“Do something!”: Blight’s radical plan that could shake things up for Port Adelaide

Two-time AFL premiership coach Malcolm Blight thinks that Port Adelaide must shake things up ahead of their Semi-Final against Hawthorn at the Adelaide Oval on Friday night.

The Power went down 54-138 in a home Qualifying Final last week to Geelong and Blight thinks that they’ll be out in straight sets if they stick with the same team and tactics against the Hawks.

Blight was renowned as an innovative coach across his stints with Geelong, Adelaide and St Kilda at the top level and he explained why he would be making some changes at selection and in the coaching box if he were Ken Hinkley.

“When you have a bad loss, particularly in a final, if you keep doing the same thing, it doesn’t work,” Blight said on SEN Sportsday SA.

“What you need to do is bring some stimulation to the group and I always feel you should do something different to what you’ve done before.

“You’ve just been beaten by 80-odd points, I don’t think I’m doing my job properly if I don’t get some enthusiasm back into the group and I’d tweak things.

“Move players in or out and move players’ positions, that’s the only thing you can do as a coach (to really change things). It’s the old John Kennedy line, ‘Do something!’.”

One radical plan that Blight came up with to shake things up is to move Jed McEntee into the midfield to tag Jai Newcombe, who had a dominant Elimination Final against the Bulldogs with 35 disposals and a goal.

If McEntee moves into the midfield, Blight would be making room for him by shifting Willem Drew forward and even playing him one-out in the goal square to throw something different at Hawthorn’s defence.

“I’ll give you someone who played half forward last week and didn’t do very well, Jed McEntee,” Blight said.

“It wasn’t the forward line’s fault last week, but instead of playing forward, why doesn’t he go into the midfield and go on Jai Newcombe who has nearly been Hawthorn’s best player in the middle of the ground?

“Go annoy him and run with him, it changes the mix, Hawthorn won’t be waiting for it. It might work, it might not work, but right now it’s not working where he is.

“He’s fit, he’s keen, he’s healthy, it might be a role where he becomes the next Kane Cornes for the next 100 games for the club.

“He (Drew) isn’t a bad player, put him in the forward line in the goal square one-out, see what happens. Or put him on Sicily, it doesn’t matter, put him at full forward, do something different.

“I’m not having a go at Ken Hinkley or the coaching staff, my method was, ‘I’m going to change this’, and hopefully the playing group comes along with you.”

The winner of Friday’s Port Adelaide v Hawthorn clash will play Sydney the following week in a Preliminary Final at the SCG.