Port Adelaide senior coach Lauren Arnell lamented a disappointing last quarter as the Power lost to the Sydney Swans by 15 points after trailing by only 2 points at the last change.
In a similar result to last week’s loss to West Coast, a lack of composure and accuracy in front of goal hurt the Power.
“Sydney were certainly the better team in the fourth quarter and they also got the jump on us in the first, so it’s another disappointing outcome for us,” Arnell said.
“We had more patches of better footy today and then some patches when we were undisciplined so a disappointing result for us again”.
Port Adelaide again started slowly with Sydney dominating possession and territory early including six scoring shots to one by the midpoint of the first quarter.
“We’re starting pretty slow in games and we’re trying to find a solution for that and we knew they like to take chain it out of stoppages and we allowed them to play that way early. Our challenge is to continue to find ways to start games better,” Arnell said.
The Power became frustrated at times giving away ill-timed free kicks, including some off the ball resulting in shots on goal for the Swans. Arnell said discipline must become a focus for her team.
“We have to address this. Post-game we get a lot of player ownership but it has to be in the moment. For me it’s a key indicator of maturity and a lack of discipline in key moments in games,” Arnell said.
Arnell said the key focus for the remaining four home-and-away games was also consistency of performance.
“We just spoke at length with the group post-game as to what’s important to us as a team, not just right now but for the remainder of the season,” she said.
“A lot of what we spoke about is finding consistency in how you apply yourself on game day or throughout the week.
“There are things that we put in place and it’s not through a lack of support for our players. There’s so much support amongst the group and we just have to reinforce the positive behaviours and attitude we’re looking for”.
Port Adelaide had a major scare early in the first quarter when Janelle Cuthbertson fell awkwardly clutching at her knee. She returned to the ground in the second quarter after her knee was assessed and strapped.
Early in the third quarter Maggie MacLachlan also fell to the ground in obvious pain after suffering a left ankle injury. MacLachlan was assisted from the ground and took no further part in the game.
Arnell said both players will be assessed in the coming days.
“Our physios have said Janelle had a knee sprain so we’ll have a look at that and hopefully she pulls up okay,” Arnell said.
“Maggie hurt her left ankle and we’ll have that scanned and we’ll have more information in the next 24 hours or so.”
Port Adelaide travels to Melbourne next week to take on North Melbourne at Arden Street from 12.35pm (SA time) next Sunday.
