One of the toughest road trips in the AFL competition.
An almost full house at Adelaide Oval against Port Adelaide.
How would you want your team to play SUNS members and fans? Our guess is you’d be pretty proud of the team’s efforts on Sunday afternoon.
Speaking post-match, Senior Coach Stuart Dew definitely thought so.
“An away game, hostile environment, against a team that was trying to keep its season alive, and we threw everything at them and had an opportunity to win the game,:”
“By and large if that's how we're going to get beaten, where I certainly felt like Port played their best game for the year, if we can force the opposition to do that.
“Not that we want to wear it, but I think our guys need to take some confidence from that.”
A slow start to the afternoon saw the Power get an early jump on the scoreboard.
“A disappointing start clearly I think it got up to 26/27 points at one stage.
“They (Port) outnumbered us at the contest. We were a little bit sluggish to be honest.
“I think their work rate in the first quarter was superior to ours and that that allowed them to hit the scoreboard.
“In there, there's a good story for us that we just keep coming. We’ve got to make sure we bottle that, these lads just don't give up.
“We played some really powerful football across the following three quarters.”
Eye catching ball movement has been the cornerstone of the SUNS in 2022 and that was on fully display at the Adelaide Oval.
“That's what we've been working on all summer and throughout the season is our ability to move the ball particularly when teams are trying to lock you up.
“Our guys are really starting to understand the brand of footy we want to play and across the last well, majority of the season we can see them trying to execute that.
“Sometimes the hard part is the intention and the education but we can continue to work on execution, but their intention is in the right areas.”
Although not one to highlight individual players, Dew was asked specifically about the form of Izak Rankine after another dazzling display in the red and gold.
“Probably about eight weeks in a row he has really played what we'd call a quality Izak game.
“He's unselfish, he gives off goals, he hits the scoreboard, he’s playing with intensity, it's pleasing for him tonight to play like that in his home state.
“We love the way he's tracking, he’s going really well we're glad he's on our team.”
Stuart Dew and his coaching group will now turn their attention towards a red-hot Collingwood side who will travel to Metricon Stadium for a Saturday night blockbuster.
