AFL Port Adelaide v Geelong: Cats injury, selection news for week two of finals
Geelong’s season is on the line against GWS and the Cats could be boosted by some big names for Friday night’s semi-final. Here’s the latest.
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Geelong could make up to four changes to the team that fell to Port Adelaide on Friday night for its do-or-die battle with GWS Giants.
Mark O’Connor is set to miss the clash but whether he plays any further part in finals won’t be known until the results of scans he had on Sunday afternoon have returned.
Fellow Irishman Zach Tuohy got through a full training session on Sunday and appears all but guaranteed to come into the Cats team, but additional changes could also be made following the Cats’ disappointing defeat to the Power.
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Key-position player Esava Ratugolea and midfielders Max Holmes and Quinton Narkle are all in line for a recall, while defender Zach Guthrie looms as a potential option to bolster the defence in the absence of O’Connor and All-Australian backman Tom Stewart.
Guthrie was superb when he came into the side four weeks ago against North Melbourne – his first match since Round 11 – and his performances in the two games that followed have stayed in the minds of selectors, who are mindful of the need to add some reinforcement down back after conceding 18 goals in the past five quarters.
Gary Rohan was moved into the backline after O’Connor was subbed out of the game against Port Adelaide but he will need to find his mojo in attack against the Giants, opening the door for Guthrie to come in.
The Giants have their own issues — Toby Greene will try to explain at the tribunal why he shouldn’t be banned for making contact with an umpire while the team finished its nailbiting win against Sydney with several injury concerns.
Young midfielder Tom Green will have scans ona likely fractured forearm, Sam Reid has a hamstring problem and Isaac Cumming has a rolled ankle.
Ratugolea may be recalled if the Cats look to play Mark Blicavs down back exclusively, splitting ruck duties with Rhys Stanley against former Cat Shane Mumford.
The additional marking option inside-50 is also something selectors value in Ratugolea, who has not played since Round 22.
Both Holmes and Narkle are seen as viable options in the midfield on the quick Perth Stadium deck.
Geelong will revisit the tape from its most recent clash with the Giants, which was three weeks ago at GMHBA Stadium.
On that occasion the Cats fell by 19 points, but there is a growing belief inside the Geelong camp that it can turn that result around when the two sides meet again on Friday night.
MANIC PRESSURE KEY TO PORT’S FINALS SUCCESS
— Simeon Thomas-Wilson
Port Adelaide has set the template for how it will hope its next game – or two – looks.
Applying manic pressure is a key component.
The Power hounded Geelong players throughout its 43-point home qualifying final on Friday night to notch a seventh successive win.
It stopped the Cats from controlling the game with uncontested possessions or marks, denied space and forced turnovers, many of them uncharacteristic.
In total, Geelong had 68 turnovers, five more than its season average and 10 more than the Power.
Tackles inside 50 was another telling statistic on the night.
Geelong had just three, but Port Adelaide registered 12, as the likes of Orazio Fantasia (four goals) and ex-Cat Steven Motlop (three) feasted on mistakes.
It was not only forward-half pressure either.
Zak Butters clasping onto Jeremy Cameron – an opponent 15cm taller and 21kg heavier, to force a turnover – 15m from the Cats’ goals, as the Geelong spearhead tried to charge through him with the ball, summed up the Power’s desperation.
Butters was not letting Cameron slip.
Nor was Port Adelaide letting this game slip.
The Power was hungry to make the most of its opportunity.
It was the only club playing at home – in front of 20,000 supporters – this weekend and it was back in the major round after a six-point preliminary final disappointment last season.
Asked if the pressure was as good as his side could apply on Friday night, Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley said “I think it’s pretty close”.
“We always look at that and go ‘pressure was great for two quarters, three quarters’, tonight I would suggest our pressure was enormous for four quarters,” Hinkley said.
