Mid-season review: Port Adelaide set to surge for finals push in second half of AFL season
Port Adelaide has laid the foundation for a serious play at a return to finals thanks to a re-energised game plan and some old and new faces. But while there is plenty of upside, some significant tests await.
Port Adelaide
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Port Adelaide has been here before … and, after being well placed at the halfway mark of the season, failed to make it count when the AFL premiership is decided in September.
It was 6-5 in 2017 — as it is today — and crashed in a dramatic extra-time elimination final with West Coast on Luke Shuey’s free kick after the siren at Adelaide Oval.
It was 7-4 last year … and collapsed from top-four contender to 10th by losing six of the last seven games, with a horrid surrender at the last battle against Essendon at Adelaide Oval.
So why will it be third time lucky … or at least different as Ken Hinkley and his new-look aims for its first finals win since 2014?
This key question remains unanswered from the first half of the season. And it probably will not be until Port Adelaide faces its demons with Essendon at the Melbourne Docklands on August 3 that there will be clarity on where the Power stands in the race to the final eight, let alone a premiership battle loaded with jokers in the pack.
Port Adelaide opened the season promising change. It has tried to deliver a new play theme based on speed, much-deeper rotations in the midfield and stronger conversion and efficiency in attack.
The numbers, the ones that tell the story on the scoreboard, highlight Port Adelaide is still a work in progress — and needs key forward Charlie Dixon to successfully complete his recovery and return to action after the horror of his leg and ankle injuries late last season.
Port Adelaide has averaged 87 points this season — up by just one goal on last season’s average.
The Power has a 50.9 per cent scoring rate, averaging 12.12 in the first half of the season. There was slightly greater accuracy last season — 53.4 per cent.
In defence, there remains solid results. After conceding 75 points last season — a record low during the club’s AFL story since 1997 — Brett Montgomery’s defence has given up an average 78 points in 11 games despite the loss of a key player, Jack Watts, with serious leg injuries early in the campaign.
There is still vice-captain Hamish Hartlett, recuperating from last year’s serious knee injury, to add to this defensive unit. Such a bonus for the second half of the season could allow Hinkley to consider Riley Bonner on a wing — and further diminish the concerns that came with the loss of the speedy Jared Polec to North Melbourne at the end of last season.
The standout notes from Port Adelaide’s first half are:
TRAVIS BOAK re-emerging as a premier midfielder after abdicating as captain and being reassigned from a challenging half-forward role.
DAN HOUSTON taking another major step in his rise to a first-class footballer. His recent move from defence to midfield duty in his 50th AFL game at the weekend highlights his superb development and progress in the past 18 months.
CONNOR ROZEE is justifying every deal Power list manager Jason Cripps made to get the No. 5 draft pick — with Hawthorn defender Ryan Burton added to the strategy — as club champion Chad Wingard was conceded to the Hawks in the October trade period.
Port Adelaide has put down the foundation for a serious play at a top-eight berth, most probably between sixth and eighth. There are significant tests to come when the campaign resumes against Fremantle in Perth next week — in particular in finding consistency after not managing more than two consecutive wins.
The Power certainly has been here before — and the expectation is rising for a change in script for September.
QUOTE, UNQUOTE
We have to continually reflect — and fertilise that courage and that belief that the way we are playing is the right way to play. But it does not guarantee us wins all the time.
— Coach KEN HINKLEY, after beating West Coast, on the progress with a new playbook this season
GAME PLAN
PORT Adelaide’s playbook dramatically changed in the summer as everyone — coach Ken Hinkley, his new coaching panel (that gained 2004 AFL premiership trio Jarrad Schofield, Brett Montgomery and Dean Brogan) and his players — noted the need for change … and not just because the AFL was delivering new rules.
Critically, the Power — after being stifled by opposition teams outnumbering midfielders at the contest and blocking the defensive unit’s rebound from the back-third of the field — has emphasised speed, deeper rotations in the midfield and all-team defence beyond the back-50 arc.
It is still a work in progress, as noted by the Power breaking the watershed 100-point barrier just once (against St Kilda in Shanghai in Round 11).
CO-CAPTAINS
TOM Jonas and Ollie Wines have played just three of a possible 11 games together as co-captains (Rounds 3-5). Such a small sample makes it very difficult to assess how the new leadership system — that has not had vice-captain Hamish Hartlett involved in any AFL match — stands up as an answer to the need for stronger on-field leadership at Alberton.
Noted, however, is the hit taken to the Power membership count as fans took issue with Port Adelaide stepping away from the one-captain model that had applied since the club’s start in 1870.
RECRUITS
RYAN BURTON (Hawthorn) — For all the questions of where Burton should play, he has settled perfectly at half-back.
SCOTT LYCETT (West Coast) — The West Coast premiership ruckman has created a successful tandem with Patrick Ryder and given the Power a long-term answer to any concern with the out-of-contract Ryder’s tenure. He has kicked five goals — and will need to deliver more as a forward.
SAM MAYES (Brisbane) — No AFL game.
DRAFTEES
CONNOR ROZEE — The energetic half-forward has been the pick of the bunch with his Rising Star nomination and his rise to the top of the Port Adelaide goalkicking list. The Power will be pleased with its trading strategy in October that advanced the club’s first pick in the draft to No. 5 to claim the North Adelaide premiership player.
XAVIER DUURSMA — Also a Rising Star nominee and showing the pace that Port Adelaide needed to replace, particularly after allowing wingman Jared Polec to move to North Melbourne.
