Home AFL grand final carrot dangles for Port Adelaide players

MICHAEL Voss has no sympathy for any Victorian team finally given the task of winning the AFL grand final interstate.

But the Port Adelaide assistant coach has no eyes on such a distant happening knowing any deviation from his team’s path could come with an unwanted “correction”.

Voss, who as Brisbane captain had to go on the road three times to win premierships, said the decision on where this year’s grand final would be played was “significant” in many ways. That extends to the prospect of it being in Adelaide, with Port wellplaced to secure top spot, home finals, and maybe even an “advantageous” grand final should the Power go all the way.

But it’s creating that launching pad, and momentum when it matters that is front of mind for Voss and Port who only have to look back 12 months to see how things can quickly unravel.

An 86-point loss to this week’s opponent North Melbourne, in the penultimate round of 2019, proved a dagger blow to Port’s finals chances, and Voss said no one wanted a slip up like that ever again.

“We had a game around this time last year where we played North and they came off a bad loss and they gave us a good correction,” Voss said.

“That gives us a really good reason not to take our eye of the ball.

“We’ve been in position in previous seasons where we might have just thought ahead a little bit too much and it has caught us out. We can’t afford to do that.”

Port Adelaide has finals hopefuls Essendon and Collingwood to come after the Kangaroos.