“We earnt the right to play in Adelaide, we thought if we could bring the pressure, the great fans that were here tonight were going to make it feel like it was even more pressure and I think that was really important for us.
“I think we played our part for the fans.”
While the home side brought the heat, the visitors wilted under it.
Experienced Cats players were fumbly, dropped marks and got caught in possession, as pressure – both real and perceived – left some looking jittery.
When Fox Footy showed Champion Data’s pressure gauge for the third quarter, it was no surprise to see the Power ranking elite and Geelong marginally outside the poor range.
Port Adelaide doubled the Cats’ tackles 24-12 in that term and prevented them from taking momentum into the final stanza
Geelong managed just three behinds in the third stanza as the Power extended its lead from 29 to 35 points by the last break.
The overall tackle count finished 65-50 in Port Adelaide’s favour, despite the hosts having 64 more disposals.
It was indicative of the Power’s physicality and the Cats’ inability to impose themselves.
Port Adelaide was also ahead 136-128 in contested possessions and +21 in post-clearance disposals.
“That’s where games are won and lost for us this year – if our midfield are winning contested ball and we’re getting good pressure on the opposition when they get the ball, it lets us set up in defence, (Aliir) Aliir and guys like that do their work and we can play the game in our forward half,” Port Adelaide defender Ryan Burton told News Corp.
“We managed to execute that tonight really well.
“We know the last five, six weeks, we’ve had our pressure up and our contested numbers up, and that’s why we’re winning.
“We need to focus on that in the next couple of weeks as well.”
It was no surprise to see Willem Drew (11) have the most tackles on Friday night.
Three clear of the next player on the ground, the 22-year-old midfielder had another big defensive performance to jump to second spot on the league’s tackle tally for 2021, behind St Kilda captain Jack Steele.
Drew’s energy and two-way workrate have been huge for the Power all season to help complement the dogged midfield efforts of stars Ollie Wines and Travis Boak.
Watch how many defensive acts Drew applies in a game and you will get an indication of his importance to the Power’s success this season.
They barely had veteran Tom Rockliff this year and Drew filled his mentor’s shoes admirably.
During the third quarter, three-time premiership wingman and ex-Hawk Isaac Smith found himself in Drew’s clutches and turned the ball over after the Power youngster made him regret taking a few extra steps.
Drew and his teammates did not relent in the fourth term.
Hinkley said his side knew that to win finals “you’ve got to be brutal the whole way”.
“We learnt from last year and we also learnt in every game we went through this year that you’ve got to keep putting the foot down and try to keep putting the pressure on opposition sides,” he said.
Burton said although the team was really pleased to put in a four-quarter performance in a high-stakes game, it was not looking too far ahead.
The Power was in the same position last year, preparing for a home preliminary final, but went on to fall to Richmond.
“We haven’t started talking about the last day in September just yet, we’ve got more important things at the moment and we’ve got to get there first,” said Burton, who was 1-4 in the major round during his career before Friday night.
“We’ve got an outstanding group and we’re playing the way we want to game, so we’re going to each game really confident.”
Hinkley said the result was massive for his team, particularly because it would now get “the perfect preparation for what we would like”.
Unlike last year, the Power will not get two weeks off in the space of three going into its preliminary final because of the scrapping of the bye before the major round.
“This is a bye (next week) that I feel like is a bonus to us, it’s a benefit to us, clearly, when you’ve played a lot of games in a row,” he said.
“That’s probably what the old system looked like a little bit and now it works pretty favourably for us.”
If the Power brings that relentless pressure for four quarters in its preliminary final, it will be difficult to stop.
Orazio confident he will play in preliminary final
Port Adelaide is confident Orazio Fantasia will be right for the preliminary final in a fortnight’s time, as the Power seeks an exemption for the livewire forward to get his knee assessed.
Fantasia kicked four goals in a show-stealing performance on Friday night against Geelong in the qualifying final at Adelaide Oval.
