Port Adelaide assistant coach Tyson Goldsack has discussed a range of topics as the season nears its conclusion, including the return of Lachie Jones, the evolving roles of versatile players such as Ollie Lord, and how the team is approaching its remaining two games. 

Speaking to the Adelaide media at captain’s run ahead of Saturday’s clash with Carlton, Goldsack also reflected on the final games for club veterans Travis Boak and Ken Hinkley, the challenges faced over the past month, and the road ahead. 

Goldsack on Lachie Jones returning to the side 
“He's a good inclusion – his flexibility is what we love most – he can play on both talls and smalls. I think Ollie Lord did a really good job last week, with it being his first time in defense for the year, but Lachie is an experienced campaigner.” 

Goldsack on Ollie Lord’s role 
“Ollie is the likely one to go back to the forward line (with Lukosius out), putting him back to where he's been doing his best work for the majority of the year. He has played a key defending role about two years ago now for a portion of time in the Magpies (SANFL) and showed some really good things. He reads the ball well, his contest work is pretty good as well – he's got the traits he needs to be a defender, but he's been doing some good work up front.” 

Goldsack on exposing players to different roles 
“If you have to then it’s not a bad thing to expose players to different roles. Whether it's a forward playing more time on the wing, or a little bit of time inside mid, you can expose them to different things. It’s probably more the younger blokes – we won't be throwing around the season campaigners too much, but guys like Ollie Lord, who we've seen play down back before, it was nice to see.” 

“We have players that we know can play both ends, so we'll sit down at the end of the year and work out what our best matchups are, and what is the best fit for the team. If it’s guys like Ollie Lord that we need to play down back, we'll give them a pre-season to do it.” 

Goldsack on preparing for the clash against Carlton 
“Yeah, we've only got two more chances (to secure a win), and this game is as good as any. I think we'll be really competitive, and we match up well against them. We played well against them last time over here, and we play at Marvel well historically, so that's exciting. It would have been nice to get the win last week off the back of a really good effort, but we didn't, so we roll into this week against Carlton. 

“I'm not expecting it (to be a dominant performance). I think they've played some good footy the last few weeks as well, so I expect it to be a tough game. Hopefully we can do what we've been doing well, and (continue) what we did well last week, and roll it onto this game.” 

Goldsack on Travis Boak’s last game in his home state 
“Travis has got friends and family everywhere. If we're playing on the Gold Coast, he’d have plenty out there too. When you're in the game for so long you do have a lot of people that have followed your journey throughout. It's nice to reward them by bringing them along for the ride for his last couple of games.” 

Goldsack on Travis Boak and Ken Hinkley’s final games 
“It's a little bit sad – you have to enjoy it while we're here. We acknowledge it's not an ideal season for us – we’d much rather be playing in September, but that's not the case. We’re just trying to enjoy these moments that we have left with Travis, Chad (Cornes), and Ken.” 

Goldsack on the last month 
“I think that's been the trying part (being out of finals contention). In the last month we've played some really difficult teams with not much to play for, outside of our own respect for performing well and trying to win. Winning games is more fun than losing, so you're not trying to lose, but there was a difficult kind of patch of about three weeks there. We're hoping to finish the season well.” 

Goldsack on the external criticism of the players’ mentality 
“I don't think so. We had a lot of players down, and a few trying to carry the load. We had guys in different positions, some playing for the first time this year, and some younger players coming in. It was just a pretty difficult month of football.” 

Goldsack on his future at Port Adelaide 
“I've had a chat to Chris Davis and Carry (Josh Carr), and I'll be here next year. I said to Carry and to Chris Davis that I'll do whatever's necessary and whatever they need me to do. So, it'll be an assistant coaching role, and we'll just wait and see on the details.” 

Goldsack on Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera 
“I don't think there's a coach in the country that wouldn't want to coach him. He's a very talented player, and there's no doubt that we've gone after him and so have a lot of other clubs. If we land him, it'd be great for the club, but we'll just wait and see.”