Port Adelaide coach Matthew Primus has challenged his midfielders to starve Hawthorn’s goal-hungry forward Lance Franklin in Sunday’s AFL twilight match.
Franklin influence on the AAMI Stadium encounter looms large after he booted a remarkable 13 goals in Hawthorn’s thrashing of North Melbourne last week.
Port fullback Alipate `Bobby’ Carlile appears set for the most difficult assignment in the AFL, but his performance won’t determine Franklin’s impact, coach Primus says.
“We’re pretty confident if we put a lot of pressure on like we did last week we will make Bobby’s life a lot easier,” Primus said.
“Our key backs have been pretty good.
“But he (Franklin) is probably one of the best going around so we’ll have a few things in place.
“But we have got to worry about getting enough of the ball to kick a winning score, rather than trying to stop Buddy.”
Port have won three consecutive matches, including last week’s nine-goal trouncing of Carlton, entering the fixture against the sixth-placed Hawks.
Primus said improved output from his midfield had been a key factor in the trio of wins.
“Our midfield group has certainly played better so that helps, you don’t have to be Einsten to understand that,” he said.
“The way we want to move the ball certainly hasn’t changed, we have actually won a bit more of the ball through the middle of the ground.
“It just shows the belief as a footy club in what we are doing.
“We knew we were close, we just had to try and perform what we were doing for longer and do it better at times.”
But Primus said Hawthorn presented a “bigger scalp than Carlton” for his club.
“The way they defend as a team, the way they move the ball as a team, is really impressive,” he said.
“They have got a lot of dangerous guys.
“We’ll have our work cut out but it’s a great challenge to set our group again.
“If we can dominate through the middle – we probably need to do more than break even – if we can get enough of the ball inside 50 metres, then we think we have got the ability to kick a winning score.”
