Shocking moment opens Port Adelaide-Hawthorn

SOMEONE is getting fired for this. The Port Adelaide-Hawthorn match opened in bizarre circumstances, never seen before in the AFL.

Security guards shown on the field. (credit: Port Adelaide) Security stays on for start

IT was historic night at Adelaide Oval — and not in a good way.

In just a quarter of football in the Thursday night match between Port Adelaide and Hawthorn we saw two AFL firsts.

Before the opening bounce history was made, as two security guards remained on the field for the centre bounce.

It was either an obvious communication breakdown, or perhaps the two stepping outside the call of duty, but the two guards remained on the field as umpires bounced the ball.

The pair only realised their mistake as players shooed them from the field — both were oblivious to the game starting.

Port player Jared Polec was shown speaking to the security guard still standing on his wing, the conversation ending abruptly as the guard quickly fleed the field of play.

They're normally meant to stop ground invasions....#AFLPowerHawks pic.twitter.com/jnc79uPQLN

— Port Adelaide FC (@PAFC) June 1, 2017

Eagle-eyed veteran Bruce McAvaney spotted the two guards and promptly called them out for their error.

“Did they both just have a little snooze,” McAvaney said. “What’s going on here? Both almost in the centre square. Suddenly I think they both just realised they’d better get going.”

Seven commentator Hamish McLachlan was baffled by the error, as most of the commentary team was left in shock, all adamant it was something they had never witnessed before in their time in the game. “Incredible scenes, they’d better get going, I think,” McLachlan said.

Did anyone else notice the security guards held strong on the wings for the 1st bounce? #portvhawks #afl

— matt white (@matt_white_19) June 1, 2017

It turned out Hawthorn could have done with the extra hand, as it was blown off the park in the opening term in Adelaide.

Port Adelaide posted 11 scoring shots to nil in the opening quarter, landing six goals and five behinds. Charlie Dixon was the star for the Power. He kicked two goals in the opening term.

Wayne Carey savaged the Hawks’ opening effort, as Port simply ran riot.

“If I were Alastair Clarkson, I’d be asking for a headcount,” Carey said on Channel Seven.

The security company might want to take a similar approach as well. It’s likely the embarrassed pair just kept running.

The 41-point lead demoralised Hawthorn and created history at the same time. It was the first time Port Adelaide has held a team scoreless at quarter-time since its entry in the AFL.

The news only got worse for the Hawks, as they were thrashed by Port.

QT: @PAFC 6.5 (41) lead the @HawthornFC 0.0 (0). Charlie Dixon has two goals. #AFLPowerHawks pic.twitter.com/N39d41YUB5

— AFL (@AFL) June 1, 2017

The Hawks were kept to their lowest ever half-time score — three points — en route to copping their 51-point hammering. Hawthorn (four wins, seven losses) are in 14th spot on the ladder ahead of weekend games.

But coach Alastair Clarkson maintains his playing group will be premiership contenders — he’s just not sure when.

“I’m really confident those boys will be able to do it,” he said. “When that is, it might take a little bit of time. It doesn’t look like it’s going to be this year.

“But we’re not going to give up on the year.

“And everything we do, whether it’s this year or next year, is all geared towards helping us compete for silverware again.”

Clarkson conceded the season was proving “a difficult period” for his Hawks. “For Hawthorn fans and perhaps the wider football community, it’s just like, ‘Oh, what has happened to Hawthorn,’” he said.

“But it’s the closeness of the competition and it’s what the competition is designed for in a sense — that it’s difficult to stay at the top for a long, long period of time.

“We have been pretty good at being able to do it.

“But we are just finding it at the minute a real challenge to get everything going for us ... but it hasn’t softened our resolve.”

Hawthorn’s heavy loss to Port came on the club’s second consecutive away trip — and successive six-day breaks.

“You don’t usually get dealt that sort of blow in the course of a home-and-away fixture ... what can you do about it,” Clarkson said. “It’s no point talking too much about it.

“We need to be better than what we were in the first quarter so it’s not anything to do with the fixture really, it just makes it a little bit harder for you, that’s all.”

— with AAP