Power's best looks even better for 2008

[blackdiamond]

courtesy www.portadelaidefc.com.au

Power's best looks even better for 2008

THEY say the pre-season is where it all begins, and if Kane Cornes’ summer form is anything to go by, he’s on track for another scorching year.

The younger Cornes brother took out the Power’s best and fairest this season and also received his second All-Australian jersey.
But the super-fit perfectionist is determined to push himself even further this pre-season.

“I ran a personal best in the 3km time trial the other day, so I was happy with that, and that’s all you can really go by in terms of judging your fitness,” he said.

“I’m feeling really good and I love this time of year. It’s great to be able to get out there and train and not have the pressure of playing on the weekend.”

Cornes enjoyed a superb 2007 and established himself as both a premier ball winner and a tagger.

The 2004 premiership player has dropped a couple of kilos off his light frame and is focussing on laying the foundation for another solid year.

“I’ll probably sit down in January some time and set some goals for next season, but at the moment I’m just really enjoying training and trying to get myself as fit as I can,” he said.

“I think that gives you the best possible chance to have a good year and so far it’s gone well. On the field, I think I’ll just continue to do my bit for the team, whatever that is, and do it as best as I can like I always try to do.”

Cornes’ enthusiasm appears to have rubbed off onto some of his teammates.

Travis Boak, who is mentored by Cornes, is one player who has showed a marked improvement in his fitness.

“A few of the young guys like Travis Boak and Justin Westhoff have come back in pretty good shape,” he said.

“Matt Thomas too, there has been a fair bit said about him, but I think he’s in for a big year and he’s set himself for that. He’s been pushing me in the [distance] runs and Tom Logan is also a really good runner.”

The mentoring role is something Cornes is keen to continue next year if he’s not voted into the club’s official leadership group.

Cornes was left out of the group for 2007 in favour of the now retired Josh Mahoney and Shaun Burgoyne.

“I haven’t really thought too much about the leadership group. I really enjoyed my work last year with Travis Boak and Adam Thomson, which I saw as a leadership role.”

“I’m sure the group will sit down and vote for the leadership group soon and if I’m in it - I’m in it and if I’m not - I’ll continue on like I did last year [in 2007].”

For now the playing group is more worried about what’s at stake over the summer.

The players have been divided into six different colour groups and will compete for points, which will then be tallied at the end of the pre-season, to decide a winner.

Bodies were flying in the handball game on Wednesday with both the navy and black teams keen to claim victory.

“We’ve broken up into teams this year and it was all competitive stuff today,” Cornes said.

“Once it’s competitive or for points the boys tend to go pretty hard.”

 

[Black 18]

courtesy www.portadelaidefc.com.au

Power's best looks even better for 2008

The 2004 premiership player has dropped a couple of kilos off his light frame and is focussing on laying the foundation for another solid year.

While it's very cool to hear so many players have returned with a very good fitness base, & are obviously keen to do well, once again, it does bother me that we continually seem to think fitness is the key to success.

I would have thought putting some extra kilos on and getting much stronger was a priority after last years GF. Kane isn't the first player who has made mention of the fact they have "lost" weight this pre-season.

I think our whole group needs to sit down and watch a replay of the GF (given most haven't) and just watch how easily we were pushed out of the way and how weak our tackling was etc.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

I have to admit that excerpt raised my eyebrow Spock-like too. The last thing I want to hear is that players are losing kilos - especially from their already slight frames. I was heartened by the early 2008 pre-season physical appearance of some of the young "tough-nuts" - Thomas, Lower, Thomson - and am willing to reserve judgement until the late 2008 pre-season.

But with a competition that is forever trying to find ways to speed up (altho restrictions on the number of interchanges could affect that headlong rush) and a coach who is committed to fast, free-wheeling, high-scoring, "sexy", crowd-pulling football as opposed to the tough, hard, grind them into the ground style that I've come to expect from Port Adelaide I'm not expecting to go back to the future anytime soon.

