PORT Adelaide's emerging forward Ollie Lord says he was flattered, but never seriously considered departing for Geelong, where his grandfather is a club legend.
Late last year Lord rejected Geelong's advances and signed a two-year contract extension with Port.
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The 22-year-old's grandfather Alistair Lord won a Brownlow Medal with Geelong during an esteemed 122-game career with the Cats from 1959 to 1966.
Geelong sounded out Lord during last season's Trade Period about a potential move.
"Whenever your name gets thrown up in other teams' talks and discussions, it was definitely flattering," Lord told reporters on Wednesday.
"But I never turned my head at all, I thought my career is now at Port and I'm really happy with how I am going here and the group, the upward trajectory.
"As much as it was flattering, it never really caught my eye."
The 13-gamer's stocks rose after a breakout four-goal qualifying final in Port's loss to Brisbane last season.
"Obviously that game was one of the best I have played ever," Lord said.
"So it's probably hard to replicate that every single game. But in terms of the mindset and what I did before the game, I will try and emulate that in the first couple of games this season hopefully.
"Within the club I had a really strong role of what I needed to do and it was very simple. The coaches were very eager to make the gameplan simple for me ... I just played on my natural instincts."
He said that display had set a personal bar for the looming season.
"It just showed myself, and I think it showed a few others, that I can send it up to the good players and the good teams when I'm out there," Lord said.
"It's just building confidence off that, and I really took that in my stride over the off-season, and I used it as motivation to be the best I can."
Port's premiership campaign begins with a home fixture against West Coast on March 17, with the club eager to atone for its straight-sets exit from last year's finals.
"We can't stand away from the fact that we lost two games in the finals, and it hurt a lot," Lord said.
"But we're a young team ... that is only going to help us, drive us, and make sure that we don't make those mistakes again.
"I strongly believe that if we do get ourselves into another finals position, which I think we should, then we'll act on that, we'll make hopefully a different result."
