AFL round 10: Port Adelaide’s loss to Geelong examined

Chris Scott says Port Adelaide is a team in transition. Ken Hinkley is adamant it isn’t. After another heavy loss, is it time for the Power coach to face reality?

The word “rebuild” is banned at Alberton.

But what about “transition”?

After again dishing out a hiding to Port Adelaide on its home turf at Adelaide Oval, Geelong coach Chris Scott almost inadvertently said the word Power fans are likely to be starting to accept what the 2025 campaign is going to be.

“I suspect they are in a bit of a period of transition,” Scott said of the Power.

Hinkley said he didn’t think that was “completely accurate”.

But he conceded he could see why that was the perception of his side right now after that heavy 76-point loss that leaves the Power with a 4-6 record with one game to come before its mid-season bye and with a concerning percentage of 82 per cent.

“I don’t think that is completely accurate but I can imagine why people would think that and say that (about the Power being in transition),” he said.

“That is reality of us being 4-6, so that is why people will come to that conclusion and the some of the losses have been quite big, significantly big, but I don’t think it is a transition moment.

“It is a comes to terms with what’s really, really important for you and play it for long periods of most games.

“We are not terrible but we have had some terrible losses.”

Without its first round pick at the end of this year — that’s at Gold Coast as part of the Jack Lukosius trade – the Power currently sit 14th on the ladder.

Under Hinkley, Port have never finished lower than 11th.

So history suggests the Power are a better side than the one that has been demolished, embarrassed and bullied by Collingwood in Round 1, the Western Bulldogs in Round 8 and by the Cats on Saturday.

But so far in 2025 the Power have been unable to stop the opposition from piling on the goals and have too often looked listless.

Brownlow Medallist and former co-captain Ollie Wines said the display in the second half on Saturday against the Cats hurt deeply.

“We feel like we are more of a competitive team than that but our results show perhaps we aren’t,” he told this masthead post game.

“So we have to do some deep thinking of what goes on in that third or fourth quarter to get blown out like that.

Port Adelaide players after their big loss to Geelong.

“I think we are a proud group. We thrive on hard work and we drive that in our group and that didn’t show in that last quarter.

“We will have to look at it pretty closely this week and do some soul searching because to get blown out like that in the last quarter is so disappointing.

“It is something we have to look at and work out because it has happened three times this year and it is hard to be competitive on the ladder when it happens.

“We have to look at the point it happens, not so much the last five minutes of the quarter when it has happened.

“We’ve got to be able to look at what causes it and nip it in the bud because once a team gets momentum on us they are kicking a lot of goals so we have to find the turning point and be better in that moment.”

Power skipper Connor Rozee wasn’t able to exert his usual influence.

The Power were hampered by injuries to Jason Horne-Francis, Josh Sinn and Lachie Jones that ruled them all out of the game in the first half on Saturday against the Cats.

But again issues that have hurt Hinkley’s side so far this year came to the fore.

“We go into most games with a focus on making sure our contest, our pressure and our team defence is at a really high level because if it isn’t in AFL football you will get beaten badly and that is what we have seen three times this year,” he said.

“When we have broken down there is a part of our efficiency that goes into it but the other parts that hold you in games of football are usually around your contest and your pressure and then your team defence.

“And again when the tide turned I would have thought we were poor in all three.

“We have done it stop and start wise this year, we haven’t been consistently good and that is the challenge.

“If you want to be at the top you have to be consistently good at that, if you are inconsistent you will be where we are currently.

“That doesn’t mean you can’t get back to doing what you do and knowing what you do and we do know what we do well.

“The challenge for us to be more consistent at it this year.”

For the second week in a row the Power’s turnovers, especially trying to bring the ball out of defence, hurt Hinkley’s side.

Port were still in it at halftime, when a Jeremy Cameron wonder goal from the boundary was the difference between the two sides.

The Power are struggling to stay in touch with the top eight.

But with just two players on the interchange after the injury carnage in the first half, the Power needed a fair bit to go its way in the second half if it was to overcome the Cats – who copped game-ending injuries to Patrick Dangerfield and Jack Bowes themselves.

So the last thing the Power needed to do was cough the ball up so often in dangerous positions like it did in the third term.

On multiple occasions in the third quarter the Power turned the ball over when trying to move the ball out of its back-half.

The Cats made Port pay through Lawson Humphries, Brad Close and Shaun Mannagh.

“Port Adelaide are having real trouble in getting it out of their defensive 50,” Power and Hawthorn premiership winner Shaun Burgoyne said on Fox Footy.

“They are turning it over by foot and Geelong are taking advantage of it.”

Ollie Dempsey soccers it through! âš½#AFLPowerCatspic.twitter.com/YQlDqGOlkb

— AFL (@AFL) May 17, 2025

Wines said the Power lacked composure.

“I think their anticipating offence and reading when we did turn the ball over and their speed to goal and impacting the scoreboard, they are the best in the league in that and it was on full display in the second half,” he said.

“We were trying to move the ball and we didn’t move the ball with composure at times, we want to move the ball quick and at the same time be composed when we need to.

“But tonight we had far too many turnovers that cost us goals.”

But is a transition such a bad thing?

After their addition of Bailey Smith, who is blazing his way into Brownlow contention, the Cats have done a transition of their own.

“Our team in general, and I don’t want this to seem like we are blowing our own trumpet, we have transitioned into a team that can really run and he (Smith) is part of that,” Scott said.

Also a part of that is Rising Star winner Ollie Dempsey, who tore the Power apart in the third quarter.

Jason Horne-Francis left the field after this incident.#AFLPowerCatspic.twitter.com/zYsxucJMDn

— AFL (@AFL) May 17, 2025

With a tank that meant the Power could not keep up with him on the wing, Dempsey nearly had one of the great third terms with 11 disposals, six score involvements, 354m gained and 1.3 in that term.

“It would have been amazing quarter if he finished his work, he had his chances,” Scott said.

But that wasn’t taking away that the Cats have again worked their recruitment magic to find Dempsey, who was drafted as a rookie in 2021 from Old Carey Grammarians in the VAFA.

“He is only early in his evolution,” Scott said.

“Three years ago he was having a bit of a kick with Old Carey in the ammos three or four years ago and he has a Rising Star so he has had a bit of recognition and he’s an important part of our system.

“But we think he is going to get better.

Ken Hinkley speaks to his players during their loss to Geelong.

“And again another guy, it is not by accident. It wasn’t a really detailed plan to bring these guys in, it was like “oh he has some talent and he is an elite runner”.

“It does help the options you have in the way we play.”

The Cats have refreshed their engine room with Smith — 30 disposals, eight marks, five tackles and 700m gained — forming a dangerous one-two punch with Max Holmes, 22 disposals and five marks.

We could see Dempsey in there in the future.

“I think one of the obvious things is that he will have a different physique in three or four years,” Scott said.

“He will get bigger and stronger, and there is a balance there in making sure he retains the attributes he does have.

“But I think one of the assets he does have is he is so good in close, especially in and around goals.

“He is just really classy and it indicates to me at least that he would be good inside the contest, so it is not out of the question that he becomes an inside mid in time.”

Originally published as AFL round 10: Port Adelaide’s loss to Geelong examined