Port Adelaide assistant coach Tyson Goldsack has been impressed by the playing group’s turnaround, stating the “consistency and effort” has been noticeable since the bye. 

Goldsack’s defensive line will be without All-Australian Aliir Aliir this weekend as he recovers from a knee injury, with the coach confident two talls can get the job done. 

Speaking with Adelaide media after captain’s run on Friday, Goldsack touched on the evolution of the game style, how injured players are travelling, and what he expects from Sydney this Saturday. 

Goldsack on Aliir Aliir’s injury 
“It's actually a previous injury that he had that he’s just irritated. So we have a five day turnaround coming up after this game, so it'll be, I'd say, touch-and-go for next week against Carlton, but we'll wait and see.” 

Goldsack on playing three talls in defence 
“We did go three talls last year, at the start of last year, it actually didn't work that well for us, and we had to make a change. Sav (Ratugolea) went forward because we needed that as well. But yeah, to see them actually operate really well together last week and against the Giants was really pleasing that we can play them all. Our ball movement didn't suffer, which it had last year. So it was, it was nice, but that's okay, as long as it’s only a couple of weeks and we get him available again, we'll be okay. 

“You think about (last year) we brought in two of them fresh to the club, so there they were learning the game plan as a team and then just working out how to play with each other, playing very different types of defensive roles for us. You know, one's back shoulder, one's quite aggressive. Aliir is a little bit loose at times with what he wants to do and what he can do, which we love. So I think just them learning how to work with each other and what we need as a back line, so they're starting to gel now, and they're a lot tighter now than what they were last year.” 

Goldsack on what’s changed since the bye 
“I think Ken may have mentioned something about it, but our consistency and effort has been there. I spoke a few weeks ago about when someone looks at a Port Adelaide game, they should know what to expect. And when they look at our games, they should go ‘that is Port Adelaide playing’, and we lost that look. I think we weren't aggressive enough, either around the ball or on the ball carrier. We got our edge back a little bit in that regard. Whether or not we're winning contested possession, we're still doing something around that ball, putting pressure on it, giving ourselves chances to win the ball back in our front half, where we were conceding a bit too much earlier in the year. 

“(We didn’t make) wholesale changes (during the bye), but just a mindset of what we're trying to achieve. Just stopping a team from scoring is not detailed enough. There has to be a method about what you're trying to achieve when they get their hands on the ball. And I think it was more about that, getting a little bit more aggressive. You might miss a couple of tackles because of it, but we'll try and apply more pressure, get our pressure rating up, and we were able to do that.” 

Goldsack on getting the balance right on field 
“We're having phases where we're taking more marks, which, in turn, means we're kicking a little bit more. But we are being more balanced and in the way we operate in offence, you know, it's not one speed, which had been fast for the first half of the year. I think we have a nice balance where we can still go fast and we can still use high handballs to our advantage. But when the timing is right, especially with our three tall backs. If they mark the ball, we can maintain possession for a little bit longer. 

“We have different options, and we've had them all along, but we weren't able to make those changes. You can imagine for the players, it's very exciting to play fast football in offence, high handball, the looks that you get on goal are pretty exciting. It's hard to say let's actually slow the game down a bit. Let's maintain possession for a little bit longer.” 

Goldsack on how the game changes when personnel changes 
“It's just a way of, how can we make up for what we don't have, and also, what else do we get? So if you think about, if we take Aliir out and we bring in Lachie Jones, you know, all of a sudden we have a lot more ground speed and can we use that to our advantage? So we have different options with our game plan to go to, depending on who's available and who's playing and who we are playing as well.” 

Goldsack on Jason Horne-Francis 
“He's had a lean week. He had some treatment during the week that should see him play okay with, so that we tried a couple of things at training. We didn't want him to get too much contact and irritate it any more than we needed to. But yeah, he's pretty confident. He's feeling good and he'll be right to play. It's just pain management for whether or not he can deal with it, whether or not he can perform. You know, it's not so much whether he's got to re-injure it, to a level that's going to see him out for a while. It's just whether or not you can perform at the level required. And we know he's a combative type player, so for him, it's managing pain more than anything else. But you know, he came back in really good order from his previous injury. And now this is different to that which is, which is a blessing in one in one sense. But you like a 100 per cent fit Jason Horne-Francis.” 

