AFL Round 17 Port Adelaide v Western Bulldogs: All the news and analysis as Power stars run riot
Two weeks ago against Brisbane, Port Adelaide fans booed their team and coach off the ground. On Saturday, a seemingly completely different Power side made sure it didn’t happen again.
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A lot can change in a footy fortnight.
Port Adelaide players – and coach Ken Hinkley – were booed at the end of their previous home game, a 79-point drubbing at the hands of Brisbane.
Against the Western Bulldogs at Adelaide Oval on Saturday, Power fans cheered and clapped their team in unison throughout the match.
Whenever Hinkley was on the big screen, there were no jeers from the crowd of 31,590.
They vented their frustration two weeks ago, but this time the Power faithful had nothing to complain about.
Instead, they had plenty to like in a dominant 48-point triumph.
Supporters might have felt they were watching a different Port team to the one that looked a long way off a top-four contender against Brisbane.
This one seemed a side capable of playing and winning finals.
“You stick together as best you can, that’s what we’ve done – we’ve stuck together and stuck at the task,” Hinkley said post-match.
“There’s nothing different, we’ve actually just continued to work on the things that we review and see, and the playing group has been really open and engaged to continue to look for improvement.
“We know that it’s a tough season to play in and you have some ups and downs.
“We played a red-hot Brisbane the last time we played here.
“I say that regularly and people sometimes think I just say it for the sake of it, but it can happen. When a game gets away from you, it can really happen (badly).
“Every week there is such a prize on (offer) and that’s the pressure that you deal with … it’s the pressure of performing and consistently delivering in this competition.
“I’m really pleased for the boys that they’ve been able to do that over the last couple of weeks.”
The Power ensured the home crowd was energised from the outset on Saturday by racing to a five-goal-to-none lead.
Good vibes were maintained during the second term, which finished when Mitch Georgiades kicked his fourth major of the match on the half-time siren to give his side a 44-point advantage at the long break.
The Power lacked effort at times against the Lions and had little fluency going forward.
You could have said the same about the Bulldogs on Saturday.
“We couldn’t find a winner on the ground in the midfield and the forward line, so it was a bit of a regression,” Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said after the loss.
“It was a difficult watch for a fair chunk of that first 30 to 40 minutes.
“It was a combination of things … in the short-range turnover game there’s an intensity required that we didn’t have.”
Contrastingly, Port Adelaide played a spirited, free-flowing brand of football that it had not shown at this ground since thrashing Essendon in Gather Round in April.
Last week’s two-point victory over St Kilda was an unconvincing grind.
The Power beat the Saints 62-60 – and eclipsed that winning total by half-time (65) on Saturday.
Captain Connor Rozee set the tone, collecting 18 first-quarter disposals, 24 to half-time and 36 for the game, to go with a goal.
Fellow midfielders Zak Butters and Ollie Wines had 20 each to the long break and 33 and 30 respectively in all.
Key defenders Brandon Zerk-Thatcher and Aliir Aliir backed up their stellar performances against the Saints with another.
Georgiades continued his strong form by kicking a career-best five goals.
Port’s dominance was not reflected in the clearances, which the visitors won 35-33, but it whacked the Bulldogs on the outside and between the arcs.
The Power had a whopping 67 more disposals (204-137) to half-time.
It finished 374-331.
Port led the inside 50 count 29-19 at the long break and 53-42 for the match.
What the stats sheet could not display was the sides’ desperation, intent and willingness to defend.
Brisbane smashed it in those departments a fortnight ago, on Saturday the Power turned the tables.
“They’re just incapable of running with Port Adelaide who have got much greater hunger to put in the yards,” Gerard Healy said on Fox Footy.
David King added: “It’s been an almost perfect defensive performance from Port Adelaide.”
“The defence has been right across the ground,” Healy said.
NAUGHTON NAILED, BUTTERS SUBBED
– Jason Phelan
Western Bulldogs star Tom Liberatore isn’t the only player sweating on the match review after a feisty second quarter.
Brandon Zerk-Thatcher will be assessed after he caught Aaron Naughton high with an elbow while jostling for position, with the Bulldogs forward subbed out of the game with a concussion.
A scuffle between several players broke out after Horne-Francis laid a strong tackle on Liberatore, with vision showing Georgiades landing a glancing high blow on his opponent in the off-the-ball incident.
Power gun Zak Butters was involved in a scuffle with Liberatore then shared a testy discussion with Hinkley on the bench before being subbed out with just 12 minutes left in the game.
“It was management, we’re just looking after him, he’s had a really big year,” Hinkley said of the move.
“He gives me too much, he gives me everything he’s got, and sometimes you’ve got to look after him a little bit.
“He’s been worn like a glove for a month, but today he got a little bit of space and that helped him.
“My conversation with Zak was just ‘Stay calm, stay in the moment, control what you can control, some stuff you can’t control so move on’.
“He’s always really good.
“Conversations with Zak are always pretty intense on game day, which is what I love about him … everything is on the line for him on game day.”
SCOREBOARD
POWER 5.2 10.5 12.8 15.12 (102)
BULLDOGS 0.2 3.3 4.4 8.8 (54)
PHELAN’S BEST POWER: Rozee, Butters, Georgiades, Horne-Francis, Sweet, Wines, Zerk-Thatcher, Evans. BULLDOGS: Treloar, Liberatore, English, Bontempelli, Bramble, West.
GOALS POWER: Georgiades 5, Horne-Francis 3, Wines, Sweet, Rozee, Byrne-Jones, Narkle, Butters, Lord. BULLDOGS: English 2, West 2, Bontempelli 2, McNeil, Freijah.
INJURIES POWER: Nil. BULLDOGS: Naughton (concussion), O’Donnell (head knock).
UMPIRES: Johanson, DeBoy, Dore, Mollison
31,590 at ADELAIDE OVAL
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
JASON PHELAN’S VOTES
3 Rozee (Port)
2 Butters (Port)
1 Georgiades (Port)
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