Season review: Port dropped its bundle after a stunning start, how can they avoid that in 2019?
PORT Adelaide coughed up an 11-4 start to miss the AFL finals and there is much work to be done at Alberton if the Power is to correct this in season 2019. Michaelangelo Rucci looks at how to make the Power great again.
IT will be the simplest trivia question at pubs around the nation for the next decade: Which AFL club stumbled from an 11-4 win-loss count to miss the finals by losing six of its last seven games?
After stocking up at the October trade table — to make for a better football team — the Power went backwards in Season 2018 dropping its ranking from fifth at the end of last year’s home-and-away series to 10th.
FIXTURING: POWER, CROWS IN ‘MIDDLE SIX’
GET SMART: DON’T BE SO RUTHLESS, KOCHY
While senior coach Ken Hinkley left in limbo why this happened, there is no great mystery to Port Adelaide’s disappointing finish.
Port Adelaide’s midfield lacks class. The Power has too many players with poor skills under pressure.
Port Adelaide cannot — as it had addressed in the off-season — score enough. Even with the big gains in the trade period of Jack Watts (Melbourne), Tom Rockliff (Brisbane) and Steven Motlop (Geelong), the Power had its scoring average fall from 98 to 81 points — a loss of three-goals on 2017 productivity on the scoreboard. The defence held up conceding on average 75 points — down by one on 2017 figures.
And Port Adelaide’s game plan grinds to a halt when Hinkley needs to see quick ball movement to a rather limited attack that still appears too reliant on key forward Charlie Dixon (who finished the year with a broken leg).
Port Adelaide’s prospect were left vulnerable by the other grand reliance — on All-Australian ruckman Patrick Ryder, who started the season with an Achilles tendon strain (perhaps from being the good citizen in chasing a home invader) and later with a hip strain. No surprise then that the Power is moving on West Coast free-agent ruckman Scott Lycett to return him to Alberton.
The upside for Port Adelaide in Season 2018 was the growth of Dougal Howard and Tom Clurey as key defenders, the leadership of fellow defender Tom Jonas, the sample of what left-footer Kane Farrell could mean to the Power in the midfield after his three-goal first quarter in Showdown 45 and the continued brilliance of All-Australian Robbie Gray.
The challenge left from Season 2018 is to refocus young midfielder Sam Powell-Pepper, reinvigorate the attack, find a new wingman to replace Jared Polec and sort out the skill base at Alberton.
ON THE AGENDA
PORT Adelaide is exactly where it was last season in the end-of-year review. It needs forwards who can score. It needs midfielders with class — and sound kicking skills under pressure. And it needs a game plan that delivers the ball accurately and with speed to its forwards.
Port Adelaide will have optimism with young forward Todd Marshall having clear space to make a strong run at setting up his AFL career next season.
The Power will need former Brisbane captain Tom Rockliff to be sound when he starts pre-season training; and Melbourne recruit Jack Watts to find a meaningful role in the team — dare someone suggest he play on a wing vacated by Polec?
But most of all, Port Adelaide will need to find a killer instinct — and the strength to close out tight games after losing matches to Hawthorn (three points), Fremantle (nine), Adelaide (three) and West Coast (four) as the collapse deepened in the second half of the year.
TRADE TABLE
OUT: Jared Polec (to North Melbourne ahead of St Kilda, Carlton and Sydney) for a first-round draft pick in return. Novice midfielder Joe Atley could be wrapped in this deal. Contracted defender Jasper Pittard and fellow defender Jack Hombsch also will be on the trade table.
IN: West Coast restricted free-agent ruckman Scott Lycett.
Port Adelaide must be wary of yet again buying other clubs’ junk in the October trade period. It has a task in satisfying contracted midfielder-forward Chad Wingard with a new pay scale. And the Power will hear much angst from the supporter base when Polec accepts one of his godfather offers from a Melbourne-based club.
DRAFT PLAY
PORT Adelaide is not short of draft picks for November’s AFL national player lottery — a first-round pick that would become two with Jared Polec’s move to North Melbourne; two second-round picks and two third-round picks. The draft strategy is to find productive forwards and line-breaking, speedy midfielders who can move the ball with accuracy.
The whiteboard at Alberton projecting Port Adelaide’s next premiership line-up would have many gaps across the midfield and in attack.
CLUB CHAMPION
ALL-Australian Robbie Gray, defender (and potential captain) Tom Jonas, departing wingman Jared Polec and evergreen utility Justin Westhoff are the leading contenders for the John Cahill Medal on Friday, October 5. In this quartet, Gray is the only one with club champion titles — 2014, 2015 and 2016.
Jonas is the grand achiever as he earned All-Australian nomination for the second time this year — and proved his consistency after ranking third (behind ruckman Patrick Ryder and key forward Charlie Dixon) in last year’s count.
SEASON 2019 FORECAST
WHO would Port Adelaide replace in the current top eight? Club president David Koch might have summed it up best by noting the Power is in the “death zone” as a team that is stuck in the AFL’s 9-12 zone. At best, Port Adelaide will — again — be challenging for eighth spot next season.
GRAND FINAL TICKETS
NOT soon. It will be a major challenge to earn a grand final berth with the current list within the next three years before coach Ken Hinkley’s contract expires at the end of 2021.
ROBBO’S TAKE
Season fell apart from the moment the siren sounded in Perth in Round 17. Couldn’t score, lost dare and dash which Ken Hinkley is not renowned for — maybe the slow ball movement was designed to beat Richmond — and the season disappeared like river in a dry summer. Pressure on everyone at Port Adelaide and so it should be.