Port Adelaide fall to Fremantle by six points as Dockers surge into top four
Two more Power players’ seasons look like they could be over as Port Adelaide begins to count the cost of its gallant loss to Fremantle on Saturday night.
Port Adelaide is likely to shut down another pair of prime movers in Jack Lukosius and Jase Burgoyne this week ahead of the club’s clash against Carlton.
Lukosius was to have scans on his injured calf after the fighting loss to Fremantle after a recurrence of the same injury that kept him out last week against Geelong.
The club had been happy to play him despite only a week out given he had trained well enough but he suffered the injury in exactly the same spot in the calf.
He told trainers it was worse than the initial concern so his season is almost certainly over.
Burgoyne has a partial tear of the plantaris tendon in his lower leg, which is causing enough pain for the club to consider surgery.
They will make that decision in coming days but he too is likely done for the year and will miss games against the Blues and then Gold Coast in Ken Hinkley and Travis Boak’s last game for the club.
Lukosius suffered a fractured kneecap in the club’s contest against Richmond in round 2 and had only recently returned, only to be shut down for the season with fresh injury.
But Ken Hinkley believes he has a bright future in a forward line that will see Todd Marshall returning from an achilles tear next year alongside him and Mitch Georgiades.
“It’s bad luck, sometimes it just happens, you can sit there and be miserable or you just go ‘You know what? That’s what footy careers do to you’,” Hinkley said.
“They’re not always perfect, they don’t always go straight up, they have some ups and downs.
“It would have been nice to have him for a lot more games this season, but he’s another one of those young players that I get a lot of optimism out of for what the next bit looks like.”
POWER PROUD OF EFFORT HEADING INTO FINAL FORTNIGHT
Port Adelaide defender Aliir Aliir hopes the team can carry its encouraging performance into its last two games as it tries to send Travis Boak and Ken Hinkley out on a high.
The Power responded from consecutive drubbings and a slow start to give flag contender Fremantle a scare on Saturday night, before losing by six points.
Aliir, who registered a career-high 17 marks and game-best 12 intercept possessions to be among Port’s standouts, said the Power’s previous fortnight had been disappointing, but taking it up to a top-four team with a young side added optimism things could turn around under incoming coach Josh Carr.
“It’s obviously been an up-and-down year but we want to finish the last two games on a high, especially with it being (Port games record holder) Boaky and (senior coach) Kenny’s last two games for the club,” Aliir told this masthead.
“Obviously the first quarter wasn’t great, but we were able to respond well.
“We didn’t get the win and we play to get the win, but we can take a lot of positives.
“I thought we played some good football.”
Coming off 98 and 88-point losses, Port Adelaide looked like it might be headed for another hiding when it trailed 4.5 to 0.4 at quarter-time.
It was smashed 13-4 in clearances, 39-28 in contested possessions and, according to Aliir, its defenders were on the back of their heels.
The Power hit back with its highest-scoring quarter of the season (50 points).
By game’s end, a 43-25 clearance count, including 19-10 in the centre, proved decisive.
Fremantle captain Alex Pearce’s goal in the dying stages sealed the win for the visitors.
“I didn’t even see him coming,” Aliir said.
“I was underneath the pack, going for a spoil and I saw his long hair come out of nowhere.”
Aliir said as disappointing as the previous two weeks were, the team did not cop a spray, rather tried to focus on the positives.
“Obviously we don’t want to lose by that margin, but you can take bits and pieces out, implement it, train throughout the week and it’ll start to show,” he said.
“(Joe) Berry, (Will) Lorenz, (Mani) Liddy, (Jack) Whitlock – there’s a lot of young guys.
“The more they play, the more confident they’ll get.”
Aliir’s first major for the club – in his 112th Port game – just before half-time gave the hosts a two-point lead at the long break on Saturday night.
“I had that (goal drought) in the back of my head,” he said.
“Usually at captain’s run, myself and Drewy (Willem Drew) do set shots.
“He was behind me screaming ‘kick it on your left, you’re better on your left’.
“I’d kicked three behinds prior to that and a few out on the full.
