We played one quarter of footy against Norwood. It was a really good quarter and it was difficult to find fault with it from a player perspective. We made a few changes after half time and they worked well with Jarman and Krak giving us something different on the wing and down back.
The problem is that we dominated one quarter of footy. Yeah, they call it a premiership quarter, but it only wins you a premiership when you turn up for the other three.
The reason why I’m not going to give an assessment of each player is because we feel as a team that hardly any of our group met the level we demand and expect – there wasn’t the consistent effort required to get a win in a second semi.
So here’s what we’re going to do for the prelim.
We play South Adelaide at Adelaide Oval this Sunday at 2:40pm – the chance to take on Norwood again, in a grand final, is on the line.
To get there, we need to bring a consistent effort across all four quarters.
We have lost our last five first quarters – when you start behind the eight ball, you need to work even harder to catch up.
For those of you who saw the semi final, you’ll agree that our first quarter wasn’t up to scratch and made it all the more difficult.
So starting well is a real focus for us, but so too is playing consistently across the four quarters.
South love the ball and retaining possession, which means we must bring our best pressure game and an intensity on the opponent when we don’t have the footy.
Brooksby, Cross, Macleod and Eddy are all top notch players who we need to pay extra close attention to.
As we focus on being good defensively, we also need to make sure we’re quick and effective with our own ball movement and play our natural game.
I know you’ve loved us when we’re free flowing and exciting with our ball use, especially earlier this season.
The boys know the good footy they play can win any game on any day when they get going with the ball from the first bounce.
Our group is better for the run this week – especially the younger players who haven’t played many finals.
We’ll look to our senior players – Summerton, Slattery, Logan, Stevenson, Newts, Stewart, Young – to give the leadership on the field on the day, and to our younger players to take the great opportunity a prelim final presents.
Make no mistake, we’re in this game to win.
Every single player in our group knows the significance of this finals series to our supporters, and I don’t blame them, because we certainly heard what they thought on Saturday.
I know this isn’t the first time Port has lost a second semi and faced a knockout prelim, but we will go out there to do our guernsey, our club and members proud on Sunday, with a four-quarter performance.
It should be a great day, and it will be great to see plenty of black-and-white fans and families out there to cheer us on – I hope to see you out there!
