Port Adelaide assistant coach Darren Reeves said a win away from home in front of a noisy West Coast crowd helps the group to build some confidence after a tough month. 

The Power was on the right side of a close game this weekend, after suffering four losses by three points or less since Round 3. 

Reeves spoke to the Adelaide media on Monday to discuss the team review, what his forward line needs to work on and how Corey Durdin has contributed since arriving at the club. 

Reeves on the team review 
“Pleased to win to start with, it's obviously been a grind over the last five or six weeks, so to grind out a win against a team that's going pretty well on their home ground in front of a really big crowd, a noisy crowd, was really pleasing. But then it's looking at areas that we've been working on that we need to continue to get better at, and as we've done over the last little while, it's really player-led review, and really looking into areas that they want to focus on. So it was a positive review.” 

Reeves on how winning builds belief 
“Absolutely, I mean, we were really pleased with how we've prepared over the last couple of weeks, so to see some results in that space is really important. And just for the guys, for their confidence, and to know that what we're doing is heading in the right direction.” 

Reeves on players speaking up more in meetings 
“It’s certainly building up. It's not natural for our group to speak up. There's certain guys that do it naturally, but for a lot of our group it's not natural for them to speak up in that environment. But we're certainly getting better, and there's more voices, and there's more guys willing to share thoughts and opinions on things, and the debate and the discussion that happens within that has been really strong. So that's been really positive over the last couple of weeks. 

“Josh (Carr) has been really strong in that there's no right or wrong answer. It's about working it out together and encouraging questions and getting players to ask questions of each other and of the coaches as well, and making sure that we walk out with solutions. That has been really important. So, it's certainly it's getting better week after week, which is positive.” 

Reeves on the interchange cap on the weekend 
“It's obviously a challenge with the five guys on the bench and the 75 rotations. I think most weeks we get pretty close to the limit, if not on the limit, at the end of the game. I think on the weekend there was probably a few unscheduled guys coming off at different times with some cramping. The game was played at a frenetic pace, but what we did do is we had the group on the ground at the end that we wanted, and that was something we spoke about at three quarter time. We got to that point in the game where we got the right guys on the ground, so that was the most important part.

Reeves on cramping in game 
“I think it's a mixture of (things), it's probably out of my jurisdiction, but I think there was just a lot of pressure in the game, and the game was played at a high pace. I think that was our second highest game for pressure rating for the year. I think they were right up there as well. So the game went end to end and we got to that point in the game, and some guys were probably a little bit worse for wear than what they had been in the past. Probably the week off as well (impacted that). As hard as you train through that period, you can't simulate a match sim as well. So that probably had a bit to play in it as well.” 

Reeves on Corey Durdin’s impact 
“He’s been exceptional, he had eight score involvements and three shots on goal. He's very composed with the ball. He doesn't lose one on one battles. He's been incredibly important amongst the group. He understands the game really well. He's a leader amongst the forward line group as a new player to the football club, and he's been an exceptional recruit. I know he's striving to find more of the ball and even have more and more impact, but he's been a great recruit for us.”  

Reeves on Tom Cochrane’s game 
“I thought he was excellent. He played with great energy early. I think he had three shots on goal in the first six or seven minutes. We know he can do that. What I was really pleased with is he was able to just find ways to impact the game over the course, whether it was a little knock on or a pressure act or an ability to be able to give us a one on one contest. I thought he was really strong, and we know he's a natural footballer. I was really pleased with his ability to be able to play his role defensively, especially so exciting times. We would like to see him keep improving week after week. 

“He's the type of guy that can just kick a goal out of nowhere, or do something special out of nowhere, and he actually understands the game incredibly well, and it's a bit of a license for him…we know he's probably going to be out of position at different times, but we're okay with that, and we'll work around that with him. But it’s exciting, he's been really strong in his review today, there's some areas out of it to keep getting better as well. So we hope that he'll continue to get better.” 

Reeves on the forwards converting more 
“I think it's just our ball movement all over the place. We've been working on that for a period of time. How we move the ball from the back half of the ground, our focus over the last couple of weeks is on how we set the ground up to allow us to move the ball, and while that didn't translate into those opportunities, we certainly saw some improvement in how we set the ground up and the opportunities we had to move the ball. Now it's about executing a little bit better, and we certainly need to get some deeper entries as well. So we'll continue to work on that.” 

Reeves on Mitch Georgiades 
“Mitch works the same amount week after week, it doesn't change for him, he gets his work done, he's having the same amount of shots, it'll turn for him in that space, I've got no concern whatsoever in that space. I loved his game on the weekend. I know we naturally measure him based on how many times he hits the scoreboard, but he was exceptional in his work up the ground and in the contest for us. He worked incredibly hard defensively. He led our forward line group incredibly well, and he'll play worse games than that on weekend and kick bags of goals. I was pumped with his game on the weekend. 

“He certainly looks at every area of his game and where he can get better and finds ways to make sure he's executing in that space. He was pleased with his game. We looked at it closely this afternoon, and it'll turn, it'll come for him on the scoreboard. There's no doubt about it, but his role in what we did on the weekend was incredibly important. He had a slightly different role being further up the ground a lot of the game, and was on an incredibly good defender for most part.” 

Reeves on Jack Lukosius 
“It's a robust sport, isn't it? Unfortunately, he got a little knock on the shoulder. I think he's okay. We'll test him over the next couple of days. He was certainly going to be on limited game time anyway, so that probably didn't translate too differently to what it was going to be anyway for him. But he's in good spirits. He's had a bit of footy under his belt now, and we’ll continue to work with him, and hopefully have him back firing at the best of his ability in the near future.” 

Reeves on Xavier Bamert’s first SANFL game 
“He certainly put his name up. Super impressed with him last week with his preparation. He played really strongly on the weekend, there were great reports out of the game. I watched pretty closely, and was really impressed with how he went about it. He's got attributes that we think hold up really strongly at AFL level, so he's going to be knocking the door down pretty soon, I would think.” 

Reeves on Todd Marshall’s role up forward 
“I think Todd's just got a major role to play with our whole group. He can help Mitch, he can help young Jack Whitlock, and he knows the game and the craft really well. I was really pleased with his performance over the weekend. It wasn't a huge game by any stretch, but out of the Carlton game we had some clear focuses for him. I thought he executed them pretty well, and his craft will continue to get better the more time he gets to spend up there. He's certainly clear on what he needs to work on, and the role he needs to play, and we saw some of that on the weekend, and we look forward to that continuing over the next little period.”