Port Adelaide and Adelaide clashed in a competitive hit out at Alberton Oval. Image: Matt Sampson.<\/p>\n
Port Adelaide assistant coach Luke Webster was pleased with the improvement\u00a0in the second half\u00a0during Friday night\u2019s match simulation against Adelaide, with a young Power side going down by\u00a0just\u00a019 points.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Port Adelaide outscored the Crows by a goal\u00a0after the main break,\u00a0with the visitors making the most of their opportunities\u00a0early.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Speaking to media after the game, Webster noted the positives from the game,\u00a0the versatility of the group, and gave an update on Jason Horne-Francis\u2019 foot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Webster on the match sim\u00a0
\u201cThere are\u00a0some good things, and there\u00a0are\u00a0some things that, when you\u00a0come up against the team that’s been a quality team last year and a particular challenge for us, there’s some things that I think we continue to keep working on. But we saw enough today that shows\u00a0that some of the things that\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0been\u00a0trying\u00a0to\u00a0work and\u00a0to\u00a0practice\u00a0and that\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0working\u00a0towards.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Webster on the positives\u00a0and areas for improvement\u00a0
\u201cI think there were some great positives throughout the whole game. The times that we stepped into the contest and really rolled our sleeves up allowed us to get the game on our terms, and the way we defended at times was really, really pleasing. We could get some repeat entries and really start to look to dominate the front half.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c(The areas for improvement) were\u00a0very similar\u00a0to the positives \u2013 the\u00a0inconsistency of our contest,\u00a0moments that we\u00a0didn’t\u00a0take\u00a0throughout\u00a0those opportunities that some of our players had. As a group, we\u00a0didn’t\u00a0take\u00a0them enough.\u00a0If\u00a0you look at the inside 50 numbers, it\u00a0was\u00a0pretty even, but probably\u00a0we\u00a0just\u00a0didn’t\u00a0finish\u00a0our\u00a0work enough\u00a0in the front\u00a0half,\u00a0where they were a little bit cleaner and a bit more efficient.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Webster on the second half improvement\u00a0
\u201cYeah,\u00a0definitely\u00a0(we were pleased).\u00a0We\u2019re\u00a0going to look at the whole game, but certainly it was great to see our playing group listen to some instructions that we gave them at halftime and make some adjustments. And\u00a0we started to get to work\u00a0around the contest and that started to give us a game\u00a0that we wanted to see in our players.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Willem Drew was one of Port Adelaide’s best performers, bringing composure to the contest. Image: Matt Sampson.<\/p>\n
Webster on Jason Horne-Francis and Harrison Ramm\u00a0
\u201cI think with Jason,\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0just got some awareness in his foot.\u00a0Obviously, we’re going to have a\u00a0really good\u00a0look at what that might mean.\u00a0But again, you\u00a0know\u00a0it’s\u00a0we’re\u00a0going to be\u00a0cautious\u00a0with all our players.\u00a0I think\u00a0Rammer\u00a0just got\u00a0a\u00a0knock\u00a0in\u00a0his neck. So again,\u00a0precautionary for those guys and\u00a0we\u2019ll\u00a0see how that unfolds over the next little bit.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Webster on Todd Marshall\u00a0
\u201cI thought Toddy stepped in\u00a0after\u00a0half time and did a really\u00a0good job.\u00a0Got\u00a0a chance to\u00a0play on\u00a0Thilthorpe\u00a0and I thought some of his\u00a0contests\u00a0were really pleasing. He took a step forward for us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Webster on whether\u00a0they\u2019ll\u00a0play two or three key defenders moving forward\u00a0
\u201cIt’s\u00a0a great question.\u00a0We’re\u00a0not set on it just yet. You know, you have the flexibility in these games to give different looks. And I thought\u00a0giving Todd a second half and giving\u00a0him an\u00a0opportunity to come into the game and get a look at\u00a0him was really pleasing for our group.\u00a0Harrison (Ramm), I thought, you can’t get that in training,\u00a0like he plays on, obviously our key\u00a0forwards, but a guy who has been a big key forward\u00a0(in Riley\u00a0Thilthorpe), and you look at\u00a0all their\u00a0key forwards and their\u00a0forward line, it’s a great opportunity for our boys to learn and develop off that. And\u00a0there’s\u00a0some great learnings for\u00a0Rammer\u00a0to take away from this game. And obviously,\u00a0for\u00a0other guys who got\u00a0to play on them\u00a0as well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Webster on\u00a0the flexibility of the group\u00a0
\u201c(Jase Burgoyne)\u00a0and Logan Evans played a little bit across half back as well, too.\u00a0So\u00a0there’s\u00a0an opportunity with our group.\u00a0We’ve got\u00a0great flexibility. Obviously, Rose\u00a0(Connor\u00a0Rozee)\u00a0started half back and went through the midfield as well, and\u00a0Berg (Miles Bergman)\u00a0spent a little bit of time back there.\u00a0So\u00a0this is the value that our group has.\u00a0We’ve\u00a0got guys who can\u00a0play in\u00a0multiple roles, and\u00a0we’re\u00a0going to continue to explore that.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think\u00a0there’s\u00a0as a\u00a0backline\u00a0coach,\u00a0yeah,\u00a0I’d\u00a0like to have\u00a0(Burgoyne)\u00a0there\u00a0more often than not. But again, he can add\u00a0value up\u00a0on the wing as well, too, even pinch-hit inside.\u00a0So\u00a0as I mentioned before,\u00a0it’s\u00a0great flexibility for our group to be able to have those guys that are playing multiple\u00a0roles.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Webster on Jack Whitlock\u00a0
\u201cHe\u00a0certainly stepped up after half\u00a0time and again, it helps when you get\u00a0little\u00a0bit better in the contest and you get a little bit cleaner ball going into\u00a0the front half. It allows our players to play\u00a0to\u00a0their strengths. And I think\u00a0he’s\u00a0definitely stepped\u00a0up in that space, which is great to\u00a0see.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Young forward Jack Whitlock impressed, finding plenty of the ball and booting a long-range set shot. Image: Matt Sampson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Port Adelaide and Adelaide clashed in a competitive hit out at Alberton Oval. Image: Matt Sampson. Port Adelaide…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":["post-493137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}