Port Adelaide making sure it enjoys the small steps on a much bigger journey this season
Bob Murphy said it best when he said you don’t have to put a keg on but teams must stop and savour the small wins along a much bigger journey and that’s exactly what Port Adelaide is doing after winning three in a row for the first time since 2018.
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ON THE surface it appeared that Port Adelaide’s win over Fremantle on Sunday night was nothing more than a regulation result but dig a little deeper and watch their rendition of the clubsong and it was anything but.
The Power is 3-0 in the most extraordinary of seasons and Sunday night was the first time they’d sang the song this year complete with the clapping, foot-stomping and dancing like they were at a Surfer’s Paradise nightclub.
“This is a special group,” vice captain Ollie Wines said after playing his first game for the year.
And it said something about the team that is clearly enjoying the ride and for now, is free from the self-doubt that used to creep in when they faced an opposition they were expected to beat last season.
Remember those costly slip-ups against Fremantle, the Western Bulldogs and North Melbourne last year?
So to start the 2020 season with three victories from three games they were tipped to win - and buck the weekend trend of upsets - in wet weather which has brought them undone in the past, was cause for celebration.
Former Western Bulldogs captain Bob Murphy has been retired for three years but remains a respected voice of reason in football and believes you’ve got to savour the little wins along a much bigger journey.
“You’ve got to nourish the group,” he said last year.
“You’ve got to celebrate the little wins. You don’t have to go out and put a keg on but those times are special because we do have a habit of dissecting a loss within an inch of its life and a win is just ‘move on’. That’s inbalanced.”
So the Power enjoyed Sunday night’s win with a rousing rendition of their team song - NRL-style in this non-contact covid environment - when they would usually stand arm in arm.
Even Ken Hinkley and Michael Voss were clapping along and if you were giving the votes for the most animated it would be 3: Zak Butters; 2: Hamish Hartlett; 1: Scott Lycett.
“It’s a take off of NRL teams I think, they’ve done it for years and done it pretty well and once one started last night we all jumped on the back of it,” Power midfielder Tom Rockliff said.
“Any time you’re winning games its enjoyable and the young boys bring so much energy and they just love winning, love kicking goals and celebrating together.
“I think everyone feeds off it and it breathes a lot of fresh air into the group, every team is hard to beat on their day and there’s no doubt Freo came out fired up, change of circumstances with the game a little later, and no team in a hub had won a game until us.
“That’s probably some of the best wet weather footy I’ve been a part of in any team I’ve been on, and to put nine scoring shots to none and 22 inside 50s to 0 in that quarter, we played the game on our terms after quarter-time and felt like we had the game pretty much in control from there.
“So it was still significant for us to get that win and now we move onto West Coast in five days’ time.”
Port Adelaide was a frustrating team to watch last year, even more so for supporters.
Just when you thought they were on the right path last season they would trip themselves up and the only consistent thing about the Power was their inconsistency.
They went win, loss, win, loss for nine games in a row and Sunday night was the first time in almost 23 months the Power has won three games in a row.
Of course the season is only three games in and Port Adelaide has achieved nothing yet but the little things like Sunday night are all important steps along the journey.
GAME NOTES
POWER V DOCKERS
THERE’S been so much talk of Port Adelaide’s young guns combining with its veterans to lead their resurgence this season but the middle tier is performing just as well.
And front and centre of that group is Hamish Hartlett who is finally showing no signs of the injuries that have hampered him in recent years.
His first-quarter smother and then tackle on Brandon Matera to catch him holding the ball on Sunday night typified the energy he plays with and he is equally as damaging with ball in hand off half-back.
SAM Powell-Pepper has also gone under the radar a little this year. In three games he isn’t racking up big possessions like he has in the midfield but as a pressure forward he’s doing his job perfectly and seems to be at the right spots at the right time in front of goal.
NOTHING wrong with Justin Westhoff’s ageing legs. He might be Port Adelaide’s oldest player at 33 - and turns 34 in October - but he had no trouble slotting one home from 50m on Sunday night.
WE KNOW Zak Butters can do the flashy stuff like his hanger at training this month and goal out of mid-air in the Showdown but his toughness is shining through as well. The way he crashed into Michael Walters and out-muscled him which led to Brad Ebert’s goal in the second term was superb.
CROWS V SUNS
NO one would want to be a forward in Adelaide’s side at the moment but could we see Taylor Walker moved into defence after his six touches on Sunday? Ben Dixon from Fox Footy wants him playing across half-back. “He can take a couple of intercept marks and his kicking - that can start your connection. I just think your backline is in real trouble and under siege, put an experienced player down there and he gets his eye in. We’ve all been thrown to the backline when we can’t sniff it up forward and I just think his use of the ball could really help their connection.”
TOM Doedee was the shining light for Adelaide on an otherwise very dark day on Sunday. In just his second game back from a knee reconstruction he had five intercept marks, won 10 intercept possessions and had 20 disposals.
THE other positive was Jake Kelly. When the team was being labelled uncompetitive, Jake Kelly’s ability to go at the footy after being smashed when backing back into a contest in the third quarter was exactly what supporters would want to see, and that was a week after he was concussed in the Showdown.
RORY Atkins will definitely miss this week’s game against Brisbane after injuring his shoulder but surely Matthew Nicks makes other changes? They were well beaten by the Suns in the scratch match on the weekend but fans might want to see Billy Frampton get another crack, Elliott Himmelberg play alongside Darcy Fogarty and will McHenry and Jones both start on the ball at the first bounce instead of waiting until the last quarter like Sunday?
reece.homfray@news.com.au