TRAVIS BOAK was devastated after Port Adelaide’s Preliminary Final loss in 2020.
After 14 years in the AFL, he was left wondering whether he would achieve his dream of winning a premiership with the club he loves so much.
But once the pain of the six-point loss to Richmond subsided, the former captain realised there was something special about his side and he was excited to be part of it and again push for September success.
Going into the 2021 season, the three-time All-Australian sees no reason why Port Adelaide cannot win the Premiership.
“That’s certainly the goal. It was the goal last year and it has been for a while,” he explained on Melbourne radio on Wednesday morning.
“If I am completely honest it was devastating last year and it took a fair while to get over that preliminary final loss.
“It really did hurt and you get to 14 years into your career and you think is it going to happen?
“Certainly, that hurt for a fair while and once I let that pain sink in, I realised that this group is so special and we’ve got some serious talent here.”
Boak said there was a lot to like at Alberton with some exciting youngsters, middle-tier players who had become consistent AFL performers and new arrivals including Orazio Fantasia and Aliir Aliir.
More than anything, he explained, the group was driven to succeed.
“They want to learn, they want to get better and want to achieve the top level – winning a premiership so I’m very grateful to be part of this group,” he said.
“I know we can do it and I’m looking forward to hopefully challenging deep into September again.”
Boak singled out young forwards Todd Marshall and Mitch Georgiades for big development in 2021 after their performances in pre-season so far.
Georgiades is entering his second season after impressing in seven games in his debut year while Marshall is entering his fifth season, having played 14 games in 2020 – the most he has played in a single year so far.
“(Mitch) is a super talented kid and if him and Toddy can take their game to another level it obviously takes some pressure off Charlie (Dixon) as well,” Boak said.
“The year he had was outstanding but we can’t completely rely on him.
“Toddy and Mitch have got the talent and they’ve got the work rate to want to improve and now it’s about putting it together consistently.
“What I’ve seen of Toddy this pre-season is really exciting. Mitch is one who wants to get better. I remember him coming back from Perth for pre-season and I had to try and keep up with him in training because he just wanted to get better and better and better.”
Port Adelaide will play an intra club game and expects to follow that with a practice game against Adelaide before it travels to Perth to tackle West Coast in the AAMI Community Series on March 7.
The current border closures and lockdown in Perth have cast some doubt over that fixture and Boak said his side would be prepared for whatever happened.
“It’s just business as usual and that’s the way we’re treating it at the moment, as though everything is going ahead as planned,” he explained.
“We understand that things can change pretty quickly as they did last year, and we’ve just got to adapt. The message we had to our group was to accept what happens and adapt to the situations and that held us in pretty good stead.
“Whether that’s (playing) in Perth or Adelaide, or if we have to quarantine, we’ll be ready for it and we know that some of it’s out of our control.
“We just have to continue to improve and turn up and do what we do, and that’s work hard.”
