AFL season preview: Top-four finish predicted for Port Adelaide in 2021
When the premiership heat was at its hottest last year, was Port Adelaide tough enough for long enough? The answer is no. Will they get another chance?
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Ken Hinkley’s men were so close to sending Richmond tumbling out of the finals last year, but then had to watch on the next week as the Tigers triumphed in the 2020 decider.
The Power have the spirit to go the extra yards this year, as our club deep dive reveals.
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Liz Walsh’s six people who will define Port Adelaide in 2021:
MATTHEW RICHARDSON
Richardson was appointed Port Adelaide’s CEO in late October, taking over from Keith Thomas who had been in the role for nine years.
Richardson has been at the club since 2001 after starting out with the Magpies in the SANFL, then joining the Power as head of marketing in 2008, later being promoted to executive general manager.
So, with all those years comes incredible inside knowledge and he’ll need all of that as he manoeuvres the club into its next post-COVID phase, starting with a push to a premiership in 2021.
This season he’ll be leading negotiations with the AFL for the Power’s right to wear its traditional Prison Bar guernsey in Showdowns and will be looking for development avenues in the absence of its China fixture.
TRAVIS BOAK
Former captain Boak continued his renaissance in 2020, finishing second in the Brownlow Medal count (21 votes behind Lachie Neale’s 31) and finishing runner-up in the club’s best and fairest count.
Should Boak’s fitness and form continue in 2021, he will enter the club’s history books: he is only 17 games away from equalling Kane Cornes’s record 300 games as the player with the most AFL games for the Power.
Given the 32-year-old played all 19 possible games for Port in 2020, he’s on track to this year become the club’s all-time leading AFL games player.
OLLIE WINES
Wines and pre-seasons haven’t really got along in the past few years.
His 2019 began with a shoulder injury suffered while waterskiing, and after he returned he was injury prone for the rest of the season, playing only 12 games and copping a barrage of armchair criticism.
His 2020 started no better: dislocating his shoulder at training and going under the knife, keeping him out of Round 1.
Then COVID struck and when the competition returned after the lockdown, he was hit with a one-game suspension for a COVID protocol breach.
But he shook all that off and after Round 7 he excelled, posting career-best SuperCoach points (105 per game), career-best kicking efficiency (55.3 per cent) and averaging 27.1 disposals per game.
His 2021 pre-season has been different; he’s injury-free and has trained exceptionally and will be a vital cog in Port’s elite midfield.
He’ll be looking to beat those career-best 2020 stats, too.
DARCY BYRNE-JONES
The newest addition to Port’s leadership group, the 25-year-old has not only endeared himself to the coaching staff thanks to his work ethic both on and off the field, but he’s quick becoming a fan hero.
In his fifth season in 2020, he was named in the All-Australian backline before taking out the John Cahill Medal as the Power’s best and fairest player.
Byrne-Jones has become one of the first selected by coach Ken Hinkley, owing to his reliability and willingness to put his body on the line for the side, and only missing one game in five seasons.
Will be good to watch him develop into a club leader in 2021.
ORAZIO FANTASIA
Port Adelaide has spoken openly about wanting to throw youngsters Zak Butters and Connor Rozee – along with all their boundless energy and flair – into the midfield more often during the 2021 season.
Enter the former Essendon small forward, who is crucial piece in the puzzle that allows those two top-20 draft picks from 2018, to run riot in the middle.
Fantasia will need to break his unlucky run of injuries that stifled him in previous seasons at the Bombers, but the Port medical team are confident they can get the 25-year-old fit and back kicking goals.
TYSON GOLDSACK
The Collingwood premiership winner from 2010 joined Port at the end of 2019 after retiring from footy, signing a one-year SANFL playing contact with Port, where he wold also work as a development coach with the club’s young defenders.
A year later and they signed the 33-year-old as an AFL rookie.
It’s more than likely he won’t take the field, but that won’t diminish his importance to 2021.
As footy boss Chris Davies explained: “We’ve taken enough players over the last three or four years who are young and developing and we felt like to add another player who can help to develop those guys, not only during the week but also on the weekend at SANFL level was important.”
PORT’S BEST 22 FOR ROUND 1
B: Tom Jonas, Trent McKenzie, Darcy Byrne-Jones
HB: Dan Houston, Aliir Aliir, Hamish Hartlett
C: Karl Amon, Travis Boak, Xavier Duursma
HF: Zak Butters, Todd Marshall, Steven Motlop
F: Orazio Fantasia, Charlie Dixon, Robbie Gray
R: Scott Lycett, Ollie Wines, Tom Rockliff
Int: Ryan Burton, Mitch Georgiades, Miles Bergman, Lachie Jones
INS AND OUTS
Ins: Aliir Aliir (Sydney), Orazio Fantasia (Essendon), Lachie Jones (draft), Ollie Lord (draft), Taj Schofield (rookie), Tyson Goldsack (rookie)
Outs: Joe Atley, Whylie Buzza, Tobin Cox, Riley Grundy, Cameron Sutcliffe (delisted), Brad Ebert, Jack Watts, Justin Westhoff (retired).
