POWER midfielder David Rodan says his side is finally up and running following Saturday night’s hard-fought win over St Kilda.
Port Adelaide streaked to a five-goal lead in the second quarter, but had to stave off a resilient St Kilda to claim the club’s second win of the season.
The Power outscored the Saints in the final quarter to shake the fadeout tag that has plagued the team in their opening month of football.
“We’ve struggled in the last quarters over the past couple of weeks, but to the boys’ credit, we fought it out in tricky conditions and played well,” Rodan said on Sunday morning.
“Last time we played in the wet was against Brisbane and it wasn’t a very good night, so to come out with a win last night really gives us confidence going into the Essendon game next week.”
The win keeps Port Adelaide in touch with the top eight ahead of a tough month of football. The Power will tackle Essendon and the unbeaten Hawks in the coming weeks before facing off with the Swans for the second time in just two months.
Chad Cornes, who battled on despite a broken finger on Saturday night, will have surgery on Sunday when the extent of his injury will be revealed.
It’s likely the dual All-Australian will miss anywhere between two and four weeks.
“It’s a massive blow to lose Chad,” Rodan admitted.
“You can’t really replace a Chad Cornes, but we have a very exciting list and hopefully the guys to come in can bring some more excitement to the team.
“We’ve seen guys come in who have been able to play their role. We have Tom Logan coming off the bench, who has been great, and Travis Boak was really good last night.
“Guys can just step in and make an impact, which is gives us confidence with Chad out.”
Rodan was hopeful the gutsy win would trigger more impressive results for the 2007 Grand Finalists.
“The boys can take some great belief out of that win. We’ve had a hard first month, but to string a couple of wins together definitely gets the confidence up among the boys, and hopefully we’ll keep kicking on now,” he said.
“I think we’re improving, but we still have a fair bit of improvement to go.
“The side is very up and running now, and I think we’re getting close to our best.”