“The boys celebrated pretty good.”
Outgoing Power coach Ken Hinkley was left with a lasting memory thanks to his star defender.
Aliir Aliir kicks his first goal in Port Adelaide colours 🥹#AFLPowerFreopic.twitter.com/9aQxoCcmFQ
— AFL (@AFL) August 9, 2025
“He had an amazing game, but he’s just a great person,” Hinkley said.
“I’m glad I was in the driver’s seat to watch him kick his first goal for Port Adelaide … it was damn exciting.
“We lost, but I will remember this game and celebrate it because Aliir kicked a goal for us, and some of the great effort our younger players brought into the game.
“But, most importantly, Aliir was outstanding tonight and when he gets his first goal the whole footy club recognises that because he is a great leader in the community, but he’s equally such a great leader of our footy club.
“He’s one of the most popular people you could wish to play with and coach.”
Usual forward Ollie Lord joined Aliir in defence against the Dockers.
Lord only learnt of his role – to help cover for Lachie Jones’s late withdrawal with illness –
once he walked into the change rooms.
“I really believe he can play at either end of the ground,” Aliir said.
Performing well this week held a little extra significance for Aliir, a proud Dinka man who was born in a Kenyan refugee camp before his family fled to South Sudan.
Port held the eighth edition of its Multicultural Power Cup on Friday and celebrated other cultures as part of its pre-game entertainment.
“It’s a special round to remember my heritage and where I come from,” he said.
“The longer I’m here, the more appreciative I am of the little things.”
Hinkley was disappointed by the heartbreaking result against Fremantle, but bullish about the Power’s future beyond his tenure after the brave performance.
The gutsy display reassured Hinkley that his club is on the right track despite its free fall down the ladder this season.
“That second quarter was as good as we’ve played for some time, to be fair, and it was nice to see that from quite a young side,” Hinkey said.
“(They were) listening and executing under pressure against a side that is in the top four.
“It gives great hope, and I’ve said that all the way through, that with a fit and healthy squad, a good long pre-season – not the short pre-seasons we’ve had from a number of years – some personnel coming back … optimism is still OK, I reckon.
“We want to play like Port Adelaide as much as we possibly can, we certainly haven’t done that in the past two games, but there have been some circumstances that have been challenging for us to say the least.
“We haven’t been anywhere near what we expect and tonight was somewhere near what we’d like against a good side.
“You can sit back and be somewhat pleased with the performance and the effort, but ultimately, we’re in the business to win, and you still end up disappointed because we didn’t win.”
The loss was further soured by another injury to luckless forward Jack Lukosius, who has played just seven games in his first season with the Power, and suffered a reoccurrence of a calf injury late in the third term.
“It’s bad luck, sometimes it just happens, you can sit there and be miserable or you just go ‘You know what? That’s what footy careers do to you’,” Hinkley said.
“They’re not always perfect, they don’t always go straight up, they have some ups and downs.
“It would have been nice to have him for a lot more games this season, but he’s another one of those young players that I get a lot of optimism out of for what the next bit looks like.”
SCOREBOARD
POWER 0.4 8.5 11.8 13.8 (86)
DOCKERS 4.5 7.9 9.12 13.14 (92)
PHELAN’S BEST
Power: Butters, Aliir, Farrell, Boak, Wines, Rozee, Sweet.
Dockers: Serong, Jackson, O’Meara, Bolton, Brayshaw, Erasmus, Ryan.
GOALS
Power: Georgiades 2, McEntee 2, Rioli 2, Lukosius 2, Rozee 2, Richards, Berry, Aliir. Dockers: Voss 3, Treacy 2, Reid 2, Frederick 2, Bolton 2, Serong, Pearce.
INJURIES
Power: Lukosisus (calf), Jones (illness – late withdrawal).
Dockers: Nil.
UMPIRES: Deboy, Stephens, Tee, Rodger
CROWD: 30,390 at Adelaide Oval
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: JASON PHELAN’S VOTES
3 Serong (Fre)
2 Butters (Port)
1 Jackson (Fre)
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