Port went on a recruiting spree ahead of the 2018 season but failed to address its most glaring problem
PORT Adelaide has paid the price for rolling the dice on the fitness of ruckman Paddy Ryder. If the club was aware its developing ruckmen were not ready for the AFL it should have recruited a back-up.
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PORT Adelaide’s once daring, run-and-gun style football is no more — and it is no coincidence its 2018 premiership dream is also over.
The Power has bored itself to sleep and the opposition has pounced as it snored.
The big question is — why?
Their demise cannot be blamed on injuries and the absence of Paddy Ryder.
Ryder has played 15 of the 21 games this season. The Power has lost its football courage.
Not the courage to put its head over the football, that has never been a problem. It is its courage to take the game on and to be brave with their ball movement.
The stats tell the story. In 2014 when the Power made its charge towards a Grand Final, only to fall agonisingly short, it valued uncontested possessions and did what it could to get the ball into open territory and then run and carry the ball with speed.
It ranked sixth for uncontested possession in 2014. It now ranks 11th.
Its contested numbers haven’t changed. Once out in the open the Power players ran and carried the ball to rank first for running bounces.
They now rank eight.
That speed of ball movement had them rank second for marks inside 50m.
They now rank ninth. As a result they ranked second for goals kicked. They now rank a dismal 13th. Connect the dots.
Their hitouts have dropped in Ryder’s absence but their clearance numbers haven’t changed much. Not enough to be a concern.
The Power’s problem is its game style. It has been ignored for far too long and must be fixed ahead of any dramatic overhaul to the playing list, with one exception.
Questions must be asked as to why it went into a season where they expected to challenge, with just one ruckman.
Steven Motlop, Tom Rockliff, Jack Watts, Trent McKenzie, Lindsay Thomas and Jack Trengove were all added — but not one ruckman.
Of the contenders, the West Coast has three. Nic Naitanui, Scott Lycett and Nathan Vardy.
GWS has Dawson Simpson, Rory Lobb and Jon Patton.
Geelong has Rhys Stanley, Zac Smith and Esava Ratugolea.
Hawthorn has Ben McEvoy, Jonathon Ceglar and Marc Pittonet.
At the clubs with one dominant ruckman, Toby Nankervis at Richmond has missed just one game for the season, Brodie Grundy (Collingwood), Max Gawn (Melbourne) and Callum Sinclair (Sydney) have played them all.
Forget Dustin Martin, Paddy Dangerfield, Lance Franklin and Tom Mitchell, the ruckman is the most important player in the AFL today: A ruckman and a game style the team believes in.
The Power does not believe. The players do not know what they stand for, so how can they believe?
Watch every match of every round of the 2018 Toyota AFL Premiership Season.