AFL 2023: Port Adelaide news and analysis after Showdown defeat
After an exciting start to the 2023 season, the Power have slipped up in consecutive weeks as an alarming trend begins to emerge for Ken Hinkley’s struggling side.
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Before Saturday night, Port Adelaide had conceded at least 18 goals in consecutive games just once in Ken Hinkley’s 11-year coaching tenure at the club.
It was in July 2013, in rounds 15 and 16 of his first season at Alberton.
In fact, the Power had coughed up 18 majors just 15 times across Hinkley’s 223 games before this year.
Port Adelaide has typically been a difficult team to score against under him.
This past fortnight, the Power has leaked goals.
Collingwood kicked 21 in its 71-point smashing at the MCG last week and the Crows piled on 18, including the last six of the match, in Saturday night’s 31-point Showdown triumph. That is not the profile of a top-eight side, let alone a premiership threat.
“There were certainly breakdowns in what we were doing defensively,” Port Adelaide vice-captain Ollie Wines told News Corp after the loss.
“We want to be a hard team to score against and unfortunately we let them score far too easily.
“I’m sure that’s going to be one thing we’ll look at.”
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Though Port Adelaide finished 11th on the ladder last season, the Power had the fifth-most miserly defence in the league.
They conceded the third-fewest points during the 2021 minor round and the least in 2020 – campaigns that both ended with preliminary final appearances.
Hinkley was wary entering this season that trying to play faster and more aggressively might open his side up going the other way.
That looks to have come to fruition.
Key forward Riley Thilthorpe (five majors) and goalsneak Izak Rankine (four) caused the most damage for the Power backline on Saturday night.
Tom Clurey and Aliir Aliir spent most of the time on Thilthorpe, the latter being switched onto him after the young Crow’s impressive start.
Captain Tom Jonas struggled against Rankine early and the ex-Gold Coast Sun caught others, including Kane Farrell, napping late.
The performance of 202cm Thilthorpe will add more weight to calls for the Power – which is reported to have interest in North Melbourne’s Ben McKay – to sign a taller key backman.
“It was really challenging because we don’t like to sit on match-ups, we like to mix and match quite a bit,” Hinkley said of Adelaide’s forward line.
“If the team defence breaks first, that’s going to expose match-ups.
“I didn’t think we handled their forwards as a collective well.
“We probably got a little bit man-on-man again … where we got a bit jumpy with ‘what was happening to me’, rather than what was happening to the rest.
“They were able to put pressure on us big time and then had quality in their front half that made us pay.”
Wines said the Power was sloppy in trying to stop the Crows’ kick-mark game in their build-up to attack, and did not support each other enough aerially inside defensive 50.
Port Adelaide was without the suspended Ryan Burton and injured Trent McKenzie.
Hinkley conceded some defenders were not in form but said the club did not have many experienced replacements to bring in.
Defensive frailties aside, Port Adelaide had led by four points 10 minutes into the last term after an inspirational left-foot goal from Sam Powell-Pepper.
Lachlan Murphy put the Crows back ahead four minutes later.
Then Rory Laird, Rankine and Thilthorpe each added majors in the next 10 minutes to turn what had been an even game into an Adelaide onslaught.
Wines was unsure why the Power was unable to stop its fierce rival.
“ (Post-game) Kenny was asking us, ‘What happens with 15 minutes to go?’. We were in such a good position and we couldn’t go with them,” he said.
“Credit to them for putting it to us, but we’re going to have to figure out why we can’t go with teams when it gets hard like that.”
It was only two weeks ago that Port beat one of the premiership favourites, buoyed by an electric second half that temporarily silenced external doubters about its 2023 credentials. Now, a fortnight after that 54-point home victory over Brisbane, Wines said the Power needed to “do some soul-searching and really figure out these last two games”.
“We’ve got full faith in our list but at the moment we’re not really showing any results for it,” he said.
“At some point we’ve got to realise what’s going on and correct it or we’re going to continue to be a mediocre side.
“We’ll head to Sydney and have got to make some changes with how we’re doing things.”
The Power knows all too well how quickly a campaign can fall away, having never recovered from being 0-5 last year.
A loss to the Swans would leave Port 1-3 ahead of a tricky home meeting with the Western Bulldogs in Gather Round.
If the Power is to beat Sydney at the SCG and get its season back on track, it starts with tightening its defending.
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Originally published as AFL 2023: Port Adelaide news and analysis after Showdown defeat
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