AFL 2023: Port Adelaide defeat Richmond 94-63, lock in third place
The Power secured third spot after beating the Tigers, but their performance left plenty to be desired, and they must take some lessons to Brisbane if they are going to win.
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Port Adelaide locked in third spot, or as Ken Hinkley said “equal second pretty much”, with what was ultimately a comfortable win over Richmond on the scoreboard.
But did the Power get a bit of a pre-finals lesson?
While the Tigers had nothing to play for with finals off the cards, they came out with a lot more pressure than the Power early on in Sunday’s game at Adelaide Oval.
Power players were sloppy with their skills and the Tigers dominated territory and inside 50s early on in the game.
For much of the first half the Power didn’t have a forward 50 tackle.
At half time the inside 50 count was 34-21 in the favour of the Tigers, as was the contested mark count at 13-3.
“That is something Ken will look at and say we have to stop their ability to pull the ball through transition from their defence into their forward line,” Hawthorn great Dermott Brereton said on Fox Footy.
“That is a number he does not want to turn into finals having to deal with that situation.”
For Aliir Aliir and the rest of the Power defence, they were under the pump in the first half.
And while this was in part down to Richmond’s inefficiency going forward, the Power still had the lead at halftime.
But in the third the Power got its front-half game going and come three quarter time the Tigers’ lead of the inside 50 count was only by four (43-39).
“The ball was coming in a fair bit in the first half but credit to the young defenders they were able to hold up a little bit,” Aliir said.
“I think in the second half our contest was better, our split was good and we were able to have that front-half footy so that was the pleasing bit.”
Aliir said the Power would take a big lesson out of the final home and away game of the season.
“It obviously wasn’t our best game but we still got the win. The boys came out with the right intention but just our skills wasn’t there today,” he said.
“I’m not sure (why the skills weren’t there), it is hard to pinpoint. Us from down back we were sloppy with our skills and not good enough with our handling of the ball and some of our contests were not great.
“Just bringing that pressure from the start, we started slow, their pressure was good and their contest was a lot better than ours.
“So it is not good having a slow start in the last home and away game of the season, it is not our intention to start slow but if we can bring our pressure and the style we want to do then we will be all right.”
Aliir’s own game could almost sum up what the Power went through.
By his own admission he was second best to Richmond’s Noah Balta early on.
“He is a big boy, I forget how strong and how fast he is too. It is not likely you match up on someone who has the same ability as you so he was a good match up,” he said.
“In the first half and the first quarter he got me there and he was able to take a pack mark and get a long lead but I was able to get back into the game and I think the pressure upfront allowed me to do that.”
The Tigers came into the game with a plan of having either Balta or whoever was resting out of their ruck duo of Toby Nankervis and Ivan Soldo on Aliir.
This prevented Aliir from intercepting the ball like he can, which is such a big weapon of the Power.
It has been done before, most notably in the 2021 prelim by the Western Bulldogs with Josh Schache, and maybe Brisbane coach Chris Fagan was taking note ahead of the Lions home qualifying final against the Power in a fortnight.
But in the third quarter Allir was able to get going, and so did the Power.
In the third he had five of his eight intercepts, three inside 50s and seven disposals to help the Power get the game back on its terms.
Brereton said Balta was too cautious of Aliir.
“It was as if Noah Balta said: ‘Right, I’m just going to play on Aliir Aliir this quarter and tag him.’ But he got off the chain,” he said.
“It’s amazing we can call it a centre half back getting off the chain. But all those intercepts in the third quarter, it was just so strong for his team there.
“Noah Balta was a handful when he went and marked the ball in the first half, he changed his game style approach there.”
Western Bulldogs great Brad Johnson said Port Adelaide’s dominance of territory with a 19-9 inside 50 count in the third term allowed Aliir to be more dangerous on the Adelaide Oval wings.
Aliir agreed.
“That’s the thing, people forget when your forwards and mids are putting a lot of pressure on it allows you to position yourself where you think the ball is going to come out,” he said.
But while third spot was locked in, the biggest positive for the Power might have happened the previous day out in Adelaide’s north.
No. 1 ruckman Scott Lycett returned for the Magpies in the SANFL, two weeks earlier than expected.
His eight disposals and eight hit-outs had Hinkley saying “I don’t think he was best on ground”.
But after the Power decided to sub out Sam Hayes in the third quarter after he was soundly beaten by Nankervis and Soldo, Port Adelaide will be desperate for Lycett to be right when its finals campaign begins.
