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.
In reply to Northport I actually think by burraburger
Thanks for thinking about us Burra.
You're correct we would not be the same thout those players but we would not keep ramming it down peoples throats. You will never hear anyone from the Roosters complaining about injuries or whose missing. All clubs have the same problems.
If you're not good enough don't look for excuses.
Port set such a high benchmark for a couple of years, but there are many variables as to why it is hard to maintain such a high standard.
No one is ramming it down peoples throats that Port have a few out but it's a fact. Another fact is Port have a number of very good players who are really out of sorts and will be under huge pressure to hold their spots. If they wernt key position players I thunk they would have been dropped this week after 3 shockers, still may happen.
We need to be more consistant and simply play 4 quarters, that's the major issue in my opinion.
Questin must be asked as to why those players are out of srts ? Is pressure getting to them, are they disgruntled with the club ? are they upset with coaching staff?
Football is no different to the workplace whereby yuo see disgruntled workers not perform as well as they should. I would hope it is just a form slump and nothing more - as that can be easily corrected.
In reply to Questin must be asked as to by MegaA
Fair point Mega, The way I see it is that Port supporters have been very spoilt over the last few years by a sensational side that have lost very few games & have set a exceptional standard. Now to expect that level every year is unrealistic & the good players that reached that standard are now a couple of years older & just a yard slower. With the exception of Valenti & Pinwell the others if fit enough may not get a game. What's happened to the cast of thousands that were training at the start of the year, have many been introduced to senior football. ??
Good sides bounce back. We`ll be ok.
In reply to Good sides bounce back. We`ll by Stormy
Correct Stormy, Port are a very good side but don't think that things are just going to happen.
The fact that Port Melbourne beat Box Hill with 6 players who had played 3 games between them shows that they are still a very hard side to beat. Box Hill lack key forwards and midfield depth but they make it hard for teams to beat them and will win more than they lose.
Rd 16, Werribee had a day out. 3rd quarter Werribee had 10 inside 50's and kicked 8.0, that's a one of.
Burstin is badly out soughts, Gale is battling, Dillion really struggled in the development game. Not sure about O'Farrell but it's not a good sign that he isn't in the side given Pinwell and Valenti are out.
In reply to Stormy wrote:Good sides by digs
Nothing "just happens" at this level. We`ll get a few players back, win a few matches on our own dung heap and get a bit of consistency back into our game, our disposal and decision making has been pretty patchy so far.