But he was substituted in the final quarter after he felt a “click” in his left knee.
It was the same knee that Fantasia had surgery to tidy up cartilage damage and significant bruising on the head of his knee.
Port coach Ken Hinkley said after the game Fantasia was withdrawn from the game as an abundance of caution.
Slightly complicating the situation though is Port players and staff who played on Friday night are in isolation, as part of SA Health’s approval for Geelong to travel to Adelaide for the game.
This means the Power will need SA Health approval for Fantasia to get a scan on his knee and see a specialist while he is in isolation.
On Saturday Port general manager of football Chris Davies said at this stage the Power were confident about Fantasia’s chances.
“We will assess him over the next 48 hours,” he said.
“He came off complaining that he could feel some real soreness in there, so it will be an interesting one.
“I think right now we would be suggesting he would be available but we will have to assess that over the next 48 hours and into the week.”
Fantasia’s four goals and Aliir Aliir’s fantastic intercept game were further feathers in the caps of Port’s recruiting department.
Davies said it was about a sustained period of the right moves by the Power, with Scott Lycett, Ryan Burton, Charlie Dixon and Trent McKenzie all coming from other clubs.
“I think we are really fortunate that we have staff, Jason Cripps and Geoff Parker, these guys who have done a really good job over a period of time,” he said.
“Clearly having a program that players want to come to as well is really important also, I think that Port Adelaide as a club has become a place where people want to play.
“And when you play in front of the people we do, and the pre-match (experience) we do I think that sets our club apart from others.
“And that has been a real tick for us, over the last few years we have been really aggressive to get into drafts, we have been really aggressive to bring in the types of players we want to bring in.
“That’s not saying we get it right all the time because we clearly don’t and a lot of the time there are a whole heap of factors that go into whether a player is successful or not.
“I think our club will continue to be aggressive and that’s how I would like it to be.”
Young key forward Mitch Georgiades will be fine for the preliminary final after he sat out the big win over the Cats with a hamstring injury.
The preliminary final is likely to be at Adelaide Oval, unless SA’s Covid-19 situation worsens.
With all but Brisbane on the road for the duration of the finals series, Hinkley said he was unsure just how that may benefit his side.
“We’ve done our part like every other team has. It’s somewhat of an advantage,” he said.
“But Brisbane stayed home last year and when it got to this stage it didn’t play out that they had a massive advantage.”
‘Try to look forward’: Scott reacts to Cats defeat
Geelong coach Chris Scott says his side had never fumbled the ball more in a big game, as he again said the Cats’ poor week one finals record counts for little.
The Cats have now won just one out of its last eight finals in week one, that coming in 2016, after they went down to Port Adelaide in a qualifying final for the second year in a row.
After last year’s loss Scott said it was “lazy” to focus on Geelong’s poor finals record in the first week.
Following the 43-point loss on Friday night, Scott said he was just focusing on making sure his side bounced back.
“I don’t really engage in it, we try to look forward,” he said.
“I don’t want to contradict myself by saying that we are a renewed team, I think we have three players on our list since 2011 so I think it has been a complete transition.
“I don’t think there’s any focus on me trying to engage in that
“We are in the position that we are good enough during the year that we can dust ourselves off and go again.”
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Scott said the Cats would just have to try and win the long way.
“What we want to be is an organisation that when the chips are down we fight back and the equation in front of us tonight and for the rest of the finals series is to win three games,” he said.
“We have to try and win three games and not many clubs get the opportunity to be in this position.”
The Cats were poor with their skills for much of the game against the Power.
Scott said it was as bad as he could remember from his side.
“Yeah it was, if we had been better in that area the whole complexion of the game could have been different,” he said.
“It’s not often I resort to those criticisms in our game, hopefully it doesn’t happen that much and but two because it can be glossing over the more important parts of the performance.
“But when you have options out and you miss them and you miss them and basic dropped marks in your back half and you give them walk-in goals, it is hard not to focus on that not to an extent.”
