Tom Rockliff reveals what started the bad blood between Port Adelaide and Melbourne

TOM Rockliff has revealed the reasons behind the “perfect storm’’ that erupted at half-time of Port Adelaide’s finals-shaping win against Melbourne at Adelaide Oval on Friday night.

Bernie Vince remonstrates with Port’s Tom Rockliff as tensions boil over at half-time.

TOM Rockliff has revealed the reasons behind the “perfect storm’’ that erupted at half-time of Port Adelaide’s finals-shaping win against Melbourne at Adelaide Oval on Friday night.

Rockliff was at the centre of the tense half-time melee that involved nearly all 36 players on the field, leading to questions about whether there was bad blood between the former Lion and the Melbourne players.

But Rockliff — one of the Power’s star off-season acquisitions — said there was “no history at all’’ between them and that the fight night was due to intense niggling between the two sides who were focused on roughing up the opposition’s lead ruckman.

Port and Melbourne players remonstrate at half time. Picture: SARAH REED

Rockliff said Port’s plan was to try to unsettle Melbourne’s All-Australian big man Max Gawn physically and mentally while the Demons were equally keen to get stuck into the Power’s All-Australian Paddy Ryder as the combative teams searched for an edge in a titanic battle that had major top-four ramifications.

“It was a bit of my own doing,’’ Rockliff told The Advertiser of being singled out by the Melbourne players for some physical treatment during the match and particularly at half-time.

“We were trying to put Gawn off his game, along with a few others, and at half-time a lot of them came at me, which is the way footy goes.

“We thought that if we could get into his (Gawn’s) head to some degree that it would be a win for us but I think it (the ruck battle) was a pretty good contest throughout the night.

“We were trying to get after Gawn and they were trying to get after Paddy a fair bit, so it became a bit of an arm wrestle of who could get it done.

“At half-time it was the perfect storm scenario, a bit of push and shove and it continued for quite a while because the footy wasn’t there to chase.’’

Gawn — renowned for being one of the most vocal ruckmen in the competition — shaded the ruck battle, recording 140 SuperCoach points to Ryder’s 99.

The man mountain had 16 disposals to the high-leaping Ryder’s 10 and 53 hit-outs to 40.

But both were influential, with Port fighting back from 20 points behind in the third quarter to win by 10.

“We were trying to give Paddy as much protection as possible and to allow him to get off the chain in the second half by trying to fatigue Gawn a little bit but while we were pretty verbal with him there was plenty coming back our way too, which made for a good contest,’’ Rockliff said.