SANFL 2019: West Adelaide v Port Adelaide | Round 1 match report

Port Adelaide has opened its SANFL campaign on a winning note – and snapped an eight-game losing streak stretching back to last season – with a convincing victory over West Adelaide.

Port Adelaide has opened its SANFL campaign on a winning note – and snapped an eight-game losing streak stretching back to last season – with a convincing victory over West Adelaide.

The Magpies flexed their muscle in the final term to down the Bloods by 31 points in a scrappy contest played in unseasonably cold and breezy conditions at Richmond on Friday night.

Port pushed out to a three-goal advantage in the third term, only for the hosts to roar back to within two points at the last change thanks largely to livewire Gibson Turner (three goals).

Ken Karpany handed West the lead early in the final quarter with his third, but unanswered majors to Tobin Cox, Peter Ladhams, Jack Trengove and Sam Gray (three) sealed the result.

The 11.19 (85) to 8.6 (54) success also ended a winless run which dated back to round 11 last season for coach Matthew Lokan’s side.

Power-listed Jack Trengove (game-high 44 possessions) and Gray (33, four goals) shone for Port, which might have recorded a more handsome victory were it not for its inaccuracy.

Earlier, West took a one-goal lead to the first break in a match which was pointless until the eighth minute and goalless until the 13th thanks to round-one rustiness from both teams.

Karpany notched the Bloods’ first major after being teed up expertly by Jono Beech, before Gibson Turner snapped smartly for his maiden league goal for the hosts.

West was more determined in the tackle and hungrier around the contest as it laid down an early marker of intent.

Gibson Turner of West Adelaide gets a handball away under pressure. Picture: Dean Martin

But the Magpies finally got on the board late in the opening quarter when Tobin Cox held his nerve to convert from 40m.

The match swung in second-term time-on as Port raced to a two-goal buffer at the main break.

Boyd Woodcock kicked truly from just inside 50 to put the visitors in front with his first major in Magpies colours.

The North Adelaide product then sent a long kick to the goal square from the centre bounce and Gray crumbed off the pack to tap home from point-blank range.

Earlier in the term, Karpany got his second to build on the Bloods’ early lead only for Aidyn Johnson to mark bravely and convert.

Port looked to be headed for victory when Gray unselfishly fed Dallas Hills who kicked into an empty goal to push his side out to a three-goal lead early in the third stanza.

But two goals to Gibson Tunrer, including a brilliant kick from the boundary, and a composed Jade Cleeland effort got the Bloods back to within two at the last change.

SCOREBOARD

PORT ADELAIDE 1.2 4.9 5.13 11.19 (85)

WEST ADELAIDE 2.2 3.3 6.5 8.6 (54)

BEST – West: Karpany, Schiller, G. Turner, Schmidt, Waite. Port: Trengove, Gray, Atley, Broadbent, Woodcock, Mayes.

GOALS – West: G. Turner, Karpany 3, Cleeland, Schiller. Port: S. Gray 4, Cox 2, Johnson, Woodcock, Hill, Ladhams, Trengove.

UMPIRES – M. Schramm, D. Sobieraj, A. Bennett.

At Richmond Oval.