Port Adelaide brushes Adelaide aside in the SANFL showdown at Alberton Oval

PORT Adelaide showed it will again be a force in the SANFL this season, smashing Adelaide by 95 points at Alberton Oval.

Port Adelaide’s Lindsay Thomas gathers the ball and heads forward. Picture: Tom Huntley

SO MUCH for the Port Adelaide and Adelaide reserves teams hinges on injuries to AFL personnel and that was no more evident than at Alberton Oval on Saturday.

Port had 16 listed players, meaning it was forced to summon only five top up players into the team to front the Crows and that group included captain Steven Summerton.

In contrast, the Crows have been hit hard by early-season injuries and had to use 10 top up players.

It is such a significant advantage and Port made the most of the scenario to smash the Crows by 95 points in a lopsided contest.

Port annihilated the Crows at the clearances and with such a massive supremacy at the stoppages the home side was never threatened. And the benefit of having so many more full timers was most evident in the third quarter when Port piled on 10 goals.

Dangerous small forward Lindsay Thomas bagged six goals to show why the Power were prepared to give him a home.

“That was a focus going into the game, we had some big body mids and they had a young midfield,” Port coach Matthew Lokan said.

“It was very pleasing to get some dominance through the middle of the ground.”

Lokan also praised the efforts of Jack Kluske, Levi Proud and Jack Strange, who made their league debut.

Port’s pressure was outstanding from the outset and their ball movement highly effective.

The dominance at the stoppages, and ability to beat the Crows to the loose ball, created headaches for the Crows. Port had 95 more disposals and with such a flood of ball, its running game and the likes of Summerton, Thomas and Jake Neade will cause damage.

It was not until nine minutes into the second quarter before the Crows kicked a goal courtesy of Matthew Signorello.

The Crows looked like a side which had spent precious little time together, their tackling lacked discipline at times and they did not have enough weapons to hurt Port.

Crows coach Ryan O’Keefe refused to use the AFL player count as an excuse.

“We were beaten by a better side on the day, simple as that,” he said.

SCOREBOARD

PORT ADELAIDE 3.6 5.10 15.11 19.14 (128)

ADELAIDE 0.3 2.4 3.4 4.9 (33)

BEST - Port: Thomas, Neade, Summerton, Snelling, Proude, Kluske, Lienert. Adelaide: Wilson, Davey, Edwards, O’Brien, Davis.

GOALS - Port: Thomas 6, Kluske 3, Frampton, Johnson 2, Neade, Proude, Hayes, Atley, Snelling, Patmore. Adelaide: Edwards, Wilson, Signorello, O’Brien.

INJURIES - Adelaide: Cheney (hamstring), Offe (concussion).

UMPIRES - Broadbent, Bowen, Bryce.

CROWD - 2451 at Alberton Oval.