ASSISTANT coach Ben Mathews says Port Adelaide’s midfield remains one of Melbourne’s biggest challenges, if it is to notch up its first win in Alice Springs on Saturday.
Melbourne takes on Port Adelaide for the third time at TIO Traeger Park Oval and after a fantastic encounter in 2014, and a disappointing second half in 2015, the red and blue is desperate to claim its first win in Central Australia.
“They’ve really got some quality mids – you throw in [Travis] Boak, [Ollie] Wines, Robbie Gray, [Brett] Ebert, [Jared] Polec, [Hamish] Hartlett – those types [and it's an impressive line-up],” he told Melbourne TV.
“[Jackson] Trengove has been their ruck for the past few weeks and I think he’s got the highest clearance rate of any player in the competition over the last four weeks, so what they may have missed out on in hit-outs, they make up for in follow-ups.
“They’ve got some quality players, so if we’re not on our game, and tackling and chasing and harassing and going after the footy in the contest, they’ll expose us so we’re planning for their best in that area.”
Mathews said the team relished the opportunity to come up in the warmer climate during the season.
“It’s always good coming up to Alice [Springs] to play in the middle of winter or when the weather gets cold in Melbourne,” he said.
“You get to Alice and it’s usually in the 20s and a pretty dry climate. The boys enjoy going up there and they’ve been really good quality games against Port up there the past two years.
“They’ve (Port) been good enough to get over the line both years that I’ve been here, but it hasn’t been without a challenge. We’re looking to improve again and really take it up to Port and go after them and hunt them.”
Mathews said the build-up hadn’t been too different this week.
“It’s been very much same-same for us,” he said.
“We’ve changed our week slightly – the players had the day off on Wednesday, as opposed to Tuesday, but really for coaches, our preparation is the same and our planning is the same.
“Port has got some quality players and they’ve very, very capable of playing high quality football and that’s what we’ve planned for so it’s not going to be an easy one.
