AFL Finals 2023 Port Adelaide v GWS: All the news, action and fallout from semi-final
Outworked, outran, outmuscled and outsmarted. Frailties get exposed in finals and Port Adelaide’s were on full display on the game’s biggest stage.
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For the second time in three years, Port Adelaide barely showed up in the first half of a game that mattered most, again at home.
The Power could not handle a red, white and blue first-quarter barrage in the 2021 preliminary final.
On Saturday night, Port was bulldozed by a fierce orange tsunami during the second term.
GWS outworked, outran, outmuscled and outsmarted the Power to half-time, breaking the game open with a five-goal run.
Then the visitors were able to respond in the third quarter when Port’s charge came and held on as nerves set in during the last.
This was the same Port that won a club record 13 games in a row mid-season and looked a genuine premiership threat, but instead was bowing out in straight sets.
And the same Giants that sat in 15th spot on the ladder with a 4-8 record three months ago and lost to the Power by 51 points at Adelaide Oval four games back.
Now, they have stormed into an unlikely preliminary final against Collingwood at the MCG – the same opponent, stage and ground where they won in 2019.
You cannot rule them out of getting the job done this time, such is the belief first-year coach Adam Kingsley has instilled in his players.
Kingsley played in Port’s maiden AFL flag in 2004 and won the Power’s best-and-fairest 25 years ago, and on Saturday night he orchestrated the downfall of his former side with a midfield massacre in the first two terms.
Clearances were 29-12 to GWS at half-time.
Centre clearances were 9-5.
Scores from stoppages were again an issue for Port after Brisbane kicked 13 goals from them in last week’s qualifying final at the Gabba.
Such was the Giants’ clearance dominance, there was a slight Bronx cheer when the Power finally won one in the second quarter.
Teams’ frailties get exposed in finals.
Port’s this season have been an inability to stop sides from scoring or moving the ball from defence to forward 50.
The Power’s pressure was strong in the first 10 minutes of the match then non-existent until half-time.
GWS was easily getting the ball out of the middle at times, sprinting forward like Richmond during its flag years when Kingsley was an assistant at the Tigers.
Some Power players were dawdling back, rather than gut-running.
You would not have known it was a knockout final if you had watched some of Port’s workrate in the second term.
Contrastingly, Stephen Coniglio was playing as if his life depended on it.
He must have been thinking about this match all week after missing the win over St Kilda with an eye injury and had enough possessions for two games by half-time (22), before finishing with 30.
Sidelined for the Giants’ entire 2019 finals campaign, the former captain is clearly hungry for a flag.
Eight of the top 10 disposal winners at half-time were Giants players.
Port’s two all-Australian on-ballers, Connor Rozee and Zak Butters, had just 16 disposals between them at the main break.
Acting captain Ollie Wines had registered only five.
Willem Drew and Dan Houston with 12 were the equal-highest for Port.
No disrespect to Drew, an incredibly hard worker who the Power could have used three of, but him having so much of it was reflective of Port’s usual ball-winners being down.
If not for GWS kicking six behinds in a row, the game would have been over by the main break.
Two denied goals from score reviews – one from Sam Taylor’s outstretched leg, the other because of Jack Buckley’s outstretched hands – summed up the Giants’ desperation and were a gut punch to the Power.
Both Giants defenders were absolutely immense all night.
Jesse Hogan, so highly touted as a teenager at Melbourne, played a starring role on the big stage as the best forward on the ground, kicking 4.4.
Butters lifted in the third term, collecting 11 touches, as the Power started winning clearances and getting its hands on the ball.
Unsurprising, when you consider his genes and being one of only two premiership players on Port’s list, Willie Rioli was one of Port’s few standouts.
The 2018 West Coast flag winner kicked the game’s opening goal three minutes in, claimed a holding the ball free kick then assisted a Jason Horne-Francis goal and added a second major after cleverly earning another free.
When the Power needed a spark to start the third quarter, it was Rioli with a right-foot snap then he set up a Todd Marshall major that cut the margin to three goals.
But for all the home side’s bluster, it shaved just three points off the lead for the quarter.
The Giants went from cool and calm to nervy early in the last when the Power edged closer.
Fumbling, botching kicks and missing sitters to seal the result earlier than it did.
As Port threw its last punches, club great Travis Boak, in what could be his final game for the Power, had a snap that would have brought the house down, but it hit the post.
It was another body blow to Port side that expected to be playing next week but was now scratching its heads, planning for next season.
But let’s face it, on form, we should not have been surprised by this result.
Port was 3-5 record from its past eight matches going into Saturday night, while GWS had won 10 of 12.
The orange tsunami has been coming.
