AFL Port Adelaide vs Melbourne: Zak Butters stars as the Power win another close one

In 2022, Port Adelaide couldn’t buy a win in a close game. This year, it’s a completely different story. So, what’s changed? Here’s what’s propelling the Power towards a top-four finish.

Zak Butters of the Power celebrates a goal. Picture: Sarah Reed/AFL Photos

Port Adelaide could not buy a win in close games last year, prevailing in just two of 10 matches decided by 14 points or fewer.

This season, it is 5-0 in those contests.

Results in tight games ultimately cost the Power a finals berth in 2022, but 12 months on it might prove the springboard to a top-four spot.

Perhaps the margin should not have been so close on Friday night, when Port Adelaide beat Melbourne by four points at home.

The hosts finished with big advantages in inside 50s (61-48), marks inside 50 (17-12), an extra four scoring shots and large chunks of the game were played in its front half.

But they trailed by 11 points at three-quarter time and were down with just under five minutes remaining in tough, wet conditions before Connor Rozee kicked the match-winning goal.

Gutsy victories have become a trend for Port, which has won seven matches in a row and is 8-2 overall this season.

Zak Butters celebrates one of his two goals against the Demons. Picture: Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

The Power has been behind in the last quarter in five of its eight triumphs.

In the two-point round 4 success against Sydney at the SCG that started its winning streak, Port was down by four with 1min 40sec left.

A week later, it trailed the Western Bulldogs at home with 11-and-a-half minutes remaining, but managed to prevail by 14 points.

Against St Kilda at Marvel Stadium in round 6, the Power was down with 15 minutes left and fought back to get up by seven.

The next match, Port was behind by one point with 15 minutes remaining before recording a five-point success.

Any of those could games have been losses and maybe some should have been, but the Power eked out crucial wins in each, providing a platform to set up their season.

Hardworking midfielder Willem Drew said the team had learnt plenty from last year’s narrow defeats and had improved from them.

“After every week, you always take things out of each game, especially those close games, you look at certain things you’d like to do better,” Drew told The Advertiser.

“We’ve worked on that … just the little things like getting the ball out of bounds, if we have to take the game on, knowing when to do that or when to slow the ball down.

“Sometimes it’s just footy and you’re on the other end of those close games.

“Last year it happened to us a fair bit, so it’s nice to be on the other end of it.”

Port Adelaide won another close game on Friday night. Picture: James Elsby/AFL Photos

Ken Hinkley and returning big man Scott Lycett after the win. Picture: James Elsby/AFL Photos

Drew said the team’s incredibly close bond and “genuine care” for one another were key factors behind winning tight matches.

“It comes back to our pressure and doing it for your teammate,” said Drew, who recorded 10 tackles – the second-most on the ground – along with 22 disposals, six inside 50s and four score involvements.

“People are coming in playing their roles and everyone is doing it together.

“We know we’re not going to win every week but if we keep bringing our pressure, effort and intensity … that’s what we’re working towards and can be proud of.”

Power coach Ken Hinkley said the team, which fielded a makeshift forward line on Friday night in the absence of Charlie Dixon, Todd Marshall, Mitch Georgiades, Junior Rioli and Orazio Fantasia, was bravely winning games.

“I just love the way they hang in – it’s pretty special,” Hinkley said.

“Late in the third quarter we had every reason to maybe fall over, but as I said to the boys before the game started, it’s going to go the whole way and you’re going to have to be prepared to play four quarters.”

Hinkley said sticking to a simple process was leading to these gritty wins.

“We work hard, we pressure hard and try to halve as many balls as we possibly can and see what happens from there,” he said.

Jason Horne-Francis had some big moments when the game was on the line. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

Although Port Adelaide had a 2-8 record in matches decided by 14 points or fewer last year, it had a 6-0 mark in 2021 and 3-1 in 2020.

The Power reached preliminary finals in those seasons – could this side go on such a run?

Going into the Swans match, when Hinkley’s side was 1-2 and his position was under intense external scrutiny, September action seemed a long way away.

Now the top four looks very much a realistic possibility for Port, given its hot start, the way it is playing and the fact it faces just five top-eight teams in the remaining 13 matches.

Not that the club has spoken much about its ambitions, according to Drew.

“We’re super confident (when facing the top sides), we know we’ve worked really hard all pre-season, throughout the year and have put ourselves in a really good position,” he said.

“Obviously we just want to keep playing good footy and the wins will come if we keep doing that.

“But obviously there’s a lot of the season to go.”

Makeshift attack surges Power past Demons in rain-soaked epic

- Matt Turner and Jason Phelan

You wondered where the goals were going to come from for Port Adelaide on Friday night.

But in the end, the Power’s makeshift attack was able to overcome some missed opportunities in tough conditions help the side to a gutsy four-point home win over Melbourne.

Spearheads Charlie Dixon (quad) and Todd Marshall (concussion) were sidelined, as was the suspended Junior Rioli, leaving a very different looking Power forward line than in its previous game against Melbourne.

In the round 18 match in Alice Springs last year, Port had Dixon and Marshall, together with high flyer Mitch Georgiades and left-footer Jeremy Finlayson.

Georgiades suffered a season-ending knee injury last month, while small forward Orazio Fantasia (quad) was also unavailable.

That left mainstay Finlayson, alongside long-time defenders Darcy Byrne-Jones and Ryan Burton, fourth-game tall Ollie Lord and a pair of inexperienced goalsneaks – Jed McEntee (17 matches) and Francis Evans (11).

Lord kicked a crucial last quarter goal. (Photo by James Elsby/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Between them, they managed five goals and six behinds for the match.

Their pressure was on song in the first two quarters, helping to ensure the hosts led the time in forward half statistic 62 per cent to 38 per cent.

