Live scores, updates and news from Port Adelaide v Carlton
Port Adelaide has twisted the knife on Carlton’s season with a stunning first-quarter surge setting up a Thursday night drubbing under lights.
Port Adelaide’s finals flame is flickering a little brighter after Mitch Georgiades booted five goals in a commanding 50-point win over listless Carlton that will further ratchet up the pressure on besieged Blues coach Michael Voss.
Both sides were coming off disappointing losses, with 6-8 records that weren’t where either imagined they’d be a month into winter, but with their season on the line Ken Hinkley’s men rose to the task against the lacklustre Blues at Adelaide Oval.
Led by Connor Rozee, Miles Bergman and Zak Butters around the ball, Port had winners all over the ground and romped to a 46-point lead at the main break, with Georgiades helping himself to four goals in the first half.
Bergman booted two goals and shadowed Patrick Cripps, keeping the two-time Brownlow Medal winner to just eight touches in the first half, while Esava Ratugolea blanketed Charlie Curnow, who went goalless.
**SCROLL DOWN TO RECAP THE HIGHLIGHTS AS THEY HAPPENED**
The Power led by a game-high 68 points early in the final term before Carlton managed some junk time goals that will do little to diffuse the anger of frustrated fans.
With eight games remaining, Port is still in the fight for a finals berth at 7-8, but Carlton’s fourth loss in six matches dropped the struggling side off the back of the pack at 6-9.
EARLY HORROR SHOW
The Blues were the best starters in the league, having won 11 of 14 first quarters, heading into the clash but it was a horror show for the visitors from the outset.
Dominant Port controlled the tempo in the first quarter, leading the mark count 17-3 after 15 minutes, with Georgiades getting the better of Jacob Weitering to mark and boot two goals.
Carlton played like a team under pressure with tentative ball movement doing its forwards no favours and the two regulation set shots at goal that were manufactured were butchered by Curnow then Orazio Fantasia from gettable distances.
The Blues hadn’t registered fewer than two goals in an opening term for the whole season, but failed to record a major for the first time to trail by 31 points at the first break.
BAULK & WALK
Jack Silvagni was moved onto Georgiades in the second quarter, but it made little difference to the in-form forward.
With Butters and Rozee running rampant further afield, Georgiades was the dominant forward on the ground and his fourth goal was a beauty.
The 23-year-old gathered a long, loose ball on the bounce, sent Silvagni the wrong way with a baulk and walked around debutant Billy Wilson to snap a brilliant goal that sent the margin to 52 points.
The numbers told the story of the Power’s superiority, the home side going inside 50 12 times to Carlton’s one to start the second quarter, leading marks for the match 44-18 after 16 minutes and marks inside 50 10-0 at the same stage.
The Blues were staring down the barrel of the club’s a goalless first half for the first time since Round 13 of the 2018 season until Lewis Young spared their blushes with his side’s only major of the half with two minutes remaining.
Carlton has averaged 56 inside 50s a game this season, but had mustered a paltry 17 at halftime to trail by 46 points.
“NOT TRYING”
Jack Riewoldt didn’t miss Jesse Motlop’s effort in the third quarter after Joe Richards left the Blues’ forward in his wake to get involved in a chain that led to Willie Rioli’s second goal of the quarter.
“Joe Richards runs past him … that there is not trying,” Riewoldt said on Fox Footy.
“Just trying to hand it off to someone else to do your job, plodding through … and you wonder why Carlton’s backs are under pressure.
“It’s efforts like that that are frustrating Michael Voss.”
SAAD SEES STARS
Dante Visentini enjoyed a solid first half, but the Power ruckman faces a nervous wait for the MRO’s assessment of his bump on Adam Saad shortly before halftime.
The Port ruckman didn’t jump into the contact, but his shoulder made contact with Saad’s head, with the star Blue subbed out of the game during the main break with a concussion.
Originally published as Live scores, updates and news from Port Adelaide v Carlton
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