PORT ADELAIDE SANFL coach Matthew Lokan said he’s pleased to enter the bye with a five win and three loss record.
The Magpies have been ravaged by injuries in recent weeks but have managed to win four consecutive games before entering the break.
Speaking after the win over West Adelaide, Lokan said he was delighted with the second half performance.
“Credit to our guys to be able to stick together and I thought for the second half we played the brand of football that we wanted to play and were able to get some speed on the on the ball and come away with a really good win in the end,” he said.
“To West's credit now they were able to keep the ball off us when they had the footy and then slow us down on offence as well.
“We tried to get some speed around the ball, we flipped Goldsack into the forward half with Jarrod Lienert up onto the wing before he got a head knock and went off.
“We changed a few things, but all in all, it was just around our contest and our ability to be able to win the ball first. I thought Sam Mayes was outstanding for us today and Sam Hayes again gave us first look from the ruck.”
Port welcomed back skipped Cam Sutcliffe, who played majority in the forward line and he looked right at home with three goals.
“’Sutts’ went into the game with a bit of a sore shoulder, so we needed to manage him a little bit and we just felt like in the front half we lacked a little bit of speed today, so we threw ‘Goldy’ up there in the second half,” Lokan said.
“They're fantastic leaders for our group and they were able to have an influence especially in the second half.
Lokan also commended the work in the midfield in the win.
“I thought Tom Corcoran was great for us as well today in the in the midfield,” he said.
“We're a little bit undermanned through our midfield at the moment, just through injuries and we've asked some guys to step up in there and I thought Tom did that today as well.
“When we play the right way and we bring our hunt around the contest and we play with a bit of energy, we're a pretty good team.”
Port Adelaide will enjoy its SANFL bye next weekend before travelling across Port Road to take on reigning premiers Woodville-West Torrens on Saturday, June 12.
