Power assistant Josh Carr’s concession over Power’s nine-day break as Crows take another hit

Normally a nine-day break would be something most clubs would jump at to give players a refresh over a mini-bye. However, Port assistant Josh Carr said the break may have done more harm than good as the Crows cop another injury blow.

Port Adelaide are back in the top four, but assistant Josh Carr says the Power are not hiding that “we are by far not the finish product of where we think we can get to”.

Two seconds separated the Power from being fourth, where it currently sits on the ladder, and being out of the top eight all together on percentage after Darcy Byrne-Jones’ stunning last-gasp winner against Hawthorn on Sunday.

The thrilling one-point win came after the 15th placed Hawks were 41-points up at one stage at Adelaide Oval.

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Carr said this would not be overlooked one bit in the Power’s review of the game.

“We didn’t start the game that well especially around the contest and the stoppage so we will definitely have a look at that first quarter and the execution of what we didn’t get right,” he said.

“But to persist and keep at it in the whole game and peg them back in the second half … I thought we worked really hard to get back in the game and give us a shot of winning the game.

“I think it is really easy to review the game, we didn’t feel that we played overly well especially in that first half.

“Wins and losses there are always areas that you can improve and get better and I would like to think that we are pretty consistent week to week on what that looks like.”

Jason Horne-Francis tackled by Will Day during the Power’s thrilling last-second win over Hawthorn on Sunday. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images.

While the Power were losing club great Shaun Burgoyne – who works at Alberton – said “I think they just didn’t come with the right mental attitude”.

Carr said that could have contributed to the Power’s slow start.

“I thought we prepared well, we were off a bit of a longer break,” he said.

“The game we played against Geelong was pretty taxing and did that have an influence? Maybe.

“You are not going to start every game well, there are going to be games where individually players aren’t feeling great and they aren’t going to start the game well but maybe the nine-day break helped us in the end.”

The Power are now 7-3, but have still faced questions about where it stands in the premiership race.

Carr said there was plenty of scope for improvement.

“We are by far not the finish product of where we think we can get to,” he said.

“Obviously it is important to get the wins at this time of year to give you the opportunity to play in finals but we feel that there are facets and phases of our game that we can get better.

“It is contest, stoppage, the way we defend as a team and then offensively when we get the ball in hand there are definitely areas for improvement.

Zak Butters was one of the Power who started slow but came home rampaging in the final term. Picture: James Elsby/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

“We don’t think we are playing the best footy that we have ever played but we are playing good enough football to get the job done right now with a focus on getting better.”

The Power will look for its third win in a row when it travels to Hobart to take on North Melbourne on Saturday.

It will be young star Jason Horne-Francis’ 50th game in the league, against his old club.

Last year the build-up between the two was dominated by whether the Power had to be prepared to protect Horne-Francis from a hostile reception against his former side.

Carr said it was different this year, with Horne-Francis growing up considerably over the past 12 months.

“I would like to say it is a fair bit different from last year, there was a lot of pressure on Jase when he first came to our football club,” he said.

“He was 19, it was a really big move, the pressure of performance off the back of no pre-season.

“I just think it is a different time stage for him now.

“He has come a long way with his maturity and how he approaches games.”

The Power will all but certainly have captain Connor Rozee back for the clash after he missed its last two matches with his injured hamstring.

Carr said the Power overruled Rozee on playing against the Hawks.

“That probably happened last week if I am being really honest, he wanted to play but in the end we learn from some mistakes that we made and we gave him an extra week,” he said.

“You take it out of his hands, at the end of the day he respects that.”

CROWS LOSE FORWARD, RUCK DEPTH

Adelaide has lost key forward and ruck support Elliott Himmelberg for this weekend’s clash with West Coast, with no clear time frame for his recovery, after he underwent surgery on a fractured cheekbone.

Himmelberg suffered the injury in the Crows tight loss to Collingwood at the MCG.

Adelaide high performance manager Darren Burgess said the Crows were unsure just how long Himmelberg would be out for.

“Elliott has a depressed fracture of his cheekbone from a collision in a ruck contest on the weekend,” he said.

“He’s had surgery and will miss at least a week. Hopefully he will still be able to train but we’ll just keep him out of contact a little while and trust the medical and surgeon’s advice on that.”

Elliott Himmelberg has had surgery this week. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

Star Crow Izak Rankine will resume running in the coming days as he begins his recovery from his hamstring injury suffered against the Pies – with a three-week spell on the sidelines in store.

“Unfortunately Izak strained his hamstring in that incident in the last minute of the game, it looks a pretty standard hamstring in terms of the length of time he’ll be out – about three weeks,” Burgess said.

“It’s disappointing for him, he’s been playing great footy and is an important member of the team, but we’ll just have to cover him for the next few weeks and bring him back.

“He’s been in the pool already and will start running in the next couple of days and begin that rehab process.”

In positive news for the Crows young forward Luke Pedlar could return to footy this weekend, just needing to tick a final box at Thursday’s main training session to be cleared from the shoulder injury he suffered in Round 7 against North Melbourne.

“Luke has got through all the contact we needed him to, so assuming he gets through training on Thursday which we are anticipating, he will play this weekend,” Burgess said.

“He has put a lot of work in along with our staff with his strength around his shoulder, he’s back to pre-injury levels andwe’re anticipating him coming in and having an impact.”

Originally published as Power assistant Josh Carr’s concession over Power’s nine-day break as Crows take another hit