Boak: Port will challenge Cats
Port Adelaide's captain says Port have nothing to lose and they look forward to challenging the Cats
Port Adelaide’s skipper, Travis Boak, says they’re going to call the shots this Friday night against the Cats in the Semi Final because they’ve got nothing to lose.
Last Saturday night Port Adelaide pushed Collingwood off the fianls’ track after taking them down by 24 points. This week Boak says Port won’t change their style for Friday’s clash they’ll just perfect it.
“We need to play on our terms as much as we can,” Boak told www.portadelaidefc.com.au
“We went in last time trying to play on our terms down at Simonds Stadium and we couldn’t quite do it.
“We need to bring that this week and hopefully we can do that early and take it in for the rest of the game.
“We’ve got no fears, we’ll just go into the game with nothing to lose and that’s the style that we took into last weekend and we’ll go in with the same attitude this week.
“I think they’re (Geelong) a pretty hard team to intimidate, they’re a quality side and you don’t shake them too easy but we’ll go in with our style and our game we brought in against Collingwood.
Having endured a devastating season last year, winning only five games, Port Adelaide just want to enjoy the journey and make the most of their position.
That was the tactic they used against Collingwood and that’s the tactic that worked.
“It doesn’t come around too often,” Boak said.
“It takes a lot of hard work. You know it’s taken six years to get back to the position we’re in now, you’ve just got to enjoy the moment you don’t want to look too far ahead or read into it too much.
“You’ve just got to enjoy the footy, the week and all the build up.”
“That’s the way we went about it last week and that’s the way we’ll go about it this week.”
Boak says Port enjoys the Cats intensity and what they bring to the table.
“We’ve got the opportunity again to come up against a really really good side, a side that a lot of teams base themselves around and want to get to where they are and that’s the opportunity we’ve got now and we’re looking forward to it.”
“I love playing against Geelong, you always love playing against the best teams, the best players and for our group we’ll love playing against the best side and it’s always good fun playing against Geelong.”
Port Adelaide know what the Cats are capable of, having lost to them twice this year, however, they’re preparing to hit hard early.
“We need to make sure we’re on right from the start because if we give Geelong a sniff they’re going to smash us, but it’s going to be pretty hot early and we’re going to have to make sure we’re on right from the start,” Boak explained.
“We need to learn from the last two games and we need to bring the same sort of stuff that we did against Collingwood.
“We’ve got to embrace the whole atmosphere and bring our best defensive game like we did on the weekend.
“We’re going in with confidence, I mean they are a quality side but we are confident we can get the job done.
“We know our run has been fantastic all year and that is one of our strengths and hopefully that will help us in the game.”
This week Port Adelaide’s senior coach, Ken Hinkley, will make sure his player’s bring an even better game to the MCG on Friday night.
“He was pretty excited like most of us but he said we’ve still got a lot of things to work on. We got beaten in the tackles and contested possessions and that is something we’ll look at this week,” Boak said.
“I guess Ken will look at what Freo did to beat them tactically and we’ll try and beat them with our style.”