Insider: Port Adelaide is the AFL’s turnover king

TURN the ball over against Port Adelaide and pay the ultimate price. No AFL team is better at punishing opposition mistakes than Power.

TURN the ball over against Port Adelaide and pay the ultimate price.

No AFL team is more adept at punishing the opposition for a mistake than Ken Hinkley’s outfit.

His band of quicksilver runners swoop on turnovers like a dog on a bone and inflict damage where it hurts most — on the scoreboard.

In an amazing statistic, the Power has averaged 81.5 points a game from turnovers this season — 15.7 more than any other team in the first four rounds.

While hometown rival the Crows lost their first three games of the season because of their high turnover ratio and inability to stop the opposition from turning intercepts into scores — they arrested this in their breakthrough round four win against St Kilda — Port has become the master of the run and score from the turnovers it creates.

A remarkable 65.7 per cent of its scoring has come from turnovers — the second-highest percentage in the competition.

Overall, the Power has outscored the opposition by 174 points from turnovers — a +58 point differential better than any other team.

One of the key indicators of a team’s success is its ability to punish the opposition for their turnovers and Port does this better than any rival.

It is so ruthless when it wins the ball back off its opponent that it turns turnovers into scores 31.8 per cent of the time — 6.6 per cent above any other team and nine per cent above the third-ranked side, Essendon.

Adelaide sits second in punishing its rivals but it has a poor -95 point scoring differential from turnovers because it gets hurt so badly the other way.

The Power’s round five opponent West Coast sits fourth in turnover scoring differential at +74, which adds to the importance of winning the ball back off the opposition at Patersons Stadium tomorrow night.

Port has a host of players who create turnovers and get involved in turnover chains.

Veteran midfielder Kane Cornes is involved in a club-best 15 turnover chains a game, with 35 per cent of the turnovers leading to scores.

Full forward Jay Schulz (58.8%) and small forwards Chad Wingard (58.6%) and Robbie Gray (57.9%) have the best percentage of being involved in a turnover chain and turning it into a score.

But the most scores (5.8) have come from the involvement of key forward/utility Justin Westhoff, who has been involved in an average of 11.3 turnover chains.

Forwards generally lead these categories because of their closeness to goal and ability to hit the scoreboard themselves.

Speedy midfielder Matt White — Port’s free agent acquisition from Richmond — has an excellent 53.1 per cent scoring percentage from his involvement in turnover chains, highlighting his effectiveness with the ball in his hands.

Power vice-captain Brad Ebert said his club prided itself on pressuring the opposition into giving the ball back and then running hard in numbers the other way to inflict scoreboard damage.

“The key is to pressure a team into turning the ball over in positions of the ground where we can attack from,’’ he said.

“We’re making sure that we really try to get those forward half turnovers and really try to press a team into our forward half.

“We feel if we can apply enough pressure then we can force our opponent into a risky kick or a high ball which we can cut off and then try to hurt them on the scoreboard. So far it’s working.’’