AFL Round 10 Geelong v Port Adelaide: All the news, action and fallout
Charlie Dixon and a fringe Power playmaker have starred in the reserves, while the comeback of a star was put on hold. Plus, the latest on Patrick Dangerfield.
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Charlie Dixon is primed for an AFL return after he kicked three goals against West Adelaide in the SANFL but Orazio Fantasia’s comeback was put on ice because of a tight quad.
Dixon will give Power coach Ken Hinkley and his assistants a welcome headache this week after he impressed against the Bloods in the Russell Ebert tribute game in Loxton on Sunday.
Dixon kicked 3.3 and had 16 disposals in the Magpies win over the Bloods.
But Fantasia didn’t feature for the Magpies in Loxton.
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Port were planning for the small forward to be the medical sub for the second week in a row against Geelong, as Fantasia returns from off-season knee surgery.
Hinkley even said on Thursday morning that the former Bomber would “certainly be in the 23”.
But Fantasia did not pull up as well as the club had hoped from training and it did not want to risk him in the AFL and named in the SANFL side.
However Fantasia didn’t play for the Magpies with his quad still a bit tight.
He will now face an uphill battle to take on his former club on Sunday after two weeks without any game practice.
Dixon will be right in the mix to play his first game of the season against the Bombers after two surgeries on his ankle.
He kicked three on Sunday but also moved well in the Magpies’ forward line.
He did send a mild scare through the Port set-up when he came off the ground at the 20 minute mark of the third quarter and did look a little proppy.
But he returned in the fourth quarter.
Power-listed swingman Sam Skinner suffered a concussion and will be out for at least 12 days.
Xavier Duursma won the Russell Ebert Medal with 29 disposals and two goals while Dylan Williams kicked 4.3 to continue to push for his first AFL game of the season.
It comes as Geelong doctors will keep a close eye on Patrick Dangerfield’s calf this week amid concerns of further interruptions to the star midfielder’s season.
Dangerfield was subbed out late in the final quarter of the Cats’ 35-point win over Port Adelaide with calf tightness on Saturday.
Coach Chris Scott said after the game that he hoped it was just for precautionary reasons, but football manager Simon Lloyd confirmed on Sunday that the club would monitor the Brownlow medallist over the coming days to assess the injury.
“We need to assess this throughout the week and as always our decisions will be based on what’s best for the player,” Lloyd said.
“We’ll be guided by the medical team.”
It followed a tough week for the 32-year-old who, despite battling illness during the week, managed to stand up in some big moments playing predominantly forward, finishing with 18 disposals, six clearances and four score involvements.
“I actually thought he was good, there’s always a risk when a guy’s bed ridden during the week, you don’t know exactly how they’re going to go,” Scott said after the match.
“He probably didn’t know exactly how he was going to go except that he was clearly good enough to play yesterday (Friday).
“I actually thought he had an impact on the game and was important.”
Cats expose ‘a lot’ of issues but Ken says Port’s best coming
— Mark Hayes
Patrick Dangerfield will be on injury watch this week as Geelong put a temporary end to Port Adelaide’s uprising at GHMBA Stadium today.
The 2016 Brownlow medallist finished Geelong’s 35-point victory on the bench after suffering another slight calf injury.
Dangerfield, who had been sufficiently ill to be bed-ridden during the week, started slowly but amassed 18 disposals in 63 per cent game time before being benched when the “game was iced”, coach Chris Scott said.
“The only feedback we have at the moment is that (his calf is) tight and he shouldn’t go back on, given the score. I love it when physios decide the game’s over,” Scott said with a wry grin.
“It’s hard to say, but my hope is it was just precautionary.”
Asked if Dangerfield would miss next Saturday’s game against Adelaide, Scott said: “Not that I’m aware of.”
Scott was impressed with his backline and his team’s overall intensity in seeing off a dangerous Port combination that had won four games in a row and had threatened another upset when leading at half-time and closing in against just before Geelong launched late in the third term using its brilliant half-backline as a springboard.
“We forecast that the game would be tight and ugly at times because you do need to get your hands dirty with those guys,” he said.
“Our players were really prepared for a scrap around the ball, we had to make sure there was some dirty ball coming forward and we had to think about ways of scoring differently ., and we did that pretty well, I reckon.
“I thought (our backline was) good against good opposition. That group is relatively new, especially with Sam deKoning being the cornerstone of that defence with his height, taking the best match-up most weeks and doing a fantastic job.
“This iteration of the backline has been building for a while. Given the strength of the opposition and they worked really hard to create even numbers ahead of the ball, those guys stood up in the contest really well.”
Port coach Ken Hinkley insisted his team was still “right in the season” despite the loss.
The Power, having come from 0-5, were within 35 good minutes of squaring the ledger until the weight of Geelong possession finally cracked the visitors.
But Hinkley was typically pragmatic, saying his team simply hadn’t deserved victory and would regroup quickly for the next challenge.
“(A chance) didn’t go begging, I don’t think. We just didn’t play very well. We were lucky enough to be in front at half-time but there wasn’t much of the game that we really enjoyed today other than a few minutes in the second quarter,” Hinkley said.
“The team that had the better physicality around the ball won the game.
“But we’re right in the season. We’ve got hopefully our best football to come still because we haven’t had things exactly the way we’d like them in the first half of the season that have been out of our control, and sometimes inside our control.
“But I certainly believe our best footy is coming and today here in Geelong, we didn’t see much of our best footy.”
Port kept Geelong without a mark inside forward 50 until deep into the third quarter, despite being outmuscled and out-possessed around the contest.
A quality second quarter for the visitors gave them the lead, but that became a wrestle in the third term and when Jeremy Finlayson missed a gilt-edged chance to pull the Power within a kick in the shadows of the last change, the tide turned quickly.
