David King was “stunned” at the perceived lack of planning and action from Port Adelaide that led to their mammoth 71-point defeat to the Western Bulldogs on Saturday night.
The Power were outworked and outcoached from the first bounce, despite enjoying all the favours with a healthy list and their home ground.
While their effort in the contest has been questioned in recent days, King believes the Power coaches didn’t do their due diligence on the Bulldogs’ game.
“I thought their planning was really poor, to allow the Dogs to dictate terms at stoppage all night, they knew that was coming,” he told SEN’s Whateley.
“They live football, they study the opposition within an inch of their life, how could they not be ready for what was going to happen at stoppage?
“For me, that’s almost unforgivable, to allow that to happen against you in a final.”
Port Adelaide were smashed in contested possessions and suffered in clearances early on, however it was just one of their many problems.
Talented Dog Josh Schache played one of his best games for the season, taking All-Australian intercepter Aliir Allir out of the game and kicking a goal himself.
King couldn’t believe Ken Hinkley allowed that matchup to continue throughout the match.
“What did you do about it (Schache’s role)? What did you do to get Allir Allir back into the game,” he said.
“Why did that matchup stay for so long, when you could see what Schache was doing and you could see what the Dogs were doing and you were bleeding on the scoreboard.
“Allir took a few intercept marks… But the ones he didn’t take, and the ones he was negated on, the Dogs scored, so you had to make a change.
“It was almost like they watched the game slowly unfold and continued down the same path.
“I was stunned at the way the game started and continued to the end down the same path.”
Hinkley’s men have now made consecutive Preliminary Finals, but haven’t played in the last match of September since 2007.