Port Adelaide senior coach Josh Carr says the belief inside the four walls of the club is as strong as ever, with the group not buying into the ‘underdog’ tag. 

Ahead of Showdown LX, Carr has made five changes, including bringing young forward Mitch Zadow in for his second AFL game, and his first clash with the Crows. 

Carr spoke with the Adelaide media on Friday, touching on selection decisions, the spotlight on the Showdown and the Crows going into Saturday as favourites. 

Carr on Jack Lukosius 
“He did (get through). He's ready to go. We’re feeling really confident in him. At the start of the week, just had a had a job to settle it down, and we needed to give him a bit of time. That's why he couldn't do the main session, but feeling confident in the leg. So the baker's cyst itself should be okay. There's a little bit of swelling from it that we just have to be wary of, but it's okay.” 

Carr on having a shorter defence 
“Well, obviously Zerk (Brandon Zerk-Thatcher) comes in, who hasn't played a game this year, and he's been in pretty, good form at the Maggies, so I feel like he comes in and plays a role. We've played one less tall through the year, obviously against Geelong earlier in the year, and Jonesy or Logan Evans can play taller, so that's where we can start, but we feel like we've got some other levers to pull if we need an extra tall.” 

Carr on the focus after last weekend’s loss 
“Obviously, it's a different team, it's a Showdown, so there's a change to start off with. We felt like our game was in a pretty good place last week. The connection inside 50 was an issue, not getting some deep enough entries, which has probably been a bit of an issue most of the year, and getting the ball closer to our goals. We've got to be better there, and then obviously defensively we probably hurt ourselves from those entries, going the whole end. So we've got to be better at moving the ball inside 50, but then defending behind that.” 

Carr on Todd Marshall 
“His form obviously hasn't been great, and we've tried to work through that at AFL level, and it's just not quite working for him and the team, and we just feel he needs to go back and build his game, but build his confidence in his game. So it doesn't hurt for someone to do that, to work through it, go back to the Magpies, get some form, feel confident in his game. I've got to look at the bigger picture with Toddy also. Yes, we'd love him to be in better form now, but he's still a part of our future, so we need to get that right. 

“He's had a fair disruption over the last few years, so him playing football is important, and he's been able to do that this year. He's obviously a bit flat with his form, and he wants to be better, and he wants to get better, so there's a bit of feedback along the way for him. What AFL football looks like now for him to where he needs to get to, there's a bit of a gap, and he knows that, and he sees that, so he's got to go away and work on his craft.” 

Carr on Ollie Wines’ knee troubles 
“Well, it's a management thing with it. He's obviously not getting any younger, so we’ve got to look after him and look after his body, and we just feel like the position right now, where we are, is that we got to look after him. He's so important to our young players, but also just the group. His calmness, whether it's in game or during the week, he's been around for a long time, so we still feel he plays a really important role for our footy club. He's feeling fresh from the from the break, and he knows that he can come in and play a part.” 

Carr on handling Adelaide’s forward line 
“We can handle it, but it takes a whole team to handle it with the way that the ball gets moved inside 50. If we give them speed on the footy and allow them to play their way, then we'll get exposed in our back half. But if we play the game the right way and get the ball in our front half and make sure we've got good pressure on the footy and don't allow them just to cut through us, then that makes it really hard for them to get it to those guys. So I don't think that's any different than any other team, whether we've got three talls or two talls. Jonesy showed over and over again that he can play as a third tall, and so can Logan, so we feel that we can cover that. It's not like Tex and Fog are huge, but they're bloody good players.” 

Carr on Adelaide’s form 
“I think their game's more consistent now. Their contest work, their outnumber. It's always been a huge strength, but I think confidence in their ball movement is back, and then they're defending their front half well. You can't just move the ball from one end to the other easily. You've got to be a really good team, and you've got to move it with precision. And you've got to be able to win the contest. Their contested marks over the last two weeks have been huge. So, when you kick to the contest, we've got to be able to get that footy to ground.” 

Carr on naming two rucks 
“Viz (Visentini) is going to spend a fair bit of time forward. We know what Viz can do, he can give us a contest, so there's going to be moments through the game where he spends some time forward to be able to help us with getting the ball to ground.” 

Carr on Tom Cochrane being omitted 
“Starting with Tommy, he can have a good quarter and kick three or four goals, and but at the same time he's still learning what his role looks like, and whether that's at AFL level or SANFL level. He's able to go to work and go back to the Maggies, work on his craft, but also work on what his role looks like.” 

Carr on selecting Mitch Zadow 
“It's a bit about this game…physically, he's capable, he puts good pressure on, and he hits bodies, and in this, game we need that.” 

Carr on the ‘underdog’ tag 
“Internally we know what our belief is, and that doesn't matter whether it's against the Crows or any other team. We believe in our game, and we've showed that right through the year against really good teams. It's no different this weekend against the Crows. We've got a lot of belief in what our best looks like now. There's been a gap in that at times, but Showdown, I've heard some of the commentary during the week, and it's probably fair. They're in really good form, but that's external commentary. That's not what it looks like inside our four walls.” 

Carr on the Prison Bar guernsey and home crowd 
“Oh, they make big differences, the jumper, the pride in it, but in front of our supporters. We talk about expectation, and they have an expectation of what this game looks like. They're going to put up with Crows supporters all during the week, and after the Showdown, so we know what our job is as a playing group. We represent our football club, and our supporters are part of the football club. I don't get to get run out there, but the players get the opportunity to be on the field.” 

Carr on playing in Showdowns 
“ I always felt for me, it was always about our people, and I've always felt like you owed our supporters something. It wasn't about getting back at the opposition, it was actually more about our supporters, and I feel like there's a bit of history there. We know where we've come from. We really understand that as a footy club, but more importantly, we know where we want to go. It’s not our grand final, there's no doubt about that, it is another game during the season, but it's a really important game to our people.” 

Carr on leaning on history  
“There's a certain element where there's got to be an understanding from our young guys to, to know what it's about. So, yes, you lean on a little bit. Players will say they don't like reading the news or anything like that, but we know that they do, and every player is the same, so they'd see it, and they'd hear the commentary. We know what it looks like between the two clubs.” 

Carr on the playing list 
“Our list is developing like. We're definitely going to bring talent into our list. We've never shied away from that, but we've also got players, like Rammy, who’s played the last two games. He gets feedback on what he's got to work on and where he's got to get better. He's a 19-year-old kid that's 203 centimetres, that's got a lot to learn, but for a 19-year-old kid, he's shown a fair bit. He's competitive, he wants to win every contest. There's a method in the way that he's got to defend, so he knows, yep that's what it looks like. I've got to go back to SANFL, transfer that craft into a SANFL game. Obviously, Todd's gone back to the SANFL, he's a bit older, there's an expectation that he's got to be better, no doubt about it, but we've got to keep exploring with other players on our list to see where that's at. So to answer your question, we've got to bring talent in. No doubt about it. We've spoken about the position we've got coming forward with hopefully Dougie coming into our football club, and then we'll have other draft picks that we can use, and we want to bring talent in. At the end of the year we'll get it to a position to see where our list is at and what we've got to bring to our into our list.”