Match report: Second-quarter blitz sends Port out in straight sets
– Jason Phelan
The big, big sound coming out of Adelaide Oval on Saturday night was Port Adelaide crashing out of the premiership race in straight sets at the hands of the irresistible GWS Giants.
Inspired by prolific possession winners Stephen Coniglio and Lachie Whitfield, and Jesse Hogan in attack with four goals, the Giants set up a preliminary final clash against Collingwood with a shock 23-point win.
Trailing by 26 points at three-quarter time, the Power pressed in the early part of a tense final term, but kicked 1.5 and one out of bounds on the full.
Jason Horne-Francis spurned the opportunity to slice the margin to 11 points 15 minutes into the last quarter, then Jake Riccardi slotted a stunner from the boundary and Toby Greene booted his third to seal a famous win.
The brave Giants had winners across every line while several Power players picked the worst possible time to have an off night.
Greene light
Greene was typically unfazed by the occasion and was the catalyst for a strong start by the visitors.
The GWS skipper booted his side’s opening two goals, one a superb set shot from deep in a pocket, and could’ve made it three after the siren but sprayed his set shot to the right.
The Giants still led by three points at the first break after they dominated possession (107-69) and clearances (17-6).
But the Power met the challenge head on.
Willie Rioli was in everything early, piling on the pressure inside attacking 50 and booting two goals in a lively opening.
He also had a hand in another first-quarter goal after he was rewarded for a great tackle on Harry Himmelberg and found Horne-Francis, who slotted a goal from just on the 50m arc.
The young star’s powerful kick went through post high, although he might not have been able to properly admire his handiwork after he copped a nasty poke in the eye just minutes earlier.
Tsunami stunner
Willem Drew put the Power three points up with the first goal of the second quarter, but the famed Orange Tsunami was in full effect after that.
The rampant Giants sliced Port open with their irresistible ball movement and piled on five unanswered goals, two of them to Hogan, in a devastating 10-minute period.
Such was the dominance of GWS that 23 minutes into the second quarter the top five possession winners on the ground were Giants, with Drew the only Power player in double figures.
At half-time, eight of the top 10 possession-getters, led by Coniglio with 22, wore Giant orange, with Adam Kingsley’s side amassing 78 more disposals in the first half and 17 more clearances.
Zak Butters, Connor Rozee, so often the prime movers of the Power midfield, were restricted to seven and nine touches respectively, with Ollie Wines managing five.
The only blot on the Giants’ copybook was their kicking at goal, with six behinds in succession following their five-goal burst setting up a 29-point half-time lead that should’ve been larger.
Butters back
The prolific Zak Butters Port fans know and love was back in the third quarter to spark the Power.
Butters had 11 disposals for the term, the home side booting three of the first goals of the third term to slice the margin to 17 points in a resurgence that had the home fans in full voice.
GWS was able to put the brakes on, but again spurned golden scoring opportunities, with Hogan and Toby Bedford missing sitters from close range, the Giants booting 2.10 after Isaac Cumming’s goal 15 minutes into the second term.
It didn’t come back to haunt them, however, with Port’s own goalkicking in the last quarter failing to put the visitors under scoreboard pressure.
Touching Barassi tribute
Players from both Port Adelaide and the Giants will wear black armbands as the footy world mourns the loss of Ron Barassi.
An icon of the game, Barassi’s family confirmed on Saturday afternoon that the 87-year-old had passed away.
Across a distinguished career as a player and coach, Barassi was a pioneer for the game and many regard him as one of the most important figures in Aussie rules history.
A minute’s silence was also observed by the Adelaide Oval crowd before the national anthem with screens around the ground paying tribute to Barassi.
Scoreboard
POWER 4.1 5.6 8.7 9.16 (70)
GIANTS 4.4 9.11 11.15 13.15 (93)
PHELAN’S BEST POWER: Rioli, Houston, Boak, Drew, Butters, Horne-Francis. GIANTS: Coniglio, Whitfield, Green, Hogan, Greene, Kelly, Taylor, Briggs, Buckley.
GOALS POWER: Rioli 3, Marshall 2, Lord, Horne-Francis, Dixon, Drew. GIANTS: Hogan 4, Greene 3, Coniglio 2, Cumming, Daniels, Kelly, Riccardi.
INJURIES POWER: Nil. GIANTS: Nil.
UMPIRES: Foot, Stevic, Stephens, Gavine
45,520 at ADELAIDE OVAL
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
JASON PHELAN’S VOTES
3 Coniglio (GWS)
2 Whitfield (GWS)
1 Rioli (Port)
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Originally published as AFL Finals 2023 Port Adelaide v GWS: All the news, action and fallout from semi-final
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