CHAMPION DATA STATS
The good: Port Adelaide was dominant around the contest, winning the clearance count by five per game – ranked No.1. They also won the contested possession count by seven per game – ranked third.
The bad: After being such a dominant side across the season, the Power lost the clearance count by 12 in their Preliminary Final – their worst differential recorded in 2020.
AFTER SIX ROUNDS
Prediction: Five wins, one loss
R1 v North Melbourne (Marvel) – W
R2 v Essendon (AO) – W
R3 v West Coast (Optus) – L
R4 v Richmond (AO) – W
R5 v Carlton (MCG) – W
R6 v St Kilda (AO) – W
Port will kick off their season with two easy wins over North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium followed by Essendon at home. But the next fortnight is less easy to predict against the Eagles and Tigers. Then the Power will want to account for challengers Carlton at the MCG and up-and-comers St Kilda at home.
EXPECTED FINISH
Prediction: Top four
Having finished minor premier in 2020, Port’s premiership window is as open as ever thanks to its stable playing list, which boasts an enviable mix of experience and youthful exuberance. Captain Tom Jonas says the team missing last year’s grand final has made the players even hungrier for success.
ROBBO’S LIKES AND DISLIKES
The Herald Sun’s chief footy writer Mark Robinson tackles the Power.
LIKES
It’s so close you can feel it. The energy. The belief. The club. Port is riding a wave and it would be foolish to suggest it will break before September. A losing preliminary finalist to a generational team such as Richmond is no shame. The shame would come if the wheels fell off in 2021. They surely won’t. The Power plays the modern game with aplomb. It is tough, together, wins the ball, moves the ball, defends the ball and has ageing stars and young tearaways. Orazio Fantasia could be a boom recruit and I’m still surprised Aliir Aliir departed Sydney. Both should be in the best 22. And Connor Rozee will find more consistency. For Kenny Hinkley, it’s time to make hay as the sun shines.
DISLIKES
So close last year to the GF – it lost by six points to the Tigers – there’s always a fear the opportunity might not present itself again. The challenge, which it failed last year, was being tough for long enough. Externally, the expectation is Port will be top four again, but right now Hinkley is not looking beyond Round 1. Do Travis Boak and Robbie Gray continue their output, Boak especially? And do they need to be less predictable in regards to Charlie Dixon? That’s not a home and away issue, that’s a finals issue, because when the pressure is there, Dixon always seems to be the target. Over to you Todd Marshall.
VERDICT
Have to be top four.
BURNING QUESTIONS ANSWERED
Herald Sun chief football writer Mark Robinson joins Fox Footy experts Nick Riewoldt, David King, Leigh Montagna and Jordan Lewis to give their Port Adelaide predictions for 2021.
ROBBO: It’s fair to say they will be a contender again, Jordan. How much further do they need to improve from 2020 to 2021 to win it?
JORDAN: For me it’s about moments. You look at the final they lost (to Richmond) and the moment they lost it on that last kick in, it’s what it comes down to. The decisions you make under pressure and not having that composure really lost them the preliminary final. So how do you get this team into a position through the pre-season to train scenario-based stuff? They came from 13th to first, which is a massive improvement. They did have the big advantage of being home, playing on their home deck in front of their crowd in Adelaide, but I think they’ve just got what Hawthorn would love to have. And that’s young talent coming in who perform and have some spunk. And they’ve got older players who are still performing such as Travis Boak, who just keeps getting better, and a key forward. Their mix right now is just perfect. They’ll be right up there again.
JOEY: Yep, I think they tick every box. They should be expecting to play in the grand final and they’re cherry ripe to go again. Although, their window is small. You look at their 30-plus players, there’s Boak, Gray, Rockliff, Charlie Dixon, Tom Jonas, Motlop and Hamish Hartlett all over 30. While this is their sweet spot, their window is smaller than say the Brisbane Lions who probably have a bigger window.
KINGY: I do think they need to find another bona fide target in the forward 50. If you go to Dixon 190 times and your next best is 60 times for the year, you’re relying too much on one guy to have a good night when it matters.
ROOEY: He looked shaky late in the year. He was dropping chest marks and grassing a lot of opportunities, so I think they absolutely need to find that second avenue to goal.
ROBBO: Verdict, Kingy?
KINGY: I really like Port Adelaide and they’ll be thereabouts. But until they find another option inside 50, I don’t think they win it with just one target like this.
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Originally published as AFL season preview: Top-four finish predicted for Port Adelaide in 2021
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