Port Adelaide’s unimpressive pre-season hit-outs will present the aspect with sufficient suggestions to keep away from one other catastrophic begin to the season, Ollie Wines says.
The Power wasted an opportunity to surge previous Fremantle within the final quarter of their remaining apply recreation on Thursday, however Wines stated whereas the 31-point loss was “disappointing”, it supplied some readability on the place that they had to enhance earlier than spherical 1.
Speaking after arriving again from Perth on Friday, the Port vice-captain’s troublesome left knee was clearly affecting his motion, months after he underwent post-season arthroscopic surgical procedure.
“It pulls up pretty sore to be honest – it’s going to be something that I’ll have to manage throughout the rest of my career,” he stated.
“It’s something that a few of us players have gone through over the years, this type of surgery, and it’s something you’ve just got to manage throughout the weeks to get right for game day.
“Understand there’s going to be a bit of pain at times, but as long as I’m right to go when the ball is bounced, that’s the main thing.”
Wines stated the Power had “halted their own momentum” by failing to capitalise on 13 extra ahead entries than the Dockers, who clamped down on any makes an attempt by Port to maneuver the ball creatively.
“We possessed the ball a lot and had many opportunities, we just couldn’t make the most of them and our defence just broke down a bit at stages,” he stated.
“I think they were able to stop our impact and make us play a little bit plain, down the line, which perhaps doesn’t work for us at times.
“We’ve got to continue to explore our weapons throughout the middle of the ground, the guys like Rozee, Butters, Farrell, Burton who can light the ball up and continue to use their strengths.”
The 0-5 begin to 2022 was “a little bit” on the thoughts after Thursday and the sooner loss to West Coast, Wines stated, however he stated the taking part in group was extra assured than this time final season.
“We’ve got the opportunity now to learn off it as opposed to learning off five losses in the regular season where they count for premiership points,” he stated.
“(Pre-season improvements) are not going to all take from day one, it’s going to take a little bit of time.”
Wines praised the balanced efficiency by Miles Bergman (25 disposals and a aim) on the wing, whereas he stated new recruit Jason Horne-Francis stepped up within the midfield when the Power had been crushed on the within within the first half.
“(Bergman) is really putting himself in good positions defensively, getting down to help the backs,” he stated.
“(Horne-Francis) is so infectious in the contest … he really set the standard for us in the midfield when we lowered our colours.”
Former Geelong small ahead Francis Evans had executed no hurt to his possibilities of a spherical 1 membership debut, Wines stated.
“That was electric when he came on, I was really impressed by Frankie. He got his opportunity over that last quarter and a half and did really well … I think he’s put his name up there.”
Source: www.news.com.au
