COACH Paul Roos says Port Adelaide simply made the most of its conversion in front of goal during the final term, giving the Power a 20-point win over Melbourne in the first home and away clash at TIO Traeger Park Oval on Saturday.
Although the Power had just one more scoring shot in the final term – with six to five – it booted 4.2 to Melbourne’s 1.4, which was telling.
“They’re (Port Adelaide) on top [of the ladder] for a reason. Games go for 120 minutes and we just needed to take our chances in the start of the last quarter – we missed two or three shots and you don’t put that scoreboard pressure on,” Roos said post-match.
“They’re going to play the whole game – that’s what they’ve been really good at.
“There were two periods – 10 minutes in the first quarter and ironically the first five or six in the last [term], when we were going really well – they were the difference in the end.”
Roos said “it was looking pretty dire” after Port Adelaide kicked the first four goals 11 minutes into the match, before the Demons tidied up their play.
“The next two and a half quarters were really good and we got in front, but they’re a good team for a reason, so the lesson for our players is you’ve always got to do it – it’s a long game.”
“It’s a 120-plus minutes – they’re long games, so you’ve got to keep doing it and doing it and doing it.
“In the end, full credit to them (Port Adelaide) – they just did it for a bit longer than what we did.”
Roos said it was definitely a balancing act between acknowledging how far Melbourne had come this year versus missed opportunities.
“We’ve got to educate, but we’ve also got to be hard on them when we think there’s mistakes made. We made a lot of mistakes, which cost us the game,” he said.
“The mistakes often come because the opposition is very good, so that’s when you get to watch the game on Monday and you slow it down and you educate the players. There’s certainly a balancing act and we’re doing a lot of things right.
“We’re playing very good football at periods of time, but you want to win and don’t want to come off the ground losing.”
Roos was again pleased with gun recruit and former Giant Dom Tyson.
“He’s gone to a really good level over the last four weeks [and he had] 30 [disposals] and two [goals against Port Adelaide],” he said.
“He’s only played 20-odd games now and there’s areas of his game he needs to work on, as does Jack Viney.
“I thought the input from Christian Salem and his game today and Jay Kennedy-Harris [was impressive]. The young guys are learning, but they’ve still got a long way to go, but Dom is playing a very high level at the moment.”