ZAK BUTTERS — With his hard edge, the Victorian teenager is living up to the expectation Port Adelaide had when it called the midfielder at No. 12 in the national draft.
CLUB CHAMPION
Travis Boak
STUNNING start to the season from the former captain who has been restored to the Power midfield. At 30 — and just recently past his 250-game milestone — Boak leads Port Adelaide in so many key performance categories that he is not only the standout player at Alberton, but also a contender for the leaderboard at the Brownlow Medal count.
COACH
KEN Hinkley’s win-loss record is 83-56 (56 per cent winning rate) in his seven seasons at Port Adelaide.
He does not command the unshakeable faith the Power fans had — with their “In Ken We Trust” placards — in 2013-14, but he has again shown the ability to adapt to the needs of his team and the game with a new playbook.
To be noted is how Hinkley gets a reaction from his team when it is challenged to respond, particularly from bad starts. And to be praised is how Hinkley accepted his players’ feedback on how they wanted to play to deliver better results after last year’s collapse from contender to pretender in the last seven weeks (1-6 win-loss) of the home-and-away season.
On contract to the end of 2021.
GRADING
B
The good has been very good (as noted against West Coast) rather than great; the bad is still concerning (as highlighted against Hawthorn).
Consistency remains a challenge as noted by the game-result sequence in the first half of the season — WWLLWWLLWLW. There needs to a solid sequence of wins in the next half of the home-and-away campaign.
The rejuvenation of the line-up — in particular with first-round draftee Connor Rozee and Hawthorn trade recruit Ryan Burton — sets up the Power for a promising new era.
COMING UP
Port Adelaide has reason to expect stronger results in the second half of the season as it seeks to return to the top-eight finals for the first time since 2017 — and chases its first finals win since 2014.
CHARLIE DIXON
After a difficult recovery program — including extra surgery in March — to heal from a broken leg and damaged ankle, the 200cm key forward is due to return to competitive football in the second half of the season.
Dixon’s return gives the Power the go-to forward it needs to take advantage of its strength in winning the ball at clearances and driving the play inside-50 — perhaps with greater certainty with Dixon capable of marking the ball, particularly in the less-cluttered attacking zone with the 6-6-6 starting positions.
FIXTURE
Port Adelaide re-starts with another long-haul trip, to Perth, to face an inform Fremantle — the team that tripped up the Power in Round 17 last year (the start of the six losses from the last seven games with Dockers coach Ross Lyon showing all how to unravel the Power game plan).
The Power has seven of its remaining 11 home-and-away games at Adelaide Oval, including a stretch of four in a row at home from Round 14 — against Geelong, the Western Bulldogs, Adelaide (as the “away” team in the Showdown) and Brisbane.
June 15 v Fremantle (Perth Stadium)
June 22 v Geelong (Adelaide Oval)
June 29 v W Bulldogs (Adelaide Oval)
July 6 v Adelaide (Adelaide Oval)
July 14 v Brisbane (Adelaide Oval)
July 20 v Richmond (MCG)
July 27 v GWS (Adelaide Oval)
August 3 v Essendon (Docklands)
August 10 v Sydney (Adelaide Oval)
August 17 v N Melbourne (Docklands)
R23 v Fremantle (Adelaide Oval)
MOST LIKELY — Win 7, lose 4
FINAL COUNT — 13-9, play finals
CRUNCH GAME
Round 20 v Essendon at Docklands
Port Adelaide has a concerning record against Essendon under the roof of Melbourne’s Docklands Stadium. It reads — won just twice (2015 and 2010) in the past seven meetings on the fast track where the Bombers have sliced through the Power’s midfield and defence. In each of the past two games there have been bad starts — loaded with turnovers — by the Power.
This game — as it was in Round 23 last season — could well decide if Port Adelaide plays finals.
BY THE NUMBERS
WIN-LOSS: 6-5 (7-4 in 2018, 6-5 in 2017)
HOME: 3-2
AWAY: 3-3
SCORED: Average 87 (up six points on 2018)
AGAINST: Average 78 (up three points on 2018)
PLAYERS USED: 33
LEADING GOALKICKER: Connor Rozee (15)
TEAM RANKINGS
DISPOSALS — 2
KICKS — 3
HANDBALLS — 5
MARKS — 14
CONTESTED — 1
CLEARANCES — 1
TACKLES — 3
INSIDE-50s — 1
HIT-OUTS — 4 (to advantage, 2)
PLAYER LEADERS
DISPOSALS — Travis Boak, 351
KICKS — Travis Boak, 171
HANDBALLS — Travis Boak, 180
MARKS — Xavier Duursma, 60
HIT-OUTS — Patrick Ryder, 248
TACKLES — Travis Boak, 63
BEST GAME
R5 — defeated West Coast, 13.17 (95) to 8.5 (53) Perth Stadium
STARING at three losses in a row, Port Adelaide defied the doomsday script by beating the AFL premier with its most manic and controlled football — and the “dirty ball” tactic to keep the Sherrin low (to avert being again cut off in attack by the intercept West Coast defenders such as Jeremy McGovern). The Power’s work at the contests was phenomenal.
WORST GAME
R7 — lost to Collingwood, 10.9 (69) to 15.18 (108) Docklands
NO goal in the first term. Conceded 13 scores — and seven goals — to Collingwood in the opening quarter. And made to look far off the AFL pacesetter with terrible defensive themes as Magpies ruckman Brodie Grundy answered for his grand final performance against Scott Lycett (leading to Lycett copping a telling spray from coach Ken Hinkley at quarter-time).
michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au
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