NEW PORT Adelaide chief executive Mark Haysman is hopeful the club can use a more friendly fixture to get the jump on its rivals in 2009.
The Power, who slipped to 0-4 after a tough opening month in 2008, will play fellow bottom-eight sides Essendon, West Coast and Melbourne in the first three weeks of next season and Haysman said it was imperative the club got off to a winning start.
“We’ll certainly be keen to get off to a good start. All of our supporters will be keen to get along, support us and to see us win early,” Haysman said on Friday, when the official AFL fixture for 2009 was released.
“That was a big thing for us this year, we just didn’t get away to a good start after a disappointing ‘07’ grand final.
“We would hope that we’re in a much better position come the end of week four next year than we were this year, absolutely.”
The second month of footy appears significantly tougher for the Power with consecutive games against top-eight sides Hawthorn, St Kilda, Adelaide and North Melbourne.
Coach Mark Williams declared his side’s finals chances over after 13 rounds last season and Haysman said the club was determined not to end up in a similar position again.
“It’s a challenging part of the year for us, but we’ll be a lot better prepared next year and we’re looking forward to that,” he said.
“It’s a very even and tough competition, but we’ll certainly be ready to go round one. We’ll put our best foot forward in all of those games and hopefully we’re in a better position come that time of year, next year.”
The Power will kick off its 2009 campaign against Essendon at AAMI Stadium on Sunday, March 29. Port Adelaide will also finish its season at home, against North Melbourne in round 22.
Haysman said the club had worked closely with the AFL to ensure the Power played more games in its preferred Saturday night/Sunday afternoon timeslots in order to boost home attendances.
“We did a bit of work on the timeslots, so the majority of our Sunday games are in the afternoon," he said.
"We have got some early ones, but I think we did a good job of influencing it as much as we could. We’re in a better position now than we were before we spoke to the AFL,” Haysman said.
“I think it’s a good draw for us and we’re very happy with the outcome. Our research tells us that Friday and Saturday nights as well as Sunday afternoons are the preferred times for our supporters to come along to games, so we’re very happy with that.
Port Adelaide will host St Kilda in a blockbuster Friday night ANZAC weekend fixture, followed by the first Showdown of the season against the Crows the very next week.
Neither Showdown in 2009 will be shown on free-to-air television, which Haysman said would help maximise attendances.
“Having the first Showdown of the year and having it on a Saturday night is a big win for our supporters. We look forward to all of them getting along and making a difference on the night,” he said.
“We’ve got some other initiatives in play that we’ll roll out over the next month or so [that will also help attendances], but the biggest single thing, other than what we do with our new membership campaign and marketing, is to play the right style of footy and to win some early games.
“I think the results in the last couple of games in ‘08’ showed that we have learned some good things about how to play winning footy and that’s what we’ll be focussing on for ‘09’.”