“We didn’t give up, but we didn’t have much polish going on around the contest, down the ground, our forwardline, our backline – there were just too many parts not working real well out there today,” said Hinkley, who said a lack of forward targets was just one of “a lot” of issues that meant his team could only muster two second-half goals.
Hinkley said his team, which faces Essendon at home next week before a Round 12 bye, had probably been a little flat after a big month on the road, but wouldn’t be fazed by the loss.
“We’ve recovered reasonably well (from our 0-5 start). In the last four weeks we’ve been to Cairns, Hobart and Geelong … been good enough … to win four out of five.
“The season says we’re going to have to keep doing that a bit if we’re going to continue to improve, but it’s still in our control.”
Match report: Power exposed by Cats’ second-half blitz
Port Adelaide stood at the brink of rocking the AFL season, but baulked.
Geelong stood at the same crossroads – and didn’t blink.
The Cats withstood what had appeared a genuine threat from Port that threatened to leave both teams at 5-5 and in the top-eight melting pot.
But when the whips started cracking late in the third quarter, Geelong’s backline tightened appreciably, the midfield flexed and forwards suddenly looked dangerous – all of which amounted to a 35-point victory and the status quo maintained.
And the real action started in a hurry.
After an occasionally flat, but always tight first 2.95 quarters, the game had the feeling as though it was approaching a crossroads.
Port, for a rare occasion, breezed through the midfield and a chain of possessions ended with Jeremy Finlayson having a set shot 40m out with the prospect of bringing his team within a goal and the “scoring end” to come in the final term.
With an almost lackadaisical approach, Finlayson tugged his shot into the point post.
Then, in a matter of seconds, Geelong swept the ball downfield, leaving goalsneak Tyson Stengle a “tap-in” to switch the momentum.
Worse was to come for the visitors who could only stare in disbelief as Jeremy Cameron marked just before the siren near the fence and proceeded to launch a 65m torpedo for a goal that not only brought the house down, but effectively sealed the deal with a 26-point lead from almost nowhere.
That might do a disservice to the overall efforts of the Cats’ half-back line, led as ever by the impassable Tom Stewart and Zach Tuohy, but with great help from Jake Kolodjashnij, Jed Bews and company, who restricted Port to just two second-half goals.
Remarkably, it took Geelong until midway through the third quarter to register a mark inside-50, despite having a large ascendancy in forward entries.
It highlighted both the haphazard nature of the team’s midfield disposal along with the impressive triangle of key defenders that Port employed to negate Geelong’s normally destructive big forwards.
Aliir Aliir, Tom Clurey and the reliable Tom Jonas did a great job in shutting down Tom Hawkins and Cameron up the middle, pushing them up the ground or wide for the majority of their marks.
But when the dam broke, Cameron in particular became a major threat in transition and the Cats won easing up.
Pick your targets
You knew Lachie Jones had a bit have to have a bit about him when he rocked the big mullet on debut last season.
And the powerfully built 20-year-old did that perception no harm when he took on two of Geelong’s favourite sons in ferocious contests late in the first term.
Jones narrowly missed putting Cats skipper Joel Selwood into orbit with a swinging leg that, had it fully connected, would have been extremely problematic for both.
As it was, Selwood went to the bench after the clash and was seen talking to the emergency umpire soon afterwards.
But not content with that “scalp”, Jones soon barrelled through Patrick Dangerfield as the Cats champ booted the ball into attack on the outer wing, giving away a 50m penalty in doing so.
Suffice to say, Mr Jones won’t be getting too many Christmas cards from the Cats faithful any time soon.
We’ve started, boys
There was a bit of “push and shove” before the opening bounce, but it was a false advertisement for any early intensity despite postcard perfect conditions.
After one of the most lacklustre opening 10-minute exchanges imaginable, one radio broadcaster asked his quick-witted stats man for any standout numbers and he replied there had been 15 boundary throw-ins.
Tall order
Neither club had remotely the ruck combinations they intended before the season began, Port without Scott Lycett in particular and Geelong without Jon Ceglar and late omission Rhys Stanley.
So whether intentional or circumstantial, there were periods of the match with extraordinary ruck tactics being used – or unused as the case may be.
It seemed as though when makeshift Cats ruck Mark Blicavs wasn’t in the vicinity for a winthrow-in, coach Chris Scott didn’t want to alter his forward structure by bringing either Jeremy Cameron or Tom Hawkins too far up the ground, instead electing the “no ruck” option.
Remarkably, this left Port’s “towering” 187cm Sam Powell-Pepper unopposed at multiple boundary “contests”.
Blicavs, arguably the league’s premier Mr Fixit, did well to more than hold his own against Port’s Sam Hayes, the only genuine ruckman on the ground.
Scoreboard
GEELONG 3.6 4.8 9.11 11.16 (82)
PORT ADELAIDE 2.1 5.3 6.3 7.5 (47)
BEST:
Geelong: C.Guthrie, Stewart, Tuohy, Parfitt, Close, Cameron
Port Adelaide: Houston, Aliir, Wines, Farrell, Boak.
GOALS:
Geelong: Stengle (3), Cameron (3), Hawkins (2), Close, Kolodjashnij, Selwood.
Port Adelaide: Farrell (2), Marshall (2), Gray (2), Finlayson.
INJURIES:
Geelong: nil. Late changes: OUT: Rhys Stanley, Quinton Narkle; IN: Francis Evans, Cooper Stephens.
Port Adelaide: nil
VENUE: GMHBA Stadium, Geelong.
HAYES’ VOTES
3: C.Guthrie (GEE)
2: T.Stewart (GEE)
1: Z.Tuohy (GEE)
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