Jeremy Finlayson was thrust into the ruck after Hayes was subbed out, and when he was off the ground vice-captain Ollie Wines was contesting ruck contests rather than trying to get the hit-outs.
Johnson said this was not what the Power should be looking to do.
“I’m not sure how many times you want Ollie Wines in this situation,” he said.
“It is a real issue for Port Adelaide what they are going to be doing with this ruck scenario?”
The Power have nearly tried everything apart from putting Aliir back into the ruck.
He said he was happy with this and that Lycett and Dante Visentini returned to action in the SANFL.
“It is always good to have a couple of ruckmen back because if we keep losing ruckmen then I might have to go in there and I would prefer to stay down back,” he said.
“But it is good to have a couple of big men playing and coming back at the right time.
I remember last year I had a couple of games and even in my first year (at Port), so it is good to have some ruckmen playing at SANFL level because it makes it easier for the coaches when it comes to selection.”
Here comes the cavalry: Power set to load up for Lions final
Port Adelaide’s premiership tilt is set for a major boost with key quartet Charlie Dixon, Trent McKenzie, Todd Marshall and Scott Lycett all in the frame to play the qualifying final against the Brisbane Lions.
The Power finished the home-and-away season in third spot after a hard-fought 31-point win over Richmond at Adelaide Oval, the result setting up a clash against the second-placed Lions at the Gabba in the first week of the finals.
Marshall was a late withdrawal from Sunday’s line-up with hip soreness, but is a certainty to face Brisbane, with coach Ken Hinkley quietly confident the pre-finals bye will help Lycett (knee), Dixon (foot) and McKenzie (knee) regain fitness.
“It gives everyone a chance to be available,” Hinkley said.
“Todd missed (against the Tigers), but he’ll certainly be available.
“We got Lycett back playing football (in the SANFL) on Saturday, which is a great result for us.
“We’re going to be in a pretty healthy position come the first week of the finals.
“It’s a great time to refresh and recharge for the players and coaches.
“The nervousness and anxiety starts to build pretty quickly, you’re coming into a big part of the season, but we look forward to that.
“I’m not frightened, it’s a bit scary playing finals but we’ve earnt the right and we’ve just got to embrace the opportunities.
“We just didn’t happen to do it this year … we’ve got a lot of experience.”
Lycett gathered eight disposals and had eight hitouts in the SANFL in his first game since having minor knee surgery following Port’s loss to Collingwood in round 19.
“I don’t think he was best on ground, but he got through and that’s the important part for us to just get some minutes into him,” Hinkley said.
“We’ll build him up now … he’s really important to us.
“You saw not that long back that he came in and played four or five weeks of great ruckman footy.
“Sam (Hayes) and Dante (Visentini) have been holding up for us pretty well and if (Lycett) is not right we’ll be OK, but the reality is we’d like to see Scooter train well over the next couple of weeks.”
The Power struggled to hit top gear in the first half against a Richmond side with nothing to play for but pride, but improved to a 17-6 record with a five-goals-to-one final term.
While it wasn’t pretty at times, Hinkley believes the game served as a solid tune-up for the finals.
“Ultimately, it ticked off all the things that we needed it to,” he said.
“We needed to finish off a strong home-and-away season well.
“It was a pretty frustrating and challenging day on pure skill, but the reality is to come away with a five-goal win when things weren’t going well is a good sign for us.
“Throughout this year we’ve matured to a point where we can turn not our best performances into strong wins and that’s why we’ve qualified third.
“We’ve qualified in a really high position.
“We had great confidence, not everyone shared that confidence, which is good.”
POWER 4.3 6.7 8.13 13.16 (94)
TIGERS 3.4 5.11 7.13 8.15 (63)
PHELAN’S BESTPOWER: Rozee, Houston, Butters, Burton, Drew, Farrell, Aliir. TIGERS: Martin, Nankervis, Short, Bolton, Taranto, Broad, Soldo.
GOALS POWER: Evans 3, Lord 2, Powell-Pepper 2, Rioli 2, Houston, Byrne-Jones, Duursma, Rozee. TIGERS: Bolton 2, Soldo, D Rioli, Martin, Graham, Bauer, Banks.
INJURIES POWER: Marshall (hip – late withdrawal). TIGERS: M Rioli (hamstring).
UMPIRES: Haussen, Howorth, Rebeschini, Tee
39,860 at ADELAIDE OVAL
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
JASON PHELAN’S VOTES
3 Rozee (Port)
2 Martin (Rich)
1 Houston (Port)
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