AFL 2021: Xavier Duursma to undergo surgery on knee
Xavier Duursma was moved to tears in Port’s thrilling win over Richmond. He needs surgery, while another young gun has fallen victim to the dreaded syndesmosis.
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Port Adelaide wingman Xavier Duursma is set to undergo surgery on a lateral ligament in his right knee and will spend a lengthy amount of time sidelined but has avoided an ACL tear.
Scans confirmed Duursma had sustained a “significant” hyperextension of his knee during the last quarter of the Power’s thrilling two-point victory over Richmond at Adelaide Oval on Friday night, forcing him off the field.
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He was in tears on the bench after the match before being consoled by teammates.
The 20-year-old will have surgery in the next few days.
His time frame to returning will become clearer in coming weeks.
Renowned sports medico Dr Peter Larkins told The Advertiser Duursma’s was an unusual injury and that past cases usually led to players being sidelined about eight to 10 weeks.
An MRI has also found fellow 2018 draftee Zak Butters to have sustained an ankle syndesmosis injury from the match.
Butters, also 20, hurt himself in a tackle during the third term and was substituted off in the last quarter.
The club will seek further medical advice regarding the management of his injury.
In a statement on Saturday, Port Adelaide said it would provide an update on the midfielder’s treatment when it became available.
The Power became the walking wounded in Friday night’s game as Orazio Fantasia (ankle), Tom Clurey (corked thigh), Connor Rozee (corked thigh), Aliir Aliir (leg), Tom Jonas (leg) and Scott Lycett (head clash) all dealt with body blows.
Port Adelaide did not provide any update on the other players.
Asked on Friday night if Rozee, who was limping in the first quarter, was close to getting subbed out earlier, coach Ken Hinkley said: “there was about eight of those”.
“I don’t want to abuse the medical sub, so people who have got corkies, they’re part of the game,” Hinkley said.
SLAYING THE DRAGON: HOW POWER OVERCAME PRELIM DEMONS
Port Adelaide will not get back its 2020 preliminary final against Richmond.
But if there are any demons lingering from October’s six-point loss, Power players will have taken a step in overcoming them.
In another fast-paced, high-pressure night match at the same ground – though in dry conditions, rather than rain, in April, not October and with four points at stake instead of a grand final – Port Adelaide was this time on the winning side of a nailbiter, prevailing by two points.
You could sense the relief and how much it meant in the aftermath of the victory.
On the ground, there were hugs among Power teammates when the siren sounded.
In the change rooms, Port Adelaide assistant coaches Michael Voss, Nathan Bassett and Jarrad Schofield, along with a handful of players not in the 23 joined in for a rousing rendition of the club song.
It was Power captain Tom Jonas who called on them to link arms.
“You always know the significance of the moment when all the coaches and the staff are in the team singalong,” Brisbane great turned commentator Jonathon Brown said on Fox Footy.
“You very rarely see that happen so obviously this win meant a lot to the Port Adelaide Football Club.
“It would give them belief that they’ve slayed the dragon from last year, albeit in a home-and-away game.”
In the last quarter, the match looked like it was going to go to an eerily similar script to the preliminary final.
The Power struggled to get the ball out of its back half at the southern end of the ground in the closing stages and Kane Lambert kicked a late goal to give the Tigers the lead.
Port Adelaide would have had itself to blame if it lost, given it had dominated the second quarter but could not make it count.
In that term, the Power led inside 50s 18-8 and clearances 9-3, only to kick 3.7 and leave the door ajar.
It finished with 29 shots at goal for just 11 majors (39 per cent accuracy), but was able to hold on.
Power coach Ken Hinkley said matches between the sides had a habit of going down to the wire.
In Round 11 last year, Port Adelaide fought back from a one-point three-quarter time deficit to triumph by 21 points at home.
“Richmond and Port have great games, they respect each other enormously, and you’ve got to go all the way,” Hinkley said.
“There was that game last year and that game earlier in the year where there was a bit of deja vu.
“Lambert kicks a goal, we find a way, Robbie kicks a goal, we find a way to hang in there.
“And in the last two minutes 40 (seconds), where we just had to stay tough under the footy.
“It could’ve went either way right to the end.
“Some of our efficiency kept Richmond in the game but that’s what they do, they won’t go away.”
A major difference to preliminary final night was the Power’s ability to win the clearances.
Port Adelaide lost the count 41-29 to the Tigers in October, including 28-9 in the last half and 16-4 in the final quarter.
That was despite the Power being the league’s best clearance differential team last season and the Tigers being middling in that area for much of their run of success these past four seasons.
“Richmond last year beat us in that key space, but we always know it’s week to week,” Hinkley said.
“You’ve always got to get things right and you’ve got to do it well against quality opposition.
“Last week (in the 37-point loss to West Coast) we didn’t get it done as well as we would’ve liked – quality opposition was too good for us.
“This week against quality opposition we stuck pretty hard and pretty tough in there and the people in there deserve some credit.”
Richmond and Port Adelaide do not meet again during the 2021 minor round but it will not be a surprise if they face off again in the finals.
Brown said Friday night’s match “looked like a final” because of its intensity.
Hinkley said he was sure his side was a good team again this year, but injuries would play a part in the season and it was only Round 4.
“You’ve got to go a long, long way,” he said.
Tigers coach Damien Hardwick’s relaxed demeanour was a sign he was not too concerned about his side being 2-2 and losing against the Power.
“Always against Port Adelaide we have some great tussles and I thought it was another outstanding game of footy we both played against each other,” Hardwick said.
