PORT ADELAIDE is hopeful Saturday’s six-goal star Brett Ebert will be available to play against Fremantle at Subiaco on Sunday afternoon.
Ebert touched up Leo Barry and equalled his career-best goal haul in the loss to the Swans, but his day went awry when he sprained his ankle midway through the final quarter.
The early signs are good for the pint-sized forward with the injury rated at the lower end of the scale. There is no apparent ligament damage and teammate Dean Brogan said the extra day’s break would help Ebert’s bid to be fit.
“Talk about luck. Ebo kicks six goals, probably plays his best game for the year and then does his ankle,” Brogan said on Sunday morning.
“I haven’t seen him yet because he’s in with the doctors, but I don’t think it’s too bad. He’d probably be 50-50 for next week, I suppose."
Brogan lamented his side’s twist in fortunes this season and pleaded with fans to hang in there despite the Power’s 3-6 start.
“It’s very frustrating. I’m sure our supporters are frustrated as well. To lose another close game to, pretty much, a top four side is very frustrating, but at the same time we have to take the positives out of it,” he said.
“We know that we’re not too far away, but we’ve got to start turning these close games into wins.”
The Power looked like clinching victory on Saturday after hitting the lead in the last quarter, but the resilient Swans continued to find a way and kicked two late goals through Tim Schmidt and Jarred McVeigh.
“If you look over the past couple of weeks, at the close games that we’ve had, we just haven’t made the most of our opportunities, whereas, last year we kicked the winning goal or won the hard ball when it was there to be won,” Brogan said.
“In close games you need a little bit of luck to go your way too and we just feel it hasn’t happened for us this year, but we just have to stay with it.
“We’re not playing that badly at all and, if we’d won even two of the close games, we’d be 5-4 and in the eight. That’s how fine the line is.
“There is an old cliché, you make your own luck, but with footy you need a couple of things to go your way in close games.
“Last year we were getting them and this year we’re not, but were not making excuses. We had opportunities to win yesterday and we just didn’t do it.”
The Power reported no other injuries out of the 11-point loss and should also have tough nut Matt Thomas and the WA-born Nathan Krakouer available for Sunday’s twilight clash.
