Dan Houston vows to make amends on return to Port Adelaide team after COVID-19 breach

Port Adelaide star Dan Houston has spoken ahead of his likely return to the Power side, declaring he’ll repay his teammates after serving a ban for a COVID-19 rules breach.

AFL - Saturday, 8th August, 2020 - Port Adelaide v Richmond at the Adelaide Oval. Port Adelaide's Dan Houston celebrates his goal Picture: Sarah Reed

Dan Houston says he will learn from the “error in judgment” he and young ruckman Peter Ladhams made in breaking COVID-19 protocols — which resulted in them both copping bans.

Houston was banned for two games and Ladhams three for a gathering at Ladhams’ house after Port’s win over the Western Bulldogs last month.

Houston will return for the Power against North Melbourne on Saturday, and said he hoped to make amends.

“I really want to turn it around and play some good footy at the back-end of the season,” he said.

“I’m looking forward to learning from these two weeks off and playing some good footy.

“We’ve wanted to earn back the trust of the players and the club as a start and put in the hard work at training and scratch matches and I’m very thankful that I’ll get a chance this week.”

Dan Houston is determined to shrug off his COVID-19 breach and reward the Power.

It comes after Houston was “a class above” the scratch match he played in on Saturday.

The Power stopped short of guaranteeing he would come straight back into the side this week now his COVID ban is over despite his dominance at reserves level.

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Houston – and Peter Ladhams who still has one week of his ban to serve for breaching the AFL’s COVID protocol – played against Sydney’s reserves at Alberton as he attempts to win back his spot to play North Melbourne at Adelaide Oval this weekend.

“Dan will certainly be in the mix but today is not the right time to talk through that,” Power coach Ken Hinkley said on Saturday night.

“He played good footy which we wouldn’t expect anything less at the lower level but he’s put himself in a position where we have to consider him and we’ll make those decisions during the week.”

Assistant coach Matthew Lokan said Houston and Steven Motlop, who was dropped on form last week, were two standouts in the practice match against the Swans.

“Steven Motlop worked his way into the game and the third period was fantastic, he kicked a couple of goals and got back into some touch which we really needed,” Lokan said.

“Dan Houston is a class above this level, his ability to use the ball and get hold of it was great, and some young guys Jackson Mead and Trent Burgoyne showed some patches which was really good for our future going forward.”

Houston was “a class above” the scratch match he played in on Saturday according to Matthew Lokan. Picture: Sarah Reed.

Defender Hamish Hartlett was among Port Adelaide’s best in the 26-point win over Sydney on Saturday and said he was looking forward to six and seven-day breaks between games for the rest of the season.

“Again probably not playing our best footy and there are some things to work on,” Hartlett said.

“We knew the Swans were going to bring a great intent and effort around the footy which they did so we were happy to get away with a reasonably comfortable win in the end.

“I know speaking to a few of the boys after the game that going into the last quarter there were some heavy legs out there, whether that was something to do with conditions – it was relatively warm out there.

“The boys will certainly look forward to playing games on a week-to-week basis from here on out.”

The Power’s injury list is almost non-existent with only first-year players Mitch Georgiades (hamstring) and Dylan Williams (groin) currently sidelined.

Todd Marshall replaced Georgiades in the side on Saturday and Hinkley played three tall forwards with Justin Westhoff based inside 50m.

“We certainly like the three talls because we had Mitch there and he hurt his hamstring on Wednesday so we like the thought of three talls,” Hinkley said.

“We’ve been trying to build towards three talls with Todd coming back and Westy has had to play different spots for us.”

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Originally published as Dan Houston vows to make amends on return to Port Adelaide team after COVID-19 breach