Port Adelaide won’t change its game plan despite being seemingly worked out by AFL rivals, defiant captain Travis Boak says.
Boak says mental fragility, rather than tactics, is behind the slide of the Power, who were tipped as premiership contenders but enter their bye weekend in 12th spot with just five wins.
“We are not changing our game plan at all,” Boak told reporters on Tuesday.
“We think it’s a great style of footy that we play – we just haven’t executed it well enough as a collective.”
Boak said making the finals wasn’t on the radar for Port players.
“We’re not even thinking finals right now,” he said.
“We have got some work to do and we’re going to fight our way out of it.
“This group never gives up … right now the results aren’t going our way and it might not be enjoyable for our fans to see us play that way. But certainly we’re going to keep fighting.”
Boak supported his coach Ken Hinkley’s belief that Port players had become “spooked” – scared of making mistakes.
“It looks like we’re just worried about making mistakes,” he said.
“We certainly know that our players are highly skilled and train extremely hard to do the right thing. It’s just mentally sometimes you get a bit worried that you don’t want to make a mistake.”
Port players were having the week off before returning to their Alberton headquarters on Saturday for some soul-searching.
“First of all we have to get away from footy and have that mental break and just try and relax, refresh the body, refresh the mind,” Boak said.
“And we will come back on Saturday and talk about … what we have done right and what we have done wrong, and from there we will learn about what we haven’t been able to accomplish on game day as a group.
“There have been certain changes every week. Some weeks we are playing really brave footy and not defending as well; some weeks we’re defending really well and not playing brave.”
Franko
Guest
Reminds me somewhat of Port circa 2001. A few disgruntled players on the fringes may be the problem, Moore, Stewart, Mitchell etc. who knows?
WhereIsGene
Guest
Never tear us apart... from our gameplan? Geelong's aggressive corridor gameplan worked for them because they had close to the most talented team in the league at the time and easily the best defense so they could afford to be take risks. Port have about 8 or 9 seriously good players and after that the talent & skills fall off the side of a cliff. The reason their gameplan worked so well last year was their massive fitness advantage, the number of goals they scored & prevented by simply streaming forward or back faster than the opposition was ludicrous. It had little to do with bravery or confidence, aside from a confidence they could sprint harder than their opponent and still finish the game with more in the tank. Obviously Boak has to come out and say things like this to send a message of solitary to his teammates and preserve what's left of their faith in the gameplan, which can't feasibly be altered terribly much during the course of a season. At the end of the day they are one trick ponies who've been worked out and that shows in the win/loss column. Yeah, they've had a few more injuries then last year it must be said but nothing like Carlton, Brisbane or even West Coast to an extent. People are saying things along the lines of 'oh they're a young team having a down year, they'll bounce back' and I agree up to a point, but also think they overachieved massively last year and there's no guarantee they'll reach those heights again. As for Hinkley, he needs to stop talking about the players being "spooked" or whatever he wants to call it - that sends a clear message he feels their lack of courage and boldness is the reason they're losing, when plainly it isn't. They can sense their tactics are being countered hard by the opposition so why bust a gut being aggressive when its leading to turnovers in the middle of the ground the opposition are exploiting? They're trying to play more conservatively when required, and the gameplan he's given them doesn't facilitate it.