Port Adelaide assistant coach Hamish Hartlett said the team review on Tuesday focused mainly on team defence, particularly during the second half of Sunday’s game.
Unpacking the game with media on Tuesday, Hartlett spoke about how the team allowed Brisbane to move the ball, and how they’re taking a renewed focus on sticking tackles.
He also discussed seeking continuous improvement for the rest of the season, Jason Horne-Francis’ midfield dominance and Zak Butters’ rehab timeline.
Hartlett on Mitch Georgiades
“He's all good, he's fine. The Tribunal will go through that process tonight, and we'll see what comes of it. But yeah, Mitch is fine.
“I didn't see it (happen) at that exact point in time. Obviously, had a bit of a look at it afterwards. I’m probably one that leans more towards being a little bit more physical and enjoying that part of the game in the right circumstances, but whether they were the right circumstances or not, remains to be seen, I guess, by the decision tonight, but the main thing is Mitch is fine, and we ended up getting possession of the footy, so that was nice.”
Hartlett on the team review
“There was a fair bit to unpack, obviously in the second half of the game, the experience and the quality of Brisbane shone through. But we really focused on the foundations of what's made us a pretty tough team to play against this year so far, and that was our team defence. So the back half of the game wasn't where we wanted it to be in terms of the way we defended the ground and the way we defend as a team.
“We clearly allowed Brisbane to take far too many uncontested marks, and there's a whole team system that needs to be working well collectively to not allow that to happen. Positioning from certain people on the ground, communication, reaction time of actually popping into defence before they've intercepted the footy. So there are lots of little details and nuances that go into it, but that was the emphasis of the meeting.”
Hartlett on broken tackles
“Clearly, again it wasn't to the level that we needed to be. And Brisbane, I think I counted, they kicked six goals directly from broken tackles or missed tackles. We know that's an area that they focus on heavily is their ability to stick tackles and also look for opportunities to break them. And we're in the infancy of that part of our game. So again, a good lesson and some things to take forward into what we do for the rest of the year and into pre-season next year as well. I think there's definitely a physical capacity behind it, but it's also a bit of method and technique as well. There was a phase throughout the middle of the season where it wasn't going too bad, but against the bigger, more experienced teams, it's been a bit of a challenge for us.”
Hartlett on wanting to win each week
“Even speaking to supporters external to the footy club, they have been really proud and really happy of what they've seen of us so far this year. Clearly, some opportunities earlier on in the in the season to potentially get some more wins, and it didn't fall our way, but I think all in all, probably aside from one or two little periods throughout this season, we can be pretty happy with the way things have gone. As Carry mentioned last week, we're not going to be a team that's going to limp to the finish line this year. We're going to keep looking for opportunities to improve and keep looking for opportunities to win and this week provides another one of those chances for us, which is exciting.”
Hartlett on winning to increase confidence
“It’s a winning industry, right? And it's a performance industry. And for the amount of effort that the playing group have put into this season, it would be lovely to reward that with a couple of extra wins before the end of the season. Whether it happens or not, we’ll wait and see. But as long as we're implementing what we're trying to do as a team in all phases of our game, I think that's the most important thing. Understanding that we've got some youth out there, there's a bit of a lack of experience. There's some personnel that we'd love to have out there that aren't, all those sorts of things but regardless of who's on the on the park, we need to see the same system being played out. That wasn't the case in the second half of the game on the weekend, but we would like to rectify that this week.”
Hartlett on Jason Horne-Francis playing full-time midfield
“If I reflect on earlier in the year, I reckon the coaches were getting questions around the way we were using Horny, and he was coming off no pre-season. He was spending a lot more time forward. I think the management of that from our high performance staff has been exceptional this year. He's built into the year really nicely, playing a lot more midfield minutes. We're lucky with Hornet that we can pull that lever for him to go forward and potentially hit the scoreboard for us when we've got probably a bit more depth in our midfield group and in our team. Which, unfortunately, with Joey Richards going out, and Zak going out over the last couple of weeks, we unfortunately don't have that that flexibility amongst that crew. So Hornet had to play more minutes in around the footy, but he's built in the season exceptionally well, and we know that's a lever that we can pull for him to go forward and impact on the scoreboard.”
Hartlett on Zak Butters’ ankle surgery recovery
“He's really optimistic around the place, around the way it's all going. His range of movement in his ankle is ahead of where everyone was expecting him to be at this point in time, which is exciting. I think he's had his stitches out over the last day or two, he's making really positive noises. I know how desperate he is to play any game he can, and he'll do anything he can to try and get there for the last game of the season.”
Hartlett on whether to expect more debutants this season
“Ultimately, we still want to put a team out there who we think is capable of winning, and so that’s for Carry and the coaching staff to discuss over the next few days. So ultimately, if we feel like the guys have performed at a level that warrants them being selected, we'll give them a crack.”
Hartlett on whether Dougie Cochrane may feature in the SANFL this week
“I think there's some positive noise around that potentially being the case for Dougie, which is exciting. Clearly, he needs to train well this week and get through and pull up fine from his sessions, but there's a strong likelihood that Dougie could play for us this week, which is great.”