Port also claimed 10 marks inside 50s to Melbourne’s six to the long break.

But the Power did not make it count, leaving the door open for the Demons.

“Realistically, they should be five goals up,” Eddie Betts said on Fox Footy at half-time.

“They’re just missing their shots.”

Fox Footy’s Garry Lyon added: “They’ve only kicked five goals in a half despite the dominance and that would be an issue for Ken”.

The Demons turned the game with a seven-goal to three third term to turn a 14-point deficit at the long break to an 11-point lead at the last one.

But the Power’s forwards were able to help them answer.

And their pressure was huge late.

Finlayson was lively in the first quarter, kicking a goal before a quiet next two terms.

He bobbed up to slot a major in the final quarter that brought the Power within four points.

Then came Lord’s big moment.

Ryan Burton was also swung forward at times. (Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)

The 197cm grandson of Geelong’s 1962 Brownlow medallist Alistair Lord took a diving mark, resembling a slip’s catch in the forward pocket from a shanked Dylan Williams shot and showed incredible composure to convert a snap on his right foot.

“It’s massive the fact that Dixon’s out, Marshall’s out, it’s very important for Lord to stand up and take his opportunities when he can,” Luke Hodge said on Channel 7.

Byrne-Jones had a game-high 11 tackles, while Evans had six.

The Power’s forward pressure was immense, laying 18 tackles inside 50 to the Demons’ six.

Port also ended up winning inside 50 (61-48) and marks inside 50 (17-12).

Burton, who kicked a goal in the first term, moved back during the last quarter to cover the injured Trent McKenzie and took a crucial, late mark.

UNBELIEVABLE BUTTERS

Zak Butters, wearing retired club great Robbie Gray’s revered No.9 guernsey, was the catalyst for the impressive display with a career-best 41 possessions, with nine clearances and two goals.

“Robbie knew who he was giving his jumper to,” Hinkley said with a wry grin.

“And it’s been vindicated, hasn’t it?

“He’s handed it over to a pretty special player.

“Without individualising too much ... I’m not sure that there’s many better games that you’ll see from a little fella.

“A tough, brave, little p***k, who takes big moments and turns them into something special.

“(But) Zak can’t do that without the team … I think that’s really important (to say).”

SPP’S PARTY TRICK

In the first game of Sir Doug Nicholls Round, Port’s indigenous stars did the damage on the scoreboard early as the home side jumped out to a 12-point lead at the first break.

Sam Powell-Pepper got the ball rolling in spectacular fashion, kicking a superb goal while facing away from the big sticks.

Powell-Pepper was in the right place at the right time to snare a deft Scott Lycett tap and quickly send the ball sailing back over his head for a party trick goal.

Jeremy Finlayson made up for an earlier miss with after the ball fell in his lap and Jason Horne-Francis made it three goals in a row after the siren.

Port’s lead stretched to 25 points in the second term after Dan Houston made it five majors in succession.

Butters continued his rich vein of form with 23 possessions in the first half, five more than the next highest tally on the ground that belonged to Rozee.

Clayton Oliver aside, Melbourne’s midfielders weren’t having the same impact, Christian Petracca with just seven touches at the main break.

But if there was one blot on the Power’s copybook it’s that they didn’t kick straight in front of goal and should’ve been further up than 14 points at half-time.

Sam Powell-Pepper celebrates his goal. (Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)

FLAT ATTACK FIRES

The Demons owned the top-ranked attack in the competition after nine rounds, averaging 106.9 points a match, but they were restricted to their lowest first-quarter and first-half scores of the season.

Melbourne kicked back-to-back goals for the first time when Bayley Fritsch bobbed up for a couple late in the first half, but the task of pegging back the home side’s lead was made more difficult by the driving rain that lashed Adelaide Oval during the third quarter.

But the Demons lifted in the sodden conditions.

On the back of a much-improved performance at the stoppages, Melbourne’s sputtering attack roared to life with a blistering six-goal burst.

The resurgent Demons led by 17 points when local lad Brodie Grundy, a one-time recruiting target of the Power, booted his first and raised his index finger to his lips to shush the booing crowd.

Brodie Grundy silences the fans. (Photo by James Elsby/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

CASUALTY WARD

Travis Boak suffered a heavy knock to the back in the first quarter, but soldiered on before he was subbed out in the third term.

Jake Bowey also left the game in the third quarter after picking up a calf injury.

Rozee was left dazed and had blood streaming from a hand, also in an eventful third term, after a high hit from Lachie Hunter that saw the former Bulldog reported.

POWER 3.2 5.7 8.8 11.14 (80)

DEMONS 1.2 3.5 10.7 11.10 (76)

PHELAN’S BEST POWER: Butters, Rozee, Houston, Horne-Francis, Drew, Powell-Pepper, Wines. DEMONS: Oliver, Hunter, Rivers, May, Gawn, Petracca, Salem.

GOALS POWER: Butters 2, Finlayson 2, Lord 2, Powell-Pepper, Rozee, Houston, Horne-Francis, Burton. DEMONS: Fritsch 2, McDonald 2, van Rooyen, Pickett, Petracca, Spargo, Hunter, Grundy, Chandler.

INJURIES POWER: Boak (ribs). DEMONS: Bowey (calf).

REPORTS: Hunter for rough conduct on Rozee in the third quarter.

UMPIRES: Haussen, Broadbent, Deboy, Gavine

37,565 at ADELAIDE OVAL

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

JASON PHELAN’S VOTES

3 Butters (Port)

2 Oliver (Mel)

1 Rozee (Port)

Originally published as AFL Port Adelaide vs Melbourne: Zak Butters stars as the Power win another close one