Port not satisfied with AFL finals: Boak

Port Adelaide captain Travis Boak says there’s no sense of satisfaction at reaching an AFL preliminary final.

Boak says Port, starved of finals for so long, are now greedy for more September success.

The Power meet reigning premiers Hawthorn in Saturday’s preliminary final – a fixture Boak could only dream about three years ago when Port missed the finals for the fifth season in a row.

“We’re certainly not satisfied at all,” Boak told reporters on Wednesday.

“Three years ago, we wanted to get better as a side and make sure we played finals.

“And now we’re not happy just playing finals. We want to go all the way.

“That is the mentality of the group. We’re not satisfied until we’re able to achieve something and that is the ultimate goal in winning a premiership.

“We are certainly going into this game knowing that we haven’t achieved anything yet.”

Boak warned his teammates to expect another rise in intensity in the MCG encounter as Port seek their first grand final berth since 2007.

“Contested ball, skill levels – everything goes up another level,” he said.

“We know it’s going to be a big challenge for us. We know they’re the reigning premiers, they’re a fantastic side.

“But in saying that, we have complete faith in our game style as well and we go in there with a lot of confidence that … if we can bring our best footy then we’ll be right in the game.”

Hawthorn, the league’s top-scorers, boast three players – Jarryd Roughead, Luke Breust and Jack Gunston – in this season’s top eight goalkickers.

But while wary, Boak said Port – the second-highest scorers this season – weren’t overawed by Hawthorn’s attacking prowess,

“Our back six has been fantastic all year in handling some quality forward lines,” he said.

“It really comes down to how much pressure we can put on their midfield to stop that supply.

“We have got to make sure we keep their inside 50s down and make them pretty rough so it’s not good delivery for their forwards and make it a lot easier for our back six.”

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