Mark O’Connor’s season is now in danger after he suffered a hamstring injury in the second quarter.
Scott said he would “assume it’s going to be a challenge” for O’Connor to return this season.
Groundhog Day: Why Cats’ finals failure was no surprise
By Josh Barnes
Ask any Cats fan and they would tell you they weren’t surprised.
For the fifth consecutive year, Geelong laid an egg in the first week of finals as bizarre mistakes, injuries and a more determined opponent knocked them flat.
The errors would be uncharacteristic for the Cats in any other week than this, as Lachie Henderson became the poster child for Geelong’s woes with blunders directly leading to three opening half goals.
The scene was well and truly set for a 43-point drubbing.
The collapse truly began when Sam Simpson’s ambitious kick inboard in the final 30 seconds of the first quarter was intercepted by Aliir Aliir – closing out an outstanding first term in which he had five intercept possessions – and the Power swept the ball forward for an Orazio Fantasia goal with six seconds on the clock.
The Power stuck the tackles the Cats missed, took the chances the Cats threw away and played the footy the Cats wish they had.
It’s a pattern that has consistently reared its head as Geelong trailed by nine points at the main break to Richmond in the 2017 qualifying final, 23 to Melbourne in the 2018 elimination final, 19 to Collingwood in the 2019 qualifying final and one to Port Adelaide in the corresponding game last year.
It was a 29-point deficit on Friday night, leaving the Cats -81 in first halves in those five matches.
Cats coach Chris Scott put it pretty succinctly on Channel 7 at half time when he said “a lot of things have gone wrong for us”.
In the second term, the Power waltzed from end-to-end and kicked easy goals as Geelong looked far from threatening.
It didn’t get any better to start the third as Patrick Dangerfield – having a quiet night – dropped an uncontested mark and Fantasia swooped to kick a goal on the run.
If that is the bad news, the good news is just as clear for Cats fans.
Aside from 2018, Geelong has bounced back each time it has been banished to a semi-final in the past five years and Scott is a master of the turnaround – Friday night marked the first consecutive losses for the Cats since late 2018.
Scott and the Cats will be sure they can bounce back, just 10 months ago they picked themselves up from a qualifying final defeat against Port Adelaide and got within a Dustin Martin all-timer to the flag.
While this campaign is not over, it is hanging by a thread as the Cats head further from home to Perth.
Geelong will likely have to do it without Mark O’Connor, who was subbed out in the second term for Shaun Higgins as the Irishman iced his hamstring.
A standard 21-day hamstring strain would just about rule him out of the finals, unless the mid-finals bye surfaces.
His omission would make for an easy selection call as Zach Tuohy prepares to return from his own hamstring injury.
Power-ful flag statement as Port dismantles Cats
— Simeon Thomas-Wilson and Matt Turner
Is the second time going to be the charm for Port Adelaide?
For the second straight year the Power have defeated Geelong in a qualifying final at Adelaide Oval.
But while last year’s victory felt like a moment where the Power well and truly arrived as a flag contender, Friday night’s 43-point win seemed like a statement that their time could be now.
Geelong were nowhere near its best, but a relentless and instinctive Power never allowed the sluggish Cats to get going in a brilliant performance that has likely set up another preliminary final at Adelaide Oval.
But importantly this time it won’t be against the winning machine that was Richmond and Ken Hinkley’s cry of “we’re ready” in January looks like it might be just ringing true.
Recruits Orazio Fantasia (four goals) and Aliir Aliir (seven marks and 11) were sensational for the Power, as they consigned Geelong to its sixth loss in its last seven qualifying finals – although Fantasia was substituted out of the game with a left knee injury.
FINALS DEJA VU
Same ground, same stage and same teams, there was definitely a little sense of de ja vu coming into the game.
And then the match started.
