VICTORY is always sweet, but it becomes bitter-sweet for Port Adelaide as the review of Sunday's one-point win against Collingwood at the MCG also highlights how far the team is falling short of the AFL pacesetters.
Forwards coach Nathan Bassett on Monday did not hide - nor gloss over - the major talking points that linger from the Collingwood battle and a few others during the past month.
"Our last month of footy has not been great," said a forthright Bassett of the fifth-ranked Port Adelaide (7-3).
"That is fair to say. We have been performing below the level of what a good finals team should perform at. It is not unusual. We have been up for a little while as a team and right now we are working through what 'great' looks like and we are a bit short of it.
"We did not do anything particularly better in this game (against Collingwood) to fight back (when compared with the losses to Brisbane and West Coast). Other than the last quarter where the guys showed some real courage to keep coming, to be more aggressive with how we played, how we defended, how we tried to move the ball - and the we got a little bit of reward on the scoreboard through it."
Port Adelaide's false starts - this time manifesting in a one-behind first term and conceding a 26-point advantage early in the second term to Collingwood - again remains a mystery.
"Our starts have been poor, especially interstate in four of five games (on the road) this year," Bassett said. "We tried something a little bit different this week and I don't think we will probably do that again.
"We need to be a lot stronger at the start to give ourselves a better chance to win.
"If we could fix it easily, we'd do it. Early, we are not as strong in the contest as we should be ... and the opposition win more of the footy, getting more ball at their end and kicking more goals."
Bassett expects the search for an end to the flat starts is "between the ears" of the Port Adelaide players.
"It is as much about educating each player to get themselves into the right head space so they can start with the necessary energy to play at the highest level they can," said Bassett adding there is no one solution for every player in this dilemma.
"You need some emotion to perform at your best. But too much tips you over the edge and you become anxious. And then you can look worried and slow out there because you are over thinking the game.
"Each player is different - and it does not matter what you do as a team before the game. It is how you prepare individually to get yourself ready. As you get older as a player and gain more experience, you learn what gets you right. That is why experienced players generally turn up each week and play a similar way.
"Our job as coaches is help fast track those players so they don't spend six or seven years working it out for themselves; we want to get them there a whole lot quicker."
Port Adelaide's midfield - which is denied the experience and ball-hunting ways of Tom Rockliff and spark and smarts of Zak Butters by injury - continues to appear heavily reliant on former captains Ollie Wines and Travis Boak.
"(But) it is on all of us - and (the work on contested ball) is not just stoppage base," Bassett said. "We looked flat and stagnant for long parts of the game on the weekend. It would have been a tough game as a spectator to watch. I assure you as a coach it was much tougher to watch."
Port Adelaide's win also built the team's run of closing out games decided by a goal or less this season - two points against AFL champions Richmond in round 4 and now one point against Collingwood.
This makes Port Adelaide 3-2 in all matches decided by a goal or less since the start of 2019.
"Our message at three quarter-time," said Bassett, noting the coaches had run out of "sprays" at that stage, "was to encourage the players to keep playing and to stay connected to the game. We were really positive around our messaging at three quarter-time to be aggressive, to play with courage, to take the game on and we got some scoreboard impact and some improvement in the contest through that."
For a change, Port Adelaide closed a match without a major injury - or the need to activate the medical substitute (Miles Bergman on Sunday).
But there are some players under the microscope for their form being below expectation.
Forward-midfielder Connor Rozee is one of these with Bassett saying: "Connor has not played that well for the past two weeks.
“But Connor tried really hard (on Sunday) and he was trying to play the right way for the game but the game did not come to him.
"If he keeps working that way, it will.
"Connor is a good young man who is learning what it is like to play regular AFL football," added Bassett of the 21-year-old top-10 draftee who has played 46 senior games in three seasons.
"The honeymoon period of playing AFL football is over and now it is working towards being a good AFL player.
“We are trying to get the balance of game time right; we'd like to give him more midfield time. We are still working through what is best for Connor, but Connor needs to play the best footy he can wherever he is playing."
All-Australian key forward Charlie Dixon proved he can contribute far more than just a goal kicking chart.
"Our ball movement and ball use has not been great for a little while," said Bassett of the supply to Dixon. "He competed well; he showed some better craft with his body and kept playing. That is not a game he is going to put in his own time capsule but he played his role, he tried really hard and when he had his moments he made an impact on the game.”
Port Adelaide will close the first half of the home-and-away season - and enter the bye - with a Sunday twilight clash with Fremantle at Adelaide Oval as part of the celebrations with the Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous round.
