Fremantle farce at Adelaide Oval reassuring for Power but real test lies ahead

PORT Adelaide destroyed a terrible Fremantle at Adelaide Oval — as it should have. But an appraisal of the Power’s improvement will have to wait until next weekend’s Showdown, says Michelangelo Rucci.

Chad Wingard gets his kick away under (rare) pressure in the Power’s crushing win over Fremantle. Picture: Sarah Reed

MUCH will be made of Port Adelaide doing what should amount to little in any honest review of the twilight farce at Adelaide Oval on Sunday.

But this tells just how far the Power — now on top of the AFL ladder — fell last season and the year before.

How much ground they have truly made up will be known on Saturday in the perfectly primed Showdown 42 at the Oval against unbeaten home rival, second-placed Adelaide.

Sunday, was about Port Adelaide itself.

How would its players handle the expectation (that above-the-shoulders concept that has made Power players tremble at the knees) as the red-hot match favourite against a hapless Fremantle? How would they follow-up a stunning win against their nemesis in Sydney?

Great sides don’t have such questions put in the way of doing the business against non-contenders such as the Dockers. But then, Port Adelaide is not associated with greatness … yet.

Port Adelaide on Sunday scored the second win that was considered the minimum coach Ken Hinkley needed to bank from a self-described tough opening month. This assignment list involves games against three of the 2016 top-eight finalists (Sydney, Adelaide next week and Greater Western Sydney in week four).

The 89-point belting of a horrible Fremantle unit at Adelaide Oval marks the Power’s third consecutive win (counting the 2016 season-closer against Gold Coast) — and a sampler (rather than the full deal) on what Hinkley expects as consistency from his team.

It is very easy to dismiss what happened at Adelaide Oval on Sunday evening because Fremantle made for a substandard contest.

Robbie Gray bursts through on his way to six goals. Picture: Sarah Reed

Now to the Showdown on Saturday night, the 42nd in an event that has its 20th anniversary this season.

And what will have Crows coach Don Pyke and his scouts learned in their analytical notes of a game that was shot early?

It was cooked after 12 minutes when Jarman Impey marked his exit from the bad books at Alberton by kicking Port Adelaide’s fourth goal, a target Fremantle did not achieve until Lachie Weller’s score 12 minutes into the third term (when the Power led by 71 points).

Most obvious is that Port Adelaide’s midfield does indeed take on a much-more imposing context when working to winning rucks, in particular Patrick Ryder whose energetic work could be a testing point for Adelaide lead ruckman Sam Jacobs. Power midfield coach Michael Voss’ ears do not burn so much these days.

It is telling that the Power can work midfield rotations that call on first-year tyro Sam Powell-Pepper more often than All-Australians Robbie Gray and Chad Wingard, who make for an ominous pairing in attack.

Port Adelaide’s defence seems smarter and more solid this season. But this thought is to be truly tested this week against the imposing and multidimensional Crows attack.

By contrast, there is no respectful way to describe the lameness of the Fremantle’s forward system. The scoreboard does not lie.

Pyke probably found reading the Wall Street Journal ratings on future stocks or leading American business “thinker” Daniel Pink’s latest bulletin on motivating staff more enlightening than any statistical note or spreadsheet from Adelaide Oval on Sunday.

It should have been a ho-hum workout for Port Adelaide against this poor Fremantle unit. That it was is reassuring for Hinkley. But it is still not the full deal in that consistency equation that defines the Power.

Originally published as Fremantle farce at Adelaide Oval reassuring for Power but real test lies ahead