Of course this might just have to be the reinvention we need to have to survive in modern football times, and I might just be the dinosaur who doesn't yet realise he's extinct ... but I figure there might be a few with me. Funnily enough - and I've banged this drum a few times - around 2003 Geelong came out and made a public statement that they were tired of being called a handbag side, getting sand kicked in their fces by the bullies and made a conscious decision to add kgs to the slight (and some not so slight) frames of their players and trumpeted those results pre-season - not improvements in 3km running times or various endurane events. Seems to be holding them in good stead, even in the age of speedy, cunning, risk-taking mammals.

 

[SAMOTH]

I think youll find most players like to drop some weight early pre season so they arnt putting to much presure on the body with all the running they do ,then they will add it back as the season approaches .To often a player puts a heap on and looses a "yard" as the expression goes.

 

[Macca19]

Kanes always been slight and its held him in relatively good stead. Will be keen to see who else has lost some weight though, as Ford and Black said, theres a lot of players that needed to put weight on.

 

[Andre]

A PB in the gym >>> PB on the running track for our band of undersized players. It's all pre-season fluff, but so far the stories seem to have been on improving our strengths, not addressing the glaring weaknesses.

Being able to run to zone off that much quicker, whilst our opponents go straight down the corridor instead of being that much stronger and tackling them (and making it stick) doesn't fill me with anticipation of 2008.

 

[*PAF]

Kanes always been slight and its held him in relatively good stead. Will be keen to see who else has lost some weight though, as Ford and Black said, theres a lot of players that needed to put weight on.

Yeah, pretty much agree with that.
Weight is good, but not all players are built the same and it will be interesting to see how much weight we have put on as a whole rather than individual basis.

 

[Black 18]

A PB in the gym >>> PB on the running track for our band of undersized players. It's all pre-season fluff, but so far the stories seem to have been on improving our strengths, not addressing the glaring weaknesses.

Being able to run to zone off that much quicker, whilst our opponents go straight down the corridor instead of being that much stronger and tackling them (and making it stick) doesn't fill me with anticipation of 2008.

That's the part I just can't understand either Andre.

After the Grand Final (once my total embarassment & anger has faded slightly), I thought some good could possibly come out of what was just a horrible day. I thought, at the very least, Choco would have sat down and seen so clearly where we were inept. I thought he would have addressed those issues with his drafting and/or trading, and I thought ALOT more emphasis would be placed on strength, aggresion, accountability, but IMO he seems even more obssessed with proving his way is THE way, and the ONLY way.

I thought the Damon White experiment would have shown him that just having great endurance does NOT = being able to play the game to a level required to be successful, yet our drafting tells me otherwise. I thought seeing us pushed around like school kids would have shown them our desperate need for strength and vigour, yet come draft time we select another 2, tall skinny guys who have minimal physicality, if any.

I think it's a bleak looking forecast when most of us on here acknowledge we need strength and hardness and we all put our hopes in players like Thomas, Lower & Thomson. I hope those 3 turn out to be tough, hard players who play 200+ games for our Club yet I am still to be convinced any of them will make the grade let alone be what we need.

What does that say about the 22 who took the field last September? What does it say when we place hope in a guy who is 30 yrs plus and has given his very heart & soul for our Club to the point where his body is close to being wrecked. And who won't play until mid next year at best.

Might just be me, but I feel as though we really have taken this athletic approach to AFL just a tad to far. Sure, it's a very, very important part, but gee wizz, so are other aspects of the game and those aspects seem to be ignored completely.

Pure running ability and skills are what Gaelic Football is about, not AFL. In the AFL you need more strings to your bow than just endurance and skill.

 

[roger explosion]

don't we have hardness, though? we saw it against West Coast, North Melbourne and throughout the season... we just had the worst game in our history on GF day against a club that had their best day in their history... we're not 119 points worse than Geelong, i think we all know that.

 

[Macca19]

I thought the Damon White experiment would have shown him that just having great endurance does NOT = being able to play the game to a level required to be successful, yet our drafting tells me otherwise. I thought seeing us pushed around like school kids would have shown them our desperate need for strength and vigour, yet come draft time we select another 2, tall skinny guys who have minimal physicality, if any.

And what tall well built guys were available at our first pick? Tarrant had gone. There werent many good ones left. Willits has shown that being big doesnt mean much, and remember he was a picked up with basically the same pick we had this year (pick 19). There were other talls available with both picks, but rated guys like Gourdis didnt even end up beign drafted by anyone so theres an issue there. We picked up Farmer who is well built.

