Warren Tredrea: Why Port Adelaide and Adelaide are testing my patience
Why are forwards stagnant and waiting for the ball to come to them? Why do midfielders seem so confused? And why are the skills so poor? Warren Tredrea asks the big questions of the Crows and Power after poor weekend efforts.
Warren Tredrea
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You can’t trust Port Adelaide. You haven’t been able to for some time.
And just when you start to think Power players have turned the corner, they let you down again. Don’t get me wrong – I love my club. But it simply can’t deal with expectation, and when the going gets tough, Port can’t hang in consistently long enough to win games like the best teams do.
Surprisingly, in this town, the Power is not alone.
For the first time in a long time, the Crows are just like Port – brittle when the pressure is applied. Their once-lauded discipline and resilience appears a thing of the past – and now their effort is being regularly questioned.
Football is simple – the team that persists the longest, breaks the game open and wins. Sadly, for Crows and Power fans, that’s neither team in 2019.
For Adelaide, poor losses against Hawthorn (Round 1), Geelong (Round 3) and on the weekend against the then-winless North Melbourne have shown it is susceptible to teams who apply extreme heat. And when theCrows don’t have the ball, they struggle to generate enough pressure to win it back.
Their once-acclaimed midfield is now being beaten up. In the 12-point loss to the Kangaroos, they were smashed in clearances 31-19, contested possessions 137-120 and inside-50s 57-36.
After Saturday night, I question whether other underperforming players should’ve been dropped alongside Bryce Gibbs, rather than him be the only fall guy.
Port lost to Brisbane by 17 points and on Saturday fell to an injury and suspension-ravaged Richmond by seven points – two very winnable games. The question remains why can’t Port stand up when the game is turning against it?
We must not forget Richmond was missing a host of stars – their best defender Alex Rance, best midfielder and Brownlow Medallist Dustin Martin, best forward Jack Riewoldt and captain Trent Cotchin.
Port knew the win was gettable and sub-consciously it took effect. A desperate Richmond exposed the fragile Power with its disciplined, ruthless attack on the ball, hell-bent on proving a point to the masses who never gave them a chance. There’s no sugar-coating it – it was a terrible loss.
It’s one that would drive the most Port fans nuts, and it’s happening too often. Discipline comes in many forms, none more obvious than in the last quarter when Tiger Dylan Grimes was left alone to take six game-saving intercept marks, messing with Port’s inside-50 dominance (19-8). Someone needed to man him up and nullify the contest, or take a mark for themselves.
Port’s forward structure is a mess, its attack on the high ball is poor, with too few willing to provide an aerial contest, much like Adelaide.
As a forward, you are taught to deliver three key things. High workrate, demand the ball and provide a target for your team-mates to kick to and compete.
Ideally, you want your key forwards to mark the ball, but if they don’t, make sure no one else does, by crashing the pack and bringing the ball to ground, something Adelaide and Port struggle to do. Great forwards refuse to be beaten; sure, you can lose form but you never give up demanding the ball and competing. Sadly both clubs’ forward lines have lost confidence and their way.
If they need some direction, watch Tiger Tom Lynch’s six-goal performance against Port.
Regularly outnumbered, he refused to give in and was rarely outmarked.
Questions must be asked of senior coaches Ken Hinkley and Don Pyke.
Why is it both clubs’ forwards are always stagnant and waiting for the ball to come to them instead of demanding the ball and leading towards the kicker, and why can’t they nullify an aerial contest and bring the ball to ground?
Why do their midfielders seem so confused, that they fail to kick the ball to a one-on-one contest in the forward line in fear of turning the ball over?
And why are their skills so poor? All valid questions. With both midfields consistently struggling, it’s hard to see things improving unless they start playing more life-and-death football.
Only then will we be in a position to really trust them again.
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