PORT ADELAIDE star forward Robbie Gray says the playing group is really focussed on the last month of the home-and-away season, in a bid to be involved in September action.
Gray says despite the external noise in the media, the playing group and coaching staff are fully focussed on playing well against Essendon and getting the four premiership points.
“All we focus on is week to week trying to get a good result,” Gray told SEN SA’s Breakfast program on Thursday morning.
“Focus on what we can control, and that is training and our preparation for each week. I know that’s pretty boring (response to the question) but that’s what we are paid to do.
“We are paid to play footy and get the job done, so we are continually trying to work as hard as we can on that, and try to find ways to get better and improve as a footy team.
“We have lost a couple on the trot now. We find ourselves a game out of the eight, so we go over against Essendon this week and hopefully put in a really strong performance.”
The four-time All-Australian said his team are well aware of the strengths of Essendon, and they have planned ways to be able to combat the Bombers’ quick ball movements.
“They are a super-fast footy side,” Gray said.
“The last couple of times we’ve played them, they have moved the ball pretty fast against us, particularly from half-back.
“We think we know what happened in those games and how we are going to prepare to stop that. A bit will come down to how we set up and a bit will come down to how we move the ball and how we defend.”
The 31-year-old said after three consecutive losses he would expect a few changes for the trip to Melbourne to face the Dons, with young key forward Todd Marshall a chance to play his first game at AFL level since the Showdown in Round 8.
Gray said Marshall brings a lot more to the table than what appears on the stats sheet, and expects the young gun to keep developing over time.
“At the moment, Toddy isn’t going to be a massive number guy,” he said.
“He does a lot of little things that don’t show up on the stat sheet. He’s extremely clever.
“The thing we forget about Toddy is he is only 20 years old. He’s been through a fair bit the last couple of years, and those younger bigger blokes tend to take more time (to develop).
“If he plays this week, I will be super excited for him, and I’m sure we will see some special things.”
The Power will name their team on Thursday evening, ahead of Saturday afternoon’s crunch clash with Essendon at Marvel Stadium.