I think it's a bleak looking forecast when most of us on here acknowledge we need strength and hardness and we all put our hopes in players like Thomas, Lower & Thomson. I hope those 3 turn out to be tough, hard players who play 200+ games for our Club yet I am still to be convinced any of them will make the grade let alone be what we need.

They have just as much chance of making it as anyone we would have drafted does. Whos to say if we drafted Greenwood that he will make it? What if he turns out like another Shackleton at AFL level? I dont see the difference in pinning our hopes on guys that have had a couple of years to get their bodies big enough to have a decent crack at this game compared to pinning our hopes on a couple of 17 year old draftees. Theres no difference. They all have the same potential success or failure rate.

The pre season has only really just begun. Theres still another 2 months of it to go yet. Will see what happens during Jan and Feb.

 

[Troy Wingate]

While it's very cool to hear so many players have returned with a very good fitness base, & are obviously keen to do well, once again, it does bother me that we continually seem to think fitness is the key to success.

I would have thought putting some extra kilos on and getting much stronger was a priority after last years GF. Kane isn't the first player who has made mention of the fact they have "lost" weight this pre-season.

I think our whole group needs to sit down and watch a replay of the GF (given most haven't) and just watch how easily we were pushed out of the way and how weak our tackling was etc.

OK, so Kane and Warren have lost weight. Kane has never been the physical type of player anyway, so him shredding a couple of kilo's aint gonna hurt, and with Warren, he needed to drop a couple of kilo's to take some pressure of his knee's.

Guys like Matt Thomas, Justin Westhoff, Adam Thomson, Nick Lower, those type of guys will be putting the weight on. It'll take Westhoff longer than the others coz he's naturally a beanpole.

I'm confident that the guys we believe who need to gain weight, are doing just that, while building up their fitness level too. No point in just bulking up. Gotta have endurance to carry that extra weight too.

 

[Wildmanwok]

Dont under estimate being fit. You can have all the skill in the world, but if you are not fit in this day and age you will get smashed.

Fitness is the key that unlocks the door to opportunity. Some people say you need luck well I truly believe fitness creates luck.

 

[portentous]

You really think that Choco hasn't addressed players one-on-one, in private, about their weaknesses in their post-season review?? Come on, guys.

Publicly he just feeds the media the standard bullshyte, but he came down hard after the Grand Final debacle have no fear. He just does it in private instead of publicly belittling players.

 

[portentous]

Pure running ability and skills are what Gaelic Football is about, not AFL. In the AFL you need more strings to your bow than just endurance and skill.

You also need far more strings to your bow than just height and weight........Ian Downsborough anybody??

 

[portly]

You really think that Choco hasn't addressed players one-on-one, in private, about their weaknesses in their post-season review?? Come on, guys.

Publicly he just feeds the media the standard bullshyte, but he came down hard after the Grand Final debacle have no fear. He just does it in private instead of publicly belittling players.

One of his strengths, though he did once disrespect Thurstans.

 

[jaxx]

One of his strengths, though he did once disrespect Thurstans.

I'm sure he treats them individually as far as who cops it publicly/privately and who needs more encouragement. Same deal as getting bigger / losing weight, it's horses for courses. Tredders supposedly needed to lose weight, and as we know, Kane is an obsessive fitness nut which clearly brings out the best in him and by the sounds of it he has taken it to another level again this PS. Meanwhile I'm sure the Westhoffs of the squad are working on gaining weight.

 

[Powerstufff]

The way I see it is that the fitness staff will know exactly which player they want to gain weight/lose weight and those players and their coaches will know also. They will all also know just what areas of their bodies need to be bulked up/trimmed down. All boasting will be made in terms of the players achieving their respective goals. I'd be very surprised if Pearcy or the Hoff (for example) came out and boasted of weight loss.

 

[claf-43]

I don't have any problem with them developing our strengths, we won games for our quick ball movement. Why not allow the players to run harder for longer?

We all know the team usually had 1qtr a week we're they fell asleep and it cost us dearly at different stages.

So yes I think this is an area that we should always look to improve.

