Port Adelaide shows it can be trusted again after superb win over Melbourne at the MCG
There were so many questions hanging over Port Adelaide before the season started but its win over Melbourne at the MCG at least an answer what can be expected from the Power this year.
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You can begin to put some new trust in the Power.
More so if Port Adelaide is going to out-run AFL rivals, as it did to Melbourne at the MCG on Saturday.
Port Adelaide opened its 2019 AFL premiership campaign with a significant 26-point win, while holding the Demons scoreless in the last term.
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This result starts to put give more hope to a team and club needing to answer many questions this season.
And it was a win built by the sound hands of experienced Power men — in particular Tom Rockliff and club champion Justin Westhoff in his 249th game — as coach Ken Hinkley’s new charges from the 2018 AFL draft made a superb first-up impression.
New first-round draftees — Zak Butters, Connor Rozee and Xavier Duursma — and fellow debutant Willem Drew, gave Hinkley no reason to regret putting faith in four new faces in such a high-stakes start to the season.
NEW GAME
Port Adelaide certainly wants to play faster football.
And the determination to move the ball quickly — rather than hold position at a mark — is strongly ingrained.
First-game Connor Rozee certainly learned this — with some four-letter guidance from his teammates — in time-on of the second term when he was flat-footed and uncertain after taking a mark outside the forward 50.
Ken Hinkley started his Port Adelaide story at the MCG in 2013 — also against Melbourne — vowing no team would outrun his Power unit.
That theme is back, although the ultimate goal of scoring more goals remains a work in progress while Port Adelaide plays without a recognised power forward.
The Power’s 12.15 (87) is marginally up on last year’s average score of 81 points.
NEW PLAYERS
West Coast premiership ruckman Scott Lycett started as the Power’s lead ruckman — just as much by his strong pre-season work as the cheekbone injury to Patrick Ryder, who wore his new helmet.
Lycett and Ryder working against All-Australian ruckman Max Gawn (a thorn to Port Adelaide for some time) and Sam Weideman always was to be a critical part of this match, particularly when centre-bounce wins can lead to goals with the new 6-6-6 starting positions.
Lycett and Ryder gave the Power midfielders a chance again, something that has been a luxury rather than a right in recent encounters with Gawn.
NEW ROLES
So much has indeed changed with Port Adelaide’s set-up. Brad Ebert from the midfield or half-back to now play as a forward.
Steven Motlop from a wing to work at centre-bounce stoppages — along with many others as the Power deepens its midfield rotations.
Jack Watts in defence. Former captain Travis Boak back to working midfield minutes — and Sam Powell-Pepper spending more time in the forward-50.
But for all this “newness” — and energy from the three 2018 first-round draftees — in Port Adelaide’s start to the 2019 AFL season, the revival of Boak and former Brisbane captain Tom Rockliff is more than a pre-season buzz.
Boak’s goal to open Port Adelaide’s scoring for the season — after reading a tap from new ruckman Scott Lycett — is one for his career highlights real.
The “veterans among young Turks” were top-two on the possession count for the Power at halftime with Boak at 19; Rockliff 16 before finishing with 44.
They were setting the standard, as good leaders — even without captaincy titles — should do.
And Port Adelaide should be forever grateful for its other evergreen veteran, Westhoff who kicked five goals.
AND WATTS
Melbourne, the football city rather than the football club, still has this bizarre fascination in Jack Watts, the 2006 No.1 AFL draftee.
The key position player in his second year at Port Adelaide after being ushered away from Melbourne by coach Simon Goodwin as an out-of-favour Demon.
This was, according to those who watched Watts for more than a decade as a Melbourne, the moment to make a statement. And after all these years.
Watts started on the bench. He played in defence. He conceded a 50m penalty when he was outmarked by Melbourne captain Nathan Jones in his first major challenge.
He could be on the MRO chart for his first-quarter bump on Demons midfielder Clayton Oliver.
It did get better for Watts, as highlighted by the jeering from his former Melbourne devotees as they watched him lock down on Demons forward James Melksham.
Let’s just say the Demons fans have more reason to celebrate what is building with wingman Bayley Fritsch, the player drafted with the pick conceded by the Power for Watts.
Indeed, the only image more off colour on Saturday than the Melbourne fans jeering a player they sent packing was that horrible grey jumper Port Adelaide thinks makes for a “clash” jumper.
michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au
MELBOURNE 4.3 6.5 9.7 9.7 (61)
PORT ADELAIDE 2.2 6.8 10.9 12.15 (87)
BEST
Power: Rockliff, Westhoff, Boak, R. Gray, Drew, Houston.
Demons: Salem, Oliver, Jones, Gawn, Brayshaw, Harmes.
GOALS
Power: Westhoff 5, Butters 2, Boak, Duursma, Ebert, R. Gray, Marshall.
Demons: Melksham 2, Brayshaw, Fritsch, Jones, T. McDonald, Petracca, Sparrow, Weideman.
Umpires: B. Rosebury, A. Stephens, B. Hosking.
Crowd: 38,866 at the MCG.
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