Paddy Ryder’s 200th AFL game leaves him with a smile as Port Adelaide Power downs Collingwood at the MCG

A POWER win and a points decision over fellow elite bigman Brodie Grundy ... there wasn’t much for Port Adelaide’s Paddy Ryder to dislike about his 200th AFL game.

Paddy Ryder outpoints Collingwood’s Brodie Grundy in his 200th game, at the MCG. Picture: Julian Smith (AAP)

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PORT Adelaide’s players could not be more chuffed for Paddy Ryder, the former Essendon player who on Saturday celebrated his 200th AFL game with a win against Collingwood, after spending last year banned on the sidelines because of his part in the 2012 supplements scandal.

And Ryder cut a content figure in the MCG changerooms after the game, having outpointed Brodie Grundy in a contest between two of the best ruckmen in the competition, as the Power scored a 31-point win against Collingwood.

To Ryder, the Power is playing well again after a bad loss to Essendon a fortnight ago and a scrappy win against Brisbane last week.

“It was a good contest out there, a battle of the midfields and I think we came out on top,” Ryder said. “They got a few easy uncontested marks and stuff but I don’t think they were too damaging.

“They had more than 100 (marks) for the game (but) a lot of them were sideways and sort of 15m to 20m kicks forward — not too damaging.

“It’s a big ground and that’s probably why they got a few uncontested marks — we’re not used to playing on the wide grounds. We’ll look at that for when we come back the next time and hopefully shut that down.

“We kept them to 60-something (points) so that’s pretty good.

“We focus on that (defence). Our forwards have to bring a huge amount of pressure for our game style to work and they did really well.

“The goalkicking was the only thing that let us down a bit today but other than that we’re back in a good groove.

“We’re executing the stuff that we want to and we’re getting the wins for it.”

Coach Ken Hinkley said the players had made a point out of not letting Ryder down in his milestone game.

Certainly, Ryder had played his part.

“I loved Paddy’s game, his 200th game,” Hinkley said.

“You’ve got to see inside the group what it feels like for the rest of the group for Paddy.

“They genuinely love him and I heard a couple of them saying, ‘let’s make sure we look after Paddy and we bring him off the ground the way we should’.

“They understand what he and Gus (Angus Monfries) and the rest of the Essendon players had gone through.”