Josh Mahoney, Port Adelaide's leading goalkicker last season - with only 29 in 22 matches - knows the Power needs a more productive forward line this season.
Josh Mahoney, Port Adelaide's leading goalkicker last season - with only 29 in 22 matches - knows the Power needs a more productive forward line this season."That's not enough goals for a leading goalkicker," Mahoney said on the eve of Port's NAB Cup opener against Adelaide at AAMI Stadium on Friday night."We need someone to be kicking 40 and 50 goals. We probably need two or three blokes doing that."Daniel Motlop, Brett Ebert and I have to be the guys kicking 30 or 40 goals and Warren (Tredrea), if he can come back (from knee surgery) and if he can kick 50 goals, as well, suddenly you've got a very good forward line that has many options."And we need our midfielders contributing 20 goals, as well. Kane Cornes has already seen that as a thing he wants to work on. We saw it in the intra-club game when he pushed forward and kicked four goals,"Immediately behind Mahoney on Port's goalkicking list last season were Ebert (24 in 21), Shaun Burgoyne (20 in 22), Damon White (19 in 18), Stuart Dew (18 in 20), Brendon Lade (18 in 22) and Tredrea (17 in 11).Mahoney said he expected White to 'take another step this year'."He's at a terrific fitness level - that of a midfielder - so he'll be really good for us across centre half-forward," he said."Ladey (Brendon Lade) will play in the forward line a lot more if (fellow ruckman) Broges (Dean Brogan) can stand up, which is going to be a key for us."And then we've also got some young guys - Ryan Willits, who we're looking to take another step this year … Adam Cockshell from Norwood has shown some good promise and Justin Westhoff from Central District, as well."So we recruited a few tall guys and we hope we'll see a few playing tomorrow night. They're all high-marking guys who can be really valuable on game day."Mahoney said Tredrea had taken 'a really good step forward' at training on Wednesday."He probably did about 30-40 minutes of training," he said. "I think the way it's going, it's just going to be a gradual step up week by week. At this stage we're looking at round one and we'll see how it goes from there."Of the NAB Cup, Mahoney said: "We've been training hard for four months and you can always talk about how excited you are about training, but you want to play football and you want to play games."And the NAB Cup is a terrific way to trial new guys and that's what we're all about this year. We've got a fantastic group of young guys coming through. People saw them last year, probably in the last half of the season, and it (the pre-season competition) is another step for those guys to play more footy."We're out to win and we want to go as well as we can in this competition."Mahoney said Port's pre-season training program had been 'a lot more difficult' than in past years."The load has increased 15-17 per cent longer than it was in past years," he said. "We identified at the end of the year that we were just getting run over in the second halves, and we've addressed that and we now know that we've done a really hard pre-season."If we do drop off in the second half (of a match) it's just a mental thing. Physically we're ready to go."Mahoney said Port wanted to show it was 'moving forward'."I think we did that in the second half of last year and if we can continue on that path I think everyone will be pretty happy," he said. "But we still want results."We want to make the finals. Not making the finals will not be acceptable for us. We've got enough of a core group still there and we can add the young guys to make us a better team."
Up to four Port Adelaide players could pull on a Power guernsey for the first time on Friday night in the NAB Cup opener against the Crows at AAMI Stadium.
Luke Webster talks to media, touching on the Round 19 wrap up and looking ahead to the side's trip to the Gabba.
14:21
Matthew Richardson, Justine Mules-Robinson and the Hon Rhiannon Pearce MP press conference - 21 July
Matthew Richardson, Justine Mules-Robinson and the Hon Rhiannon Pearce MP speak to the media at Alberton Oval after the opening of the club’s redeveloped AFLW change rooms.
06:06
Glenn Strachan press conference - 20 July
Glenn Strachan speaks to the media at Alberton Oval providing an update on AFLW pre-season.
08:58
SANFL Highlights: Port Adelaide v Woodville-West Torrens
Port Adelaide and Woodville-West Torrens clash at Alberton Oval.
Webster on motivation, belief in the system and big ins this weekend
Assistant coach Luke Webster spoke to media ahead of Round 20.
Injury report: Richards sidelined, Georgiades to return
Joe Richards will unfortunately be sidelined for up to a month with a finger injury.
Port Adelaide welcomes sportsmed as official club partner
Port Adelaide Football Club is proud to announce sportsmed as an official club partner, strengthening a long-standing relationship that has supported the club's AFL and AFLW programs for many years.
Port Store Ultimate Guernsey Event - One Day Only
Don's miss out on the Port Store's Ultimate Guernsey Event!