Port slam Lovett over AFL tribunal role
Port Adelaide anger at Essendon livewire Andrew Lovett's breach of the players' "code of silence" at the AFL tribunal was made blatantly clear by utility Chad Cornes on Thursday.
Lovett's testimony, alongside that of umpire Dean Margetts, resulted in Power ruckman Dean Brogan being suspended for one match following a quarter-time altercation not picked up be television cameras.
He will miss Sunday's match against West Coast at Subiaco Oval, robbing the Power of their best match-up for Eagles ruckman Dean Cox.
Brogan was stunned at the turn of events, testifying at the hearing that Lovett had told him: "I was playing for it, I'll look after you (at the tribunal)".
Cornes gave full vent to Port's irritation.
"That's really disappointing," he said on Thursday.
"I think he (Lovett) will look back in a couple of years and be pretty disappointed with himself, the way he handled that."
Never one to take a backward step from a stoush, Cornes said that he wished Port played Essendon again this year.
"Unfortunately we don't play them again this year, but we look forward to playing them next year," he said.
Lovett's evidence may have been spurred on at least in part by the roughing up he was subjected to across Sunday's match by the Power's players, who are intent on showing a greater level of physical and mental intimidation in 2009 after wearing the "soft" tag last year.
Port would not be ditching that attitude because of one suspension, according to Cornes.
"You've seen over the pre-season that we've really got that aggression and toughness back into our footy," he said.
"It's been a big focus over the pre-season, we got heavily criticised last year, so it's been one of the things most of us have worked on especially in the weights room and that kind of thing.
"Lovett was just so important to them over the pre-season and he's just got such great skills and is so explosive when he gets the ball, so we knew if we could stop him and curb his influence early on that it'd go a long way to us winning.
"We didn't go out and single him out and try to hit him or anything like that.
"Broges plays like that every week, if you watch the start of games he always targets the gun opposition midfielder and it's worked well for us over the past few years and that's what gets him up, so I wouldn't expect him to change the way he played at all."
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