“There was always going to be a sorry loser and that’s us tonight.
“I thought our guys fought back really valiantly and had some chances to win, we just couldn’t nail the ones when we needed to.
“I think our fans would walk away thinking ‘good effort, didn’t quite get the chocolates tonight’.”
Hardwick believed his team had turned the corner after its surprise 55-point loss to Sydney at the MCG last week.
He said it needed to clean up its efficiency going inside 50, turnovers and composure, “but the positives for us far outweigh that”.
“I thought it was a big step forward for us,” he said.
“If you play deep into finals, you do start a bit slower and Port are probably a little bit the same.
“But I think you’ll start to see us play a better brand of footy.”
Richmond and Port Adelaide will be hoping to go deep into the major round again this season.
Bookmakers had them as the two premiership favourites before the match, so they would be expecting that to be the case.
If the two clubs face off in September, expect another epic.
“We’ve got a bit of a knack of beating them in the regular season, we’ve got to try to do it in the finals now,” Power vice-captain Ollie Wines told Fox Footy post-match.
WALKING WOUNDED: POWER REVENGE COMES AT HUGE COST
It was the crunch clash and preliminary final rematch that became a war of attrition.
And now Port Adelaide will be sweating on the availability of several key players after copping a heap of body blows during its gritty two-point triumph over Richmond at Adelaide Oval on Friday night.
Zak Butters (ankle), Orazio Fantasia (ankle), Xavier Duursma (knee) and Tom Clurey (thigh) all spent time off the field, while Connor Rozee (corked thigh), Aliir Aliir (leg), Tom Jonas (leg) and Scott Lycett (head clash) were among Port Adelaide’s walking wounded.
Duursma finished the match in tears on the bench after being floored, then limping off late in the final term with what commentators described as a hyperextension of his right knee.
Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley said the Power’s medical staff was optimistic Duursma’s issue was not an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
“Doesn’t mean it’s not but … they do some tests initially,” Hinkley said. “But we should just wait and see — it’d be wrong for us to guess because we haven’t got the right information.”
Port Adelaide had activated its medical substitute, Sam Mayes, earlier that quarter, when Butters came off. But there was a heap of times it looked like they might need to do so before that.
REVEALED: WHAT WAS SAID BETWEEN FAN AND DIMMA
Damien Hardwick had words with someone from the crowd after the game. pic.twitter.com/iQr3Jq6N7w
— 7AFL (@7AFL) April 9, 2021
Asked if Rozee, who was limping in the first quarter, was close to getting subbed out earlier, Hinkley said: “there was about eight of those”.
“I don’t want to abuse the medical sub, so people who have got corkies, they’re part of the game,” he said. “It was easy to do it but who knows, in a tough, physical game, it may have been one you just can’t put back out there that you have to hang onto.
“Clurey, Rozee — they were really bad corkies but you want to make sure you do the right thing by the game and you know it (a substitute) might come late and it’s for concussion most of the time. We’d like to leave it like that if we can.”
Butters hobbled from the field during the third quarter and went down to the change rooms, nursing a left ankle issue. He returned to the ground early in the last term, only to come off shortly after and be replaced by Mayes.
Butters had been one of the game’s stars to that point, having 19 disposals and using the ball better than most on a night where plenty of players struggled to hit targets. It is too early to tell which of them will be in doubt for the Power’s away game against Carlton next Saturday.
“There was a little bit of knee, little bit of ankle (concern),” Hinkley said of Butters.
Port Adelaide shrugged off its injury concerns to lead by 11 points at three-quarter time then hold on after a thrilling last quarter in which Richmond responded and led by two points until Robbie Gray’s late goal.
Six months ago, the Power could not thwart the Tigers’ charge and the visitors prevailed at the same venue in the preliminary final, before going on to win the premiership the next week.
This time, with its backs to the wall and men banged up all over the park, Port Adelaide found a way to get over the line in another epic.
Richmond was gutsy to fight back late, coming off double six-day breaks. But it is now 2-2 after consecutive losses following its surprise defeat at the MCG to Sydney last week.
Regardless, it is certainly not to panic for the Tigers.
Not only did they perform strongly on the road, they have been here before during its run of three flags from the past four seasons.
Last year, Richmond was 1-1-2 and 14th after four rounds.
In 2019, the Tigers were 2-2 and 13th.
We know how those years ended. But Richmond will be wanting to avoid three straight defeats when it faces St Kilda at Marvel Stadium on Thursday night.
For Port Adelaide, it is a sweet win but who knows how many of the 23 from the game will be able to back up against Carlton.
Year Record Perc Pos
2020 1-1-2 87.9 14th
2019 2-2 86.4 13th
2018 3-1 130.1 3rd
2017 4-0 141.5 3rd
SCOREBOARD
PORT ADELAIDE 3.3 6.10 9.12 11.13 (79)
RICHMOND 4.2 6.3 8.7 11.11 (77)
BEST: Power: Boak, Wines, Butters, Burton, Aliir, Amon. Tigers: Houli, Short, Martin, Cotchin, Lambert, Grimes.
GOALS: Power Motlop, Rozee 2, Houston, Duursma, Hartlett, Gray, Fantasia, Butters, Georgiades. Tigers Riewoldt 3, Lambert 2, Martin, Castagna, Short, Aarts, Lynch, Bolton.
INJURIES: Power Duursma (knee), Butters (ankle)
UMPIRES: Rosebury, Deboy, Hosking
VENUE: Adelaide Oval
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
3 T. Boak (Port)
2 O. Wines (Port)
1 B. Houli (Richmond)
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