Slumping Port Adelaide hasn’t produced such poor offensive numbers since Matthew Primus was sacked in 2012
IN a damning statistic that has almost certainly cost the Power a coveted top-four spot and has it fighting for its finals life against Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday, Port has become a defensive force but an offensive mess.
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SLUMPING Port Adelaide's scoring is at the lowest ebb in the Ken Hinkley era.
In a damning statistic that has almost certainly cost the Power a coveted top four spot and has it fighting for its finals life against Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday, Port has become a defensive force but an offensive mess.
Put bluntly, its lack of scoring is killing it.
The Power’s average score of 81.4 points is the worst since Hinkley took over as coach from axed Matthew Primus at the end of 2012 — by some margin.
Prior to this year, the worst a Hinkley team had averaged was 91 points in 2015.
In Primus’s last year in 2012, Port averaged just 76.9 points.
Last season it posted the second-best scoring record in the league (97.6 points) — nearly three goals more than in a year it brought in offensive weapons Jack Watts and Steven Motlop from rival clubs, along with attacking midfield ball magnet Tom Rockliff.
Overall, Port ranks 13th in scoring but in the past five weeks it is the third-worst scoring team, averaging a paltry 67.4 points.
Its inability to hit the scoreboard has seen it lose four of its past five games to slump from a position where it was eyeing a home qualifying final to eighth.
The Power’s last five scores have been 7.8 against Fremantle, 8.10 (GWS), 11.12 (Western Bulldogs), 14.9 (Adelaide) and 9.4 (West Coast).
That’s a grand total of 49 goals at an average of 9.8.
Port has failed to score a goal in seven quarters — the equal-fourth most in the competition — including the match-defining last term against West Coast on Saturday when it lost after Jeremy McGovern's after-the-final-siren major.
Kick just one goal in the last stanza against the Eagles and the Power would be sitting sixth.
Port has scored 100 or more points only three times — against Fremantle in round one (110), North Melbourne in round six (102) and the Western Bulldogs in round 13 (132) — and has been held to below 80 points on nine occasions.
“It’s pretty frustrating, not putting on big scores, especially when we seem to be doing a lot of things right defensively,’’ Power key defender Dougal Howard said.
“I guess for us it’s a matter of capitalising more going inside 50. Against West Coast we had plenty of possession (393 disposals to 365) and owned the ball at times but we just didn’t get that final mark leading up inside 50 to finish it off.
“That’s been a big area (of concern) all year and if we are going to win the next two games and get into the finals we definitely have to fix up that execution going inside 50 to get shots on goal.’’
Defensively, Port is brilliant, ranking No. 2 for scores conceded.
It is coughing up just 71.4 points a game — ranked second behind reigning premier and white-hot flag favourite Richmond (70.3).
In the five-week period where its premiership hopes have deteriorated, the Power is averaging only 66.2 points against.
But, as Hinkley notes, “you can’t win games of football when you don’t hit the scoreboard a bit heavier than we have been’’.
Hinkley last month made the telling admission that Port might “have gone a little bit too far with our defence’’ at the expense of scoring.
“We have been able to defend really well but our problem has been that we haven’t been able to hit the scoreboard as well as we would have liked,’’ he said.
Port, whose leading goalkicker is forward/midfielder Robbie Gray (34), has paid a price for being inefficient with the ball while it has become a high stoppage team that moves the ball slowly.
The Power ranks 17th in kicking efficiency (62 per cent) and first in stoppages (73.2 a game) while no side has played on less in the past five weeks.
Its slow play helps protect the defence but makes it tough to score.
And now the Power must find a way to goal without its No. 1 target man Charlie Dixon, who is out for the season with a broken leg.
“We don't shy away from that,’’ assistant coach Michael Voss said of Port’s scoring woes.
“It’s about completing our plays and finishing. We feel that we are getting some really good build-up through the middle of the ground but we’re not finishing it off — whether it's the final kick inside 50 or just in front of goal.
“That’s something that hasn't been consistent enough for us this year.’’
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