From www.localfooty.com.au
Reported by Paul Amy
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A SLIP-UP against an emerging opponent or a sign of deeper difficulties?
It was a question Port Melbourne coach Gary Ayres had to confront after his Borough tumbled to a six-point defeat against fellow stand-alone club Frankston at Kars St on Sunday.
In doing so, Port hit a negative mark, 1-2, for the first time since 2007.
Since then the Borough have attained excellence under Ayres, memorably going through undefeated in 2011 and reaching the grand final last year.
They were without midfield champions Shane Valenti and Toby Pinwill against Frankston, and fellow senior men Michael Dillon, Hugh Sandilands, Myles Pitt and Danny Hughes were also out.
In the case of young Jason Williams, he's out permanently, having quit the club last week.
With Josh Scipione maintaining his splendid start to the season, Port started well kicking to the Kars St end.
But Frankston, with a batch of exciting newcomers, found another gear in the second quarter and left the flat-footed and fumbling.
The Dolphins' lead puffed out to 41 points in the third term.
Port, sensing it was up against an opponent unused to having to close out matches, rushed home in the last quarter as finally Dean Galea broke free from Jarrod Irving to kick two goals.
The Dolphins had the staggers. But they held on. On the boundary, coach Simon Goosey was hoarse.
If they had squandered their lead Goosey would have been justified in heading to Frankston police station and reporting a daylight robbery.
Ayres acknowledged the missing senior men, but said it was no excuse, calling his team "undisciplined", "reactive" and "indecisive".
He said Port had reached a "very interesting time".
"It's going to be a real character test of where these guys want to go and how hard they're prepared to fight and dig in. I'm just going to keep flipping the side around until I find the mix," he said.
"There just doesn't seem to be a real spark and that sort of Port Melbourne desire and belief among the group at the moment."
He said he was perplexed by the "massive swing in consistency in quarters".
With the North Port Oval still unavailable, Port returns to Frankston Park on Sunday to play Sandringham.
