AFL Gather Round Port Adelaide v Hawthorn: Sam Mitchell on the Power’s Adelaide Oval ambush

‘Where did we go wrong?’ – that was the first question Sam Mitchell asked his players after the Adelaide Oval ambush on Sunday night. Did he get any answers? Here’s all the fallout.

Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell had been trying to tell people that his ladder-leading Hawks weren’t as good as what was being said about them and now he has proof.

Mitchell’s men were embarrassed in a first-half onslaught by Port Adelaide that saw them trail by 71 points in the much-hyped Gather Round finale before they fought back in the second half to lose by 30.

The pre-match talk had been about the grudge match between Ken Hinkley’s side and Jack Ginnivan and the unbeaten Hawks following the acrimonious scenes after last year’s semi-final, won by the Power.

But Port’s first-half rampage changed that focus.

James Sicily walks off after the loss to the Power. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos

“Where did we go wrong?” Mitchell replied when asked what his chat to his players was about post-match.

“They obviously taught us a bit of a lesson.

“We’re a bit torn, obviously there was a bit riding on the game and we would have loved to have played much better than that.

“The first half of that game was unacceptable and not the way that we want to play, not the style of play that we try to produce.

“I’m trying to work out why.

“We’re 4-1 and not in a terrible position on the year, but it doesn’t feel like that right in this moment.”

Nick Watson and Jason Horne-Francis have words. Picture: Michael Klein

There had been talk of a Hawthorn small forwards’ airplane goal celebration in reference to last season’s much-discussed semi-final win by the Power, but that never came to pass because neither Ginnivan nor Nick Watson kicked a goal.

“They talk all the time about the celebrations they might do,” Mitchell said.

“Obviously, anyone who has ever done a celebration like that they’ve prepped them at some point.

“You can look at that and think that we were talking about it, but it certainly wasn’t a collective discussion.

“It’s one of those moments where we need to learn from it.

“The off-field stuff, I didn’t think was the issue, I think it was what happened on the field, they really taught us a lesson in the early part of the game.

“There were plenty of issues on the field, and they’re the ones that we’re going to be trying to sort out.

“They instigated the game, they dictated, they taught us a lesson.

“But we’re better than we played, I think we’re better than that first half, and we’re going to have to prove that next week.”

The Ambush at Adelaide: Power adds new spice to rivalry

– Glenn McFarlane

The marketers billed this Gather Round finale as ‘a line in the sand’ stoush, with the bad blood threatening to turn this into footy’s version of ‘Malice at the Palace’.

In the end, Port Adelaide’s stunning five-goal upset victory over a previously unbeaten Hawthorn might well be remembered as “the Ambush at Adelaide Oval’.

For this was an old-fashioned first-half mugging of a team that had gone into the game as premiership favourites and emerged with more than a chinks in their much heralded armour.

We know Ken Hinkley hates Hawthorn, and that showed with one of the most remarkable first halves of football before a stunned crowd watching almost in disbelief as the Power resuscitated their 2025 prospects as the Hok Ball Hawks showed some rare vulnerabilities.

That was in plain sight for everyone to see.

Or should that be plane sight … because the parochial Port Adelaide crowd sent off the Hawks with the same ‘You’re not flying’ plane gestures made famous by Power coach Ken Hinkley in Jack Ginnivan’s direction at the end of last year’s semi-final.

That cost Hinkley $20,000 … last night’s those collective gestures from a large portion of the Adelaide Oval crowd became a part of footy’s folklore just as the Kevin Sheedy jacket wave fuelled Essendon’s rivalry with West Coast for years.

Never mind the fact that the Hawks cut back seriously into the one-time game-high margin of 71 points, which at one stage was whittled back to 22 points with eight minutes left.

The Power’s first-half was the real killer blow.

Willie Rioli antagonises the Hawks

When Willie Rioli mockingly showed the ball back into Changkuoth Jiath’s face as he ran in to kick the sealer with seven minutes left in the game, the pent-up emotions came out.

A series of scuffles took place near the boundary line as the Port Adelaide forward was gifted a second goal from the one play, with his cheeky play riling the Hawks into retaliation.

Coming off the bye, and coming to terms with life without one of their key playmakers Will Day for the next three to four months, Sam Mitchell’s Hawks were manacled by Port Adelaide’s one-on-one approach that squeezed the life out of them early.

Worse still, they were completely outworked, with James Sicily saying at half-time on Channel 7: “We need to pull our head out of our arses and get to work.”

The first half was a mauling, with Hinkley’s decision to start Connor Rozee at half-back a masterstroke as he booted two first half goals, just one fewer than Hawthorn’s total tally.

Josh Weddle is chased down by Connor Rozee. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Port Adelaide kicked 12 goals in the first half and the Hawks had only one major on the board until the final few minutes of the second term when they added two majors late.

Ginnivan was quiet on the night, with his first kick setting up the first of Jack Gunston’s six goals but offering little else, finishing with 13 touches and no goals.

Sicily was switched forward as early as midway through the second term, as the Hawks gradually pulled back the margin in the second half.

Mitchell spoke early in the week about the need to balance the emotion and enmity of last year with the need to focus on the present, not the past.

The Hawks’ much heralded forward line provided little on the night, with the three active members of mosquito fleet (Ginnivan, Nick Watson and Dylan Moore) held goalless.

Port fans make aeroplane gestures towards the Hawks. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

The midfield got hammered early with Zak Butters back to his best at his second game back, Jason Horne-Francis bursting from stoppages like a bull and Rozee racking them up and providing a slingshot from the back half.

Hawthorn’s defence, which was seen to have tightened so much with the recruitment of Tom Barrass and Josh Battle, was left vulnerable for the first time this season.

Hinkley made a quick exit from the ground after the game, eager to steer clear of any controversy this time around.

He will get one more shot at the Hawks in round 19 in Launceston in what promises to be the next instalment in a rivalry between two teams who don’t clearly like one another.

Originally published as AFL Gather Round Port Adelaide v Hawthorn: Sam Mitchell on the Power’s Adelaide Oval ambush