PORT ADELAIDE midfielder Karl Amon says his side’s success so far this season has been built around training hard and players not wanting to let each other down.
Port finished the season on top of the ladder with 14 wins and three losses, and is one win away from a Grand Final berth after beating Geelong in a Qualifying Final last week.
Amon has been one of the more consistent performers, playing mostly on the wing.
He says the training standards have been high since his arrival at Alberton and this year is no different.
“When I came into the group at the end of 2013, the group trains really hard and really intense and that’s been through my whole seven years here that the group has been a hard-training group,” he said on Adelaide radio on Tuesday morning.
“I think on the back of that, we sort of don’t want to let each other down.
“We’ve got ourselves in a great position all year and that’s the team’s mentality that we want to play really tough football – that’s ingrained all the way from Ken all the way through the football club and that’s how we want to play.
“We want to be really hard to play against and that’s worked well so far.”
It has been a long grind for the players who have navigated an extended season which included a season shutdown after Round 1, a period in a hub in Queensland and strict AFL COVID-19 policies regarding where they can go and who they can see.
Amon revealed the group had used an Australian cycling team as inspiration to help through the punishing campaign.
“This year we’ve taken a bit of inspiration out of the Orica Green Edge cycling tour and we’ve almost had a cycling tour of a year,” he said.
“At different stages and different tours throughout the year – obviously we were in the hub and the two 5am wake-ups, which were a challenge in themselves and just been moving away as a good group, playing some good football.
“We were on top of the ladder for the whole year, which we are pretty proud about, but it’s still not finished, we’ve still got two games to go hopefully and by the end of the year wherever we finish, hopefully we’re in a pretty happy spot.”
Thursday’s win over Geelong was just the second final Amon had played in his career with the first a heartbreaking double overtime, after the siren loss to West Coast in the 2017 Elimination Final.
The 25-year-old was pleased to get back to playing at the business end of the year, and to have a better outcome.
“2017 against West Coast was pretty heartbreaking and this one was so much better,” he explained.
“There’s a fair bit of hype around finals.
“It was a tight game and to get away with the chocolates was really pleasing for the group but we’ve got two more to go hopefully.”
Port Adelaide will face the winner of the Semi Final between Richmond and St Kilda in a Preliminary Final on Friday 16 October from 7:20pm ACST.
