Port Adelaide finds positives from campaign, but grand final loss still hurts
PORT Adelaide says its performance at state league level this season demonstrates it values its place in the SANFL, despite its devastating grand final loss to Sturt.
PORT Adelaide says its performance at state league level this season demonstrates it values its place in the SANFL, despite its devastating grand final loss to Sturt.
The Magpies fell to a one-point defeat in the premiership decider at Adelaide Oval after holding the ascendancy for much of the final quarter of a gripping contest.
Port coach Chad Cornes would not speak to The Advertiser post-match. But football manager Shane Grimm said there were positives to take from the campaign for the Power reserves side.
“It’s extremely hard to take,” Grimm said.
“But you see how much it hurt our players – it’s obvious that the Magpies mean something to the club.
“It’s very important to the players. They do get a lot of flak every week when they go and play footy at SANFL level.
“But it really means a lot to them and they were very disappointed today.”
The low-scoring clash came down to the wire in a dramatic final term as Austin Logan’s shove on Kory Beard led to a free kick which ultimately produced Sturt’s decisive goal.
Grimm said an uncharacteristically slow start by Port, which had raced to commanding early leads in its previous two finals clashes, proved costly.
“We got to a stage where we were back on level terms and we probably looked like we had regained the momentum, but we couldn’t quite go on with it,” he said.
“We probably weren’t rewarded for the effort we were actually bringing at the time.
“It’s something we need to work on and we probably needed to kick the goals when we had the opportunities today. But full credit to Sturt.”
Port entered the grand final on the back of a seven-match winning streak which had steered it to a second-place minor round finish and a direct passage to the decider.
Despite falling short of the club’s 37th SANFL flag, Grimm said there were encouraging signs for the years ahead.
“We’ve got a very young side that played today, which is another thing that gets lost sometimes when we talk about how many AFL-listed players we’ve got,” Grimm said.
“They’re still learning and we think we’ve got a lot of very good players. The future does look very good.”