PORT Adelaide skipper Warren Tredrea is confident his team is close to winning some more games this season.
The Power battled gallantly against an unbeaten Hawthorn on Saturday, but were overrun by the Hawks’ second-half surge.
In a tough opening eight rounds, Port Adelaide has also come within two kicks of claiming the prized scalps of reigning premiers Geelong and the fourth-placed Crows.
“We’re not playing as well as we would like. We’re putting in some pretty good performances, but not getting the results,” Tredrea said on Monday.
“If we were playing absolutely disgracefully and getting flogged, then I daresay we would be sitting here looking for answers, but at the moment, we’re confident that what we’re doing can get us the result.
“We’ve pushed the two teams [Hawthorn and Geelong] that are miles in front of everyone else and gone close pretty closing to beating them, without getting the result we’re after.
“At the moment we’re still striving towards getting those results.”
Tredrea said the Power wouldn’t rest until their strong performances against the better sides started to translate into wins.
The skipper identified Port Adelaide’s zones, defensive set-up and kick-ins as improved areas, but lamented his team’s inability to win the stoppages on Saturday.
“It’s not good enough just being accepted [as a competitive team]. Our form in games proves that we’re good enough to push the top teams, but we’re not getting across the line,” he said.
“There are some genuine, positive signs. We’ve done some stuff very, very well, but there are also areas we need to improve in.
“On the weekend, I think we had 12 goals kicked on us from stoppages around the ground, which hadn’t happened to us for a long, long time.
“To be six goals up was a positive, but it was also probably hiding the fact that we weren’t playing as well as we could’ve in all areas of the game.”
Port Adelaide will need to rectify its problems at the clearances before Saturday, when stoppage-specialists Sydney come to town.
The Power have not beaten the Swans since round two, 2006 and, in the past, have struggled with their shut-down style of play.
“Watching yesterday’s game, you can see Sydney is in some great form,” Tredrea said.
“It’s not going to be an easy contest. Our hard ball gets need to be better, but we also need to find that mix to be able to break free and play the style of game we want to play and not fall into the game they want to play.
“We need to practise our stoppages and hard ball gets. Everyone talks about how we want to be a free running team and, yes, we’re high scoring, that’s true, but at times it’s going to turn into a scrap.
“It’s going to turn into a bit of a fight and we need to be able to match them in that area.”
Port Adelaide will have to wait until at least Tuesday before learning if Chad Cornes will be available to play this weekend.
Cornes will meet with his specialist during the week to seek the all-clear, while Michael Wilson, who pulled up a bit sore from his first hit-out in eight months, could also return to the side.
The Power, who have a 3-5 record, are still just one game outside of the eight and Tredrea said it was important Port Adelaide didn’t lose touch.
“Where we are on the ladder, there are a lot of teams that are pretty close together,” he said.
“To finish top four, there are a number of teams that have jumped ahead and who knows if you’re going to be able to get that close, but the facts are we need to keep winning and winning consistently.”
