 games into his career. Boak did some wonderful things again, so we’re finding out some really good things out about our young players, and at the same time we continually challenge our older players to keep their standards up.
Were you happy to keep Chaplin and O’Keefe working against each other. Did you think that one at times needed a change up.
We changed it…
I know you changed it a couple of times but for the bulk of the game it was Chaplin and O’Keefe.
It’s a little bit to do with our onballers – we were looking after Michael Wilson – and Logan played on O’Keefe for a while. Logan’s an outstanding runner so we wanted to give him an opportunity to get where the ball was. Chappy played pretty well against him on other occasions. You can move young players. It’s his 50th game today, you want to talk to him, you want to give him that challenge again and put him back on. But I think Logan probably was on him more than Chaplin, but I’m not exactly sure.
The match-ups very early when Kane was going on Adam Goodes and McVeigh was trying to go on him, did you think you were winning that one because it was a two on one?
Well, I think to three-quarter time Goodes had 11 possessions. He’s a wonderful player. We changed the match-up at three-quarter time and Goodes had 9 in the last I think. If you look at Kirk, the time I spent with him in the Dream Team a few weeks ago, I noted and acknowledge just how brilliant he is as far as a leader, his tackles, his hardball gets, and his clearance numbers are just outstanding. I think he had 12 possessions in the last quarter. You want to have a leader like that, that can drag them over the line. He stood up, and did what he does, and I’m sure Roosey will be disappointed that he’s 31 or whatever he is and won’t be there forever. I’m sure he’s a great example to his young players.
With a young side we expect that every season they’re going to get better, but the results of this season are vastly different to last year, so why is it that there hasn’t been the improvement?
It’s a little tricky to make comparisons like that, because this time last year we wouldn’t have played Sydney twice in nine rounds and…it’s really hard to compare one year to another. Certainly they had a little less pre-season. When you say you expect them (the young players) to improve, people have talked about second year blues for a 100 years in regards to young players. Now I’m not labelling that as a fact (for the Power), but when you think that they just automatically improve, that’s not the case. With young players you get inconsistencies and you get spikes and you get some troughs and you see that. But we believe in our players and we will give them the opportunity to develop and improve and succeed.
So, is it second year blues Mark?
Who exactly are you talking about, because I will be able to tell you specifically on each one?
Westhoff doesn’t seem to be playing as well as last year?
In the analysis of Westhoff you have to understand that he played inside-50 last year and this year he doesn’t, so if you look at his stats, his marks and his opportunities, he’s probably in front of where he was last year. In fact he didn’t play the first ten games, so you’d have to say he’s in front of where he was this time last year.
If we look at others, you’ve got Boak, and I think he’s way ahead of where he was last year. And Robbie Gray? He missed a lot of pre-season again, but he only played a few games last year and again, I think he’s improved as well. So that’s three out of three. Now is Westy playing as well and having the affect on the game as he did late last year, probably not, but probably the last couple of games of the year, he wasn’t that good either if you cast your mind back.
Is it something else other than second year blues?
Is what?
Is the season almost over for Port?
We haven’t won enough games to be in the eight at the moment, but we’re not too far out. If we’d taken our chances today, we probably would’ve almost been in the eight. Is the season over? Gee, I think we’re really competitive. I think most sides that come up against us would feel that if they walk away with the win, it was hard earned. We continually try and push that.
I think that’s what we’re struggling with Mark, is that now the line is that you’re good enough to compete and last year it was that you were good enough to win.
I think last year, we won five games by less than a goal or something. That can muck around a little bit with your form in terms of where, exactly, you’re at. This year, I think we’ve lost five games by less than three goals.
Is it like though when you lose close games, that when you win them it’s something that you can look after, why does that happen?
I’m not sure of the question. Do you mean, can you guarantee that you win close games? No you can’t, but you keep working at them. Circumstances today, who knows, but Ebert got injured at the end and Wilson couldn’t come back on because we were looking after him.
Every week and every game that you’re talking about the circumstances are different. I think against Adelaide we had a lot of shots on goals in the last quarter and missed, and I think that happened against Geelong also. Each one (close loss) is different. I think you’re looking for something similar to bundle them altogether. That’s for you to come up with, and you’ll make a case, but I can’t see it. We’d like to think that we can nail games. History has shown that our club can do that.
Can I go down that path in another direction. Last year you could make good luck with some of those games and there were some great moments where you were able to create wins. Why can’t you do that this year, it looks as if they just can’t create wins.
It’s probably like when you go fishing off a jetty. One day, you can just drop the hook in and everything jumps on. The next day you think, ‘why is this not working?’ If you think there’s a book, or a play pattern that delivers that (the secret to winning close games), well there’s not. We just have to keep working on it. I think the harder you work, the luckier you get, someone said that once, I think it was Theodore Roosevelt.
Looking back, did that Dream Team game come at the wrong time, because you had a winning momentum?
You have to understand that the teams we’ve played post the Hall of Fame game are the top team going around (Hawthorn) and we ran them to about a minute to go and Sydney, who you’d say were right up there. If the Dream Team wasn’t on would we have been any closer? I’m not sure, I think we’ve competed really well and we’ve had opportunities to win both games, so I don’t think so.