Tom Hawkins, kicked 0.5 last year, he missed an early chance to open the scoring, and the sense of familiarity didn’t stop there.
The man who did kick the first goal in last year’s clash between the two, Motlop, incredibly did the same in the 2021 edition.
A short kick was seized upon by Todd Marshall, Robbie Gray found some space and easily picked out the former Cat in acres of space near the goal and like he did in 2020 he slotted the first goal of the game.
Motlop finished with two goals and an assist, and again saved his best for the big stage.
From outside 50!
— AFL (@AFL) August 27, 2021
Orazio Fantastia has been nothing short of brilliant! #ColesGoals | #AFLFinalspic.twitter.com/mgzAvv6qV6
SLAM DUNCAN AND THE “CHAND-ALIIR”
Chris Scott conceded he had been downplaying expectations on star on baller Mitch Duncan, after 10 weeks out with a knee injury.
The Cats coach is going to have a hard time now after Duncan made a fine return to footy.
Despite the time on the sidelines, he had 14 disposals in the first quarter and was carving up the Power around the ground.
But the Cats couldn’t take advantage of this thanks to Aliir.
Newly minted as an All-Australian, the former Swan showed why he is right up there – if not the – among the recruits of the year.
He had four intercept marks, five intercepts and three spoils at quarter-time, with the Cats unable to stop him from quelling their attacks.
THE CLEARANCE IMBALANCE
Incredibly, despite Port’s dominance, Geelong were winning the clearances and pretty convincingly.
At three quarter times the stats had that Port had not won a single centre clearances, while Geelong were up 28-15 around the ground.
But while the Cats were winning it at the source, post clearance they had trouble all night.
Conversely the Power were able to spread far better from clearances and able to score a lot more.
Come the final siren the centre clearance count was 15-3 in favour of Geelong yet on the scoreboard the Cats were 43-points down.
SCOREBOARD
POWER 4.3, 8.7, 9.10, 12.14 (86)
CATS 2.5, 3.8, 3.11, 5.13 (43)
BEST
POWER: Wines, Aliir, Boak, Fantasia, Amon, Jonas, Dixon
CATS: Duncan, Henry, Close, Parfitt, Dangerfield
GOALS
POWER: Fantasia 4, Motlop 2, Powell-Pepper 2, Butters, Ladhams, Gray, Marshall
CATS: Hawkins 2, Cameron, Selwood, Simpson
INJURIES
POWER: Fantasia (knee)
CATS: O’Connor (hamstring), Bews (hamstring)
CROWD: 20,000 at Adelaide Oval
The brilliant pick up from Charlie and an even better finish from Motlop!#YokayiFooty | #AFLFinalspic.twitter.com/s0aR2sm9qJ
— AFL (@AFL) August 27, 2021
EARLIER: KOCH’S SWIPE AT LOPSIDED FREE KICK COUNT
Port Adelaide chairman David Koch has taken a not-so-subtle dig at the free kick count in Friday night’s qualifying final.
Midway through the second quarter, Koch tweeted the numbers 18-5 – the discrepancy at the time, in favour of visitors Geelong.
The Cats finished the term ahead 20-5 in free kicks, but the Power was up by 29 points.
Geelong’s last goal for the quarter came from consecutive frees.
Joel Selwood copped a push in the back, the Cats took advantage, then Sam Simpson was awarded one, about 35m from goal, for the same thing.
18-5
— David Koch (@kochie_online) August 27, 2021
Brad Close and Patrick Dangerfield (three each) were the major winners from the umpires in the first half.
Earlier, Geelong midfielder Mark O’Connor was substituted out with a hamstring injury.
O’Connor, who had been minding Robbie Gray and Connor Rozee at times during the game, came off during the second quarter and had ice taped to his left hamstring.
He was replaced by medical substitute and first-year Cat Shaun Higgins.
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Originally published as AFL Port Adelaide v Geelong: Cats injury, selection news for week two of finals
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