Goldsack on Sydney 
“Yeah, on paper, they look really good. We don't know at what level they can perform with their first game back, Gulden and Papley in particular, and Amarty's missed a chunk of footy. So they're really good players, and if they all have a day, they're going to be hard to stop. But at the same time, we're in pretty good form, so we'll take all comers and whoever they want to line up against us, we're happy to take them on. And you know, we've got pretty good history outside of the prelim last year against Sydney. So we're hoping for a pretty good showing and a good battle.” 

Goldsack on form in the first half of the year 
“It's not just luck (with injuries). It's lapse of form for some of it. Just realising that the AFL is consistently moving, and the talent that is out there now, and the equalisation of the of the league, it's so even. You think back about (some) games throughout the year, Essendon and St Kilda stand out for us. If we don't lose those, then we're in a really good spot. The Showdown was a really close game that could have gone either way. So we had been a team that had played really well in close games and had gotten over the line and held us in good stead in the back half of the year, and now find ourselves fighting, and we don't mind a fight, but you're a lot more comfortable when you're sitting top two, top three. So like I said, us and Sydney, we've got a mountain of work to do in the back half of the year. But our players are up for the fight, and we're looking forward to this one.” 

Goldsack on David Koch being at captain’s run on Friday 
“He was just floating around. Had his sunnies on in the in the change room, so he was looking pretty cool! The feeling around the club is really good at the moment, and you like having board members, presidents being around and being part of it as much as they need to be. So he's just here to support the players and the coaches, which is good.” 

Goldsack on Joe Berry's return to AFL this week 
“I think what was tougher was, I mean, you’d have to ask him, but to play AFL and not be able to not do the things that you know you can do. So whether it's a lack of confidence or just being able to perform at the level that he's capable of doing was probably more concerning, in a sense, for him. So we sent him back to the Maggies (at SANFL level). He played a couple of games at half back, just to kind of free him up a little bit and get his legs running and allow him to realise how talented he is. And his ball use, you get a bit more time at half back, generally speaking. So he spent some time there, played a game at half forward on the weekend, and showed some good signs. Ken loves to play young kids. He loves to give them a go and allow them to realise what level is required for AFL, so it's good to see him back in there. It's not like he hasn't done the work and hasn't earned his spot, so it's good.” 

Goldsack on Miles Bergman in defence 
“I'm always happy to have him, but I'm happy to have Connor too. The last couple of weeks they've both played time in the midfield and back. So it just gives us great flexibility. It's generally a role that you do it, midfield and half forward. We've seen Hornet’s gone forward before from midfield, Jackson Mead, so generally you go that way, but the ability for us to do it through a half back is important for us, and you can keep or find good matchups that suit your game plans. 

“When you have that much athleticism, it always helps. And he's (Bergman) got a hunger for midfield, and I think we've got the balance right at the moment where he still gets his defensive stuff in, and I still get a bit of love from him, but Carry (Josh Carr) gets a lot as well. So I think he's in a good spot. We're a better team for having him play midfield and back and Connor's the same.” 

Goldsack on Travis Boak 
“Yeah, we're going make sure he comes back and plays some footy. The flu hit him pretty hard, me too, actually. So yeah, I know what he'd be going through. And he's at a stage where he needs to be at his best to perform at his best for us. So that's kind of where he is at the moment.” 

Goldsack on Mani Liddy 
“Yeah it is very impressive. We knew getting him that he's a natural footballer, and that he’d adapt pretty quickly. But he showed some really good composure, in the second half in particular. I think the first half, he was still trying to find his feet and the speed of the game, but to adapt from the first half of the second half is pretty rapid. He looked good for us, and I think he will be good for us going forward. He'd played some really good footy. We'd played against him, so we'd seen him in action for Centrals so we knew what he was capable of. And to be a midfielder, they generally run similar patterns from club to club. So you can inject yourself into a team pretty quickly. And he's done that, and he's held his spot, which is just a credit to him.”