 

[Cattery]

Not a troll so don't rush to beat me around the head, just somewhat curious and find it interesting to see a number of posters here saying pretty much what I was thinking throughout the year.

Admittedly I don't follow Port that closely, but I've always had the impression of them as being hard as nails, tough at the contest fierce competitors, yet after seeing them a few times this year, including of course the two which we won by big margins I was surprised to see a lack of this aspect in their game, and a number of posts on here seem to agree with that opinion.

Ford Fairlane hit the nail on the head with his excellent post about how the Cats bulked up and also became a lot fitter, especially compared to last year, and while this is tremendously important you of course also need a good balance of playing styles within the side, and this includes guys who are willing [ and able ] to get down and dirty and win the hard contested ball, something which we now thrive on, but which now seems an area that Port are lacking in, surprisingly given their history.

You seem to have a distinct lack of "in and under players" from what I could tell, and was wondering when this "change" if you can call it that, to your game style began and if anythings being done to address it, and if you think you can achieve the ultimate success until you do.

 

[Powerstufff]

.....You seem to have a distinct lack of "in and under players" from what I could tell, and was wondering when this "change" if you can call it that, to your game style began and if anythings being done to address it, and if you think you can achieve the ultimate success until you do.

Ouch!
Well our player list and our coaching staff have all changed significantly since 2004 so our game style and our effectiveness as a team moves along with that. Whether anything is being done to address the way we play now depends on whether the coaching staff feel there is an issue (yes, yes, I know - 119 points). And also whether we have the right players, at the right stage of their development, to do so.
I'd be surprised if we cut a swathe through the comp in 2008 as you so effortlessly did in 2007. But yes we could probably get to the GF again.

 

[Cattery]

Ouch!
Well our player list and our coaching staff have all changed significantly since 2004 so our game style and our effectiveness as a team moves along with that. Whether anything is being done to address the way we play now depends on whether the coaching staff feel there is an issue (yes, yes, I know - 119 points). And also whether we have the right players, at the right stage of their development, to do so.
I'd be surprised if we cut a swathe through the comp in 2008 as you so effortlessly did in 2007. But yes we could probably get to the GF again.

Thanks for the reply.
Losing players like Carr and Hardwick didn't help you in that area I guess, and it seems to me [ looking in from the outside ] that you now have to many players of the same type and desperatly need a few guys like Bartel, Corey, Chapman etc.etc if you hope to take the next step.

 

[Macca19]

I think 04 we changed our style of play dramatically from the previous two years. We are halfway there again in terms of where we should be. We are lacking that tough, dirty edge that we had in 04 with previous mentioned players. As has also been mentioned, we have a couple of young guys that really need to step up now and fill that toughness void. Whether they can, we'll find out this year.

 

[Powerstufff]

Thanks for the reply.
Losing players like Carr and Hardwick didn't help you in that area I guess, and it seems to me [ looking in from the outside ] that you now have to many players of the same type and desperatly need a few guys like Bartel, Corey, Chapman etc.etc if you hope to take the next step.

We play fast, skillful football. You do the same but with a group of bigger bodied players who can initiate and absorb physical contact far better than we can. Hence some posters here being upset about players dropping weight. But even if we’d had Carr and Hardwick etc available that’s just niggle, not size. We are a less physical side than in past years. But so are you - Mooney wasn’t suspended once in 2007. AFL rules are responsible for that to a large degree. Plus all of a sudden AFL clubs no longer seem to accept 2-3 players suspended at any one time.
Every club bar yours desperately needs a few guys like Bartel, Corey and Chapman. The task for us now is to develop some of our many good young players to that level. But they won't all make it and so the problem for us is 'selection anxiety'. Hence anguished threads here before and after every game in 2008 as we discuss who was selected and who was left in the SANFL.
But there is no point trying to be our 2004 team again. Even you won't be your 2007 team again. It comes back to the subject of this thread: our team was pretty good in 2007, and shows signs of being better in 2008.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Geelong have been a very good side coming for around 4 years now. Even in their disappointing 2006 which was largely derailed by off-field issues, they lost several games by a goal or less - winning those would've won them a spot in the 8. My thoughts on Geelong up until this year was they lacked some genuine outside finishing pace - that they were one paced with lots of tough inside players ... until I saw them chop us up at Footy Park early in 07. They had me convinced then and there. They got the balance right and I said as much on the Geelong Board back then - they reminded me as much of an old-style Port Adelaide side as anyone.

