Senior coach Josh Carr was pleased with his side’s response on Saturday afternoon against Richmond, and is looking forward to the challenge of St Kilda this weekend.

Port Adelaide had its main training session on Thursday ahead of a huge Gather Round clash this Sunday night.

Carr spoke with the media on Thursday to talk about how to tackle the Saints, how Darcy Byrne-Jones fared in defence, and whether he expects Todd Marshall to be available this weekend.

Carr on Todd Marshall
“If he gets through today's session, he will come in. It’s not a bad ankle. It's just one that when someone does their ankle once, usually it turns into a few times. And he did it late in the week, so that's why he missed last weekend. He trained well on Tuesday, and trained again yesterday. He looks ready to go, so we’ve just got to get through this session. And we think he’ll be right.”

Carr on last weekend’s response
“Yeah, I thought the game was definitely messy. We had some opportunities with the ball that I thought we could have been better with, but on either side of the footy, especially the first half with the way we defended in the front half led by obviously Aliir in particular, and the defenders. So there was a great response. And Lachie Jones, these guys standing up under some pressure from inside 50. So that was pleasing.

“Yeah, definitely (got the response from the group of players we wanted following the week before). And I probably named Jonesy there, and he took some responsibility, and we spoke about getting his defence right. And it was a good start.

“We made it clear on that in the review, on what that looked like. And obviously there were a fair few probably on notice. And really it's just about consistency week to week. If we can get some good games from everyone, but we want performance week in, week out.”

Carr on Darcy Byrne-Jones in defence
“He had a great performance last week, and just with his leadership down back, he’s important. “I don't know if I gave him a choice as far as to convince him, but he's played most of his football down back, so I think he was comfortable, just when you thrown into a different position, when you haven't played it for a little bit, it can be a bit daunting, but he didn't show any signs of that. He just looked like he was riding a bike, just got back on and played the role, and obviously we got the win, so it worked, but now it's about being consistent in that role.”

Carr on closing Gather Round
“For us sitting down on the couch watching a few games a footy, it is a long weekend, but we sort of feel lucky that we get to play that game, closing out the round and obviously being Gather Round. It's an exciting week, an exciting weekend, and for us to just be a part of it, which you are obviously with the AFL, but to close out the game and hopefully put in a good performance, is what we're looking for.”

Carr on stopping Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera
“A good question. We've got a plan for, I guess, all their players. But obviously, with Naz and the type of player that he is, can we stop him? It's always hard, but can we nullify him? I think we can.

“That's always the debate (whether to tag him or not) around the selection table, and when you're planning for opposition, about starting with the tag, or going into the game and having a plan and maybe going to it in game. I think I've said before, I've experienced a lot of games where you've planned for it and gone in the game and you've shut the player out and it hasn't helped your team. And on the other side of it, we’ve gone to it in game, and it's worked. Really it’s about what you can take away from opposition club to allow yourself to win. So we'll do whatever we need to do to get the win.”

Carr on Miles Bergman
“I think it's just continuity for Miles, and being out playing footy. He hasn't had that last probably six, seven weeks, so he backs it up this weekend to get another game, and he's got a number of positions that he can play for us, and he's important in all roles.”

Carr on selection
“We'll play what's best for us, with an eye on, obviously, what the opposition do, and be aware of that. But for us, it's about building our game.”

Carr on Jordon Sweet’s form
“Yeah he has (been good). I've known Sweety for a while, so I’ve just got to keep him on edge and make sure that he's playing that way all the time. Because when he does, he's a really good player.”

Carr on St Kilda
“When you get new recruits, it can take time to bring it together. They've showed in games they can move the ball, and obviously they like to defend. So we're fully aware of them and their strengths. You’ve got Wilkie down back, the best interceptor in the league, and then obviously they’ve got a good mix inside, in their midfield, from inside players to outside players. And their forwards are quite dynamic. So we know when we're up against and we know that we have to play really good football to win this game.”

Carr on last weekend’s game being ‘scrappy’
“I think if I look at the Richmond game, it was a really low pressure game. And I sort of feel sometimes when you’ve got that low pressure game, players feel like they’ve got this extra time and not put on notice a bit, and it can lead to a few mistakes. Whereas I feel, as you build up, you know that you've got to play better football, and it puts everyone on notice. And we’ve got to move away from that and play a consistent brand, no matter what the game looks like. We've spoken a lot about it this week. We put a lot of time into our skills this week, the fundamentals of our game we’ve got to get better at.”

Carr on the AFL’s draft bidding system changes
“Our club's position on it, I think Richo (Matthew Richardson) has touched on that this week. Obviously, Cripper (Jason Cripps) gets questioned about that in particular, I think we've got had a pretty strong view on it. From my point of view as a coach, I just want these players in at our football club. So whatever we need to do, to do that, we'll do it, but I'll probably let Richo and Cripper deal with it.”

Carr on Dougie Cochrane
“He had that (knee) operation about a week ago, maybe a couple weeks ago, and he seems to have responded to it. So he's working really hard in the gym and trying to get bigger, as well as obviously, spending a fair bit of time looking at footy and learning the game.

“He's a pretty good player. He's still young and raw. He's a fantastic kid. He's got obviously, really good grounding and just wants to be a really good player. He's competitive. He's got all the ingredients. So we'd love him at this footy club.”

Carr on Mitch Georgiades’ future
“George is contracted and he’s got a fair bit to go in that contract and he’s happy at this football club. I wouldn't have thought Chad (Cornes) and Mitch ever had a conversation about what he wants to do. So he'd have no idea about what Mitch actually wants to do. It’s a guessing game. And I think it's pretty easy to say when we've lost a couple of games, people look and say you shouldn't have lost those games and all of a sudden it looks like no one wants to be at our football club, which is wrong.”