Port Adelaide’s new-found growth in maturity has been accelerated by the impact of the coronavirus on the AFL season, assistant coach Michael Voss says.
Voss believes the short-term focus necessary this season is beneficial to the Power, who are ladder-leaders with five wins and just one loss.
“We have been able to take each challenge as it comes,” Voss told reporters on Monday.
“And we’re getting some really handy results so they (players) should be getting some genuine confidence out of it and, probably more importantly, some real belief.
“We can’t look ahead because we actually don’t know … we can’t project, we only get to live in the moment.”
Voss said Sunday’s win against premiership fancies GWS on the Gold Coast evidenced the growth of Port.
The Power squad met at their Alberton headquarters at 5.30am before travelling to Queensland, won the game, then promptly flew back to Adelaide.
“Any time you wake up with a four in it (the clock), it’s a real challenge, especially if you’re playing a game of footy,” he said.
“It was a long day. The guys handled it really well.
“We have been able to embrace the different changes, seeing it as an opportunity and a new challenge that we need to overcome – and it was certainly one of those days.
“The day itself, which was challenging enough, when you factor in the travel schedule, the quality of opposition … it was right up there as a really big win for us and a sign of maturity.
“We have been in games in the past where it has been asked of us whether we can go to another level, and we were able to in that game against a quality opposition.”
Port face an identical travel schedule next Sunday, when they play Carlton in Brisbane, with wingman Xavier Duursma pressing to return from a hamstring strain which sidelined him in the past three games.