PORT ADELAIDE skipper Warren Tredrea says the Power’s senior players must “stand up” in the remaining nine rounds as the club vows to develop its list, which in September last year, took the club to a Grand Final.
Coach Mark Williams “called off” the Power’s final chances on Saturday night after Richmond survived a spirited fourth-quarter fight back from Port Adelaide to claim victory by four points.
A handful of players will undergo surgery in the coming weeks, but Tredrea said the onus would remain on the club’s more senior players to help the team develop into a consistently better unit.
“Consistently, we haven’t played four quarters and I think it’s an area that has cost us games all year. We could sit there at the end of the season and say, ‘we should’ve won that game, could’ve won that game and maybe, could’ve won that one’, but the facts are, we haven’t,” Tredrea said after the loss to the Tigers at AAMI Stadium.
“We’re no chance of making the finals. We’re too far behind on the ledger [especially considering] other results like North Melbourne beating Hawthorn tonight. Even if we were to get into the eight we’re not playing well enough to go anywhere in finals anyway.
“But we’ve got to keep persisting. The young guys will get opportunities and, given time, I know some of them will show some really good things. But, more importantly, our senior players need to continue to stand up.
“Consistently this year, we haven’t had enough core senior players perform through various injuries or form. When that’s not happening, you can’t expect the team to be winning because you’re relying on the young guys who are in the early stages of their career.”
Power fans can expect to see more of youngsters like Nick Lower, Paul Stewart, Fabian Deluca, Adam Thomson, Greg Bentley, Nathan Krakouer and possibly also rookies Nick Salter, Gavin Grose and Ryan Willits as the season progresses.
Tredrea also said there were still some pluses to come out of the shattering loss to Richmond.
“That last quarter was certainly a positive. We thought we were a real chance at three-quarter time if we got early scoreboard pressure on them. Tommy Logan got two valuable goals and Daniel Motlop and Brett Ebert brought us even closer, but we just couldn’t get that last one.
“I think our defence has also done a marvellous job over the past few weeks in keeping us in games of footy. We kicked over 100 points again, but when you don’t win it, you can look for every excuse in the book; but the truth is we’re just not playing well enough.”
Port Adelaide will head to TIO Stadium in Darwin to tackle the Western Bulldogs next Saturday night before having a week off for the split round.
Peter Burgoyne (hamstring) and Steve Salopek (achilles strain) are both likely to miss the clash with the red-hot Dogs with injuries sustained or worsened in Saturday night’s loss.