With us, the pendulum has swung a long way to lots of skilful outside runners and not enough grunt on the inside. That's why we pin so much hope on guys like Thomas, Lower, Thomson, even Bentley and Williams at the moment as those 185ish cm 88ish kg inside bangers and flankers. The trouble is, if I do a best side for 2008, it looks a lot like our GF side. So how we'll fit them in without sacrificing a couple of the more skilled but less physical types is a tough balancing act. I know they kicked 100 goals between them, but I still find it hard to reconcile having Ebert and Motlop in the same side playing virtually the same position. You could even make the argument that Westhoff is a 200cm version of their role. I wonder about Phil Walsh's level of influence in some of Port's development, as well as Choco's commitment to run and gun football sides in the brave new AFL.

Then there's the concern around our drafting more of this type. I'm more than willing to give Westhoff mk 2 and Lobbe the chance to add kgs to their frames and create a forward presence. But other than Tredders (and the recently delisted and seemingly not too lamented Ryan Willits - who I still think would make a good classic style full forward) we don't seem to have any real inside power forwards, and the 2 new KPPs are unlikely to be that sort of player either. This concerns me. And while I acknoweldge that Marlon Motlop is more than likely a huge talent, he's yet another outside runner. It may be that a longer term strategy is in place there - maybe a belief that Krakouer will do a runner at the end of his contract and we will attract a bigger bodied midfielder (you guys can fill in the blanks) and Motlop will take the Krakouer role.

There's a lot of leap of faith involved here. I'm happy to question our strategies even for the sake of discussion. And I'm usually a glass half full Port supporter who believes things will pan out even if I don't quite get the big picture sometimes. But not quite to the extent that I will accept everything we do as faultless.

 

[Phhht]

.............


Ford Fairlane hit the nail on the head with his excellent post about how the Cats bulked up and also became a lot fitter, especially compared to last year, and while this is tremendously important you of course also need a good balance of playing styles within the side, and this includes guys who are willing [ and able ] to get down and dirty and win the hard contested ball, something which we now thrive on, but which now seems an area that Port are lacking in, surprisingly given their history.

........

I think more importantly the core nucleus of the Cats07 was first established in early 01/02. I seem to remember watching a rampant physically intimidating Lions 'bashing' a bunch of lightly framed cats players in 02 or 03. Didn't young Corey break a collarbone or something after a run in with Voss? But 3/4 years later and those same 'skinny' talented kids like Bartel, Corey and even Ablett are the hardnosed gamebusters. It takes time and at least 3 solid preseasons to begin to have the body for an AFL season.

I think you have to take a deep breath and compare the Power07 with the Cats 02/03, not the 07 version which basically destroyed allcomers.
The young Power look to have plenty of talent and skill but dont yet have that hard edge or physical presence.
Dont forget that our heaviest midfielder isn't even really a midfielder (Cornes). After that we struggle to find a grunt midfielder.


And they dont grow on trees.


But that doesn't mean that some of the current playing group won't develop into that type of player.

Some on this board expect kids of 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 to suddenly make a huge impact after 1 or 2 preseasons. Just doesn't happen unless your name is Judd/Kerr etc. I even remember seeing a young Roger James (probably our best ever in + under) playing his early days on a wing, hff etc. It takes time.

And as for recruiting a hardnosed grunt midfielder, its not like they grow on trees. Exactly how many have Port missed out on over the last 2 years?

I reckon it will take a few years yet before our core nucleus of players have that hardness built into them. It normally takes 3-4 good preseasons before a player has a solid foundation of fitness and bulk to impact an AFL game week in week out over an entire season.

Let's see how guys like Thomas, Pettigrew, Lower, Salopek turn up this year before all the doom and gloom over the lack of apparent grunt midfielders.

Personally after we missed out on Pavlich we have a more pressing concern regarding Tredders replacement and even getting a decent ruck prospect to eventually takeover from Lade/Brogan. I mean really, just how good would the Cats have been if they hadn't been able to recruit Ottens and Mooney?