AFL Round 10 Port Adelaide v Hawthorn: How the Power pulled off miracle comeback against the Hawks
With 60 seconds left, Port Adelaide looked gone for all money – with a Hawthorn great even declaring the game on TV. What happened next resulted in one of the most remarkable comeback victories ever seen.
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At Alberton, the Port Adelaide players have a chant for Darcy Byrne-Jones.
“DBJ, OLE, OLE, OLE” it goes.
“They take the piss mate when they are doing it, it is pretty funny,” Byrne-Jones told this masthead of the chant his teammates have for him.
On Sunday evening, the Power players were in no way poking fun at Byrne-Jones as they whipped out the chant as they walked into the rooms and then sung the song after he won them the game against Hawthorn with just two-seconds to go in an amazing finish at Adelaide Oval.
“It is nice for it to happen after something good has happened,” he said.
If you were to write a script on a 41-point comeback by the Power over the Hawks, you probably wouldn’t have had Byrne-Jones winning the game for Port.
But then again the script was ripped up all day in the match and Byrne-Jones ended up winning the game off his boot.
Well, kind of.
“You don’t believe you are going to kick the winning goal really, it came off my shin and luckily it went through,” he said.
“You just have to take those wins and moments sometimes.
“Being a defender for so long and then going forward you kind of dream of kicking the winner and for it to happen it is pretty surreal.
“It wouldn’t have happened without the guys in the middle, (Zak) Butters and (Jason) Horne-Francis were huge.”
Here’s how the script was ripped up, rewritten and ripped up again in a quite remarkable win by the Power.
THE START
Last week, Port Adelaide did something we haven’t associated with the Power – go and defeat a top-eight team on the road.
On Sunday, the Power was again uncharacteristic, and it would have made Hinkley mad.
While up until last week against Geelong, the record in big games was a stick used by critics of Port to whack the Power with you could rarely say that Hinkley’s side don’t get the job done when it came to the games they were expected to win.
But from the outset against Hawthorn, the Power just looked off.
Dan Houston, probably the Power’s best kick, turned the ball over straight to Jack Ginnivan within 30 seconds with a kick you almost couldn’t believe actually came from the star.
Horne-Francis, who looked to be the Power’s only real spark for most of the game, was also sloppy with a kick early on you would normally bet on him to make.
Acting captain Butters, so inspirational against the Cats a week prior, got caught holding the ball by a key forward – young Hawk Calsher Dear.
Before the first bounce, Hinkley told Channel 7 that he wanted to see what the body language of his side would be when the game started.
Would they be up and about? Would they have energy?
There was, indeed, an early Power outage at Adelaide Oval, with the Hawks the one playing with energy, intent and dare.
Despite having one of the worst clearance differentials in the competition, the Hawks were up 15-6 in clearances and 10-4 for stoppage clearances at quarter time.
The inside 50 count was 17-4 in favour of the Hawks, with Sam Mitchell’s side at one stage having nine inside 50s in a row.
And with the Hawks kicking six goals to the Power’s one, the Port Adelaide crowd didn’t know how to respond at quarter time.
It wasn’t as deathly quiet as the 2021 preliminary final, but aside for Hawthorn supporters applauding their side, there was silence around Adelaide Oval as Power fans pondered just what had happened.
Premiership player for both clubs Shaun Burgoyne – who works for Port Adelaide – questioned the attitude of the Power.
“But I think they just didn’t come with the right mental attitude,” he said while the Power was behind.
Hinkley rejected this notion when asked post-game regarding the slow start.
“I think that is not the right way to explain it, sometimes there is a bit of a let down or a hangover at times and when you have a nine-day break you need to get your energy,” he said.
“This game is so hard to play every week at such a high level, there is no doubt that it can be challenging to get up but that is not because of the last game or this game.
“Sometimes you can’t play at your best, which was us for three quarters and then we played an unbelievable last quarter.”
THE CHANGES
While it wasn’t the Power’s day for most of the game, it was definitely Port Adelaide’s final quarter.
Trailing by 41-points midway through the third term, the Power got it back to 28-points at the final term.
The mindset of the Power players changed.
“From our end we become a bit more aggressive, we don’t like losing but I would rather go down swinging,” Hinkley said.
“Last week (against Geelong) we experienced that in reverse, we had a really good team coming at us, this week we were the team trying to come at them and we had to believe that we could do it.
“We can score quickly, conditions made it tricky … but I honestly believe that at three-quarter-time the boys thought you know what if we can get everything right, we haven’t been great and Hawthorn have been super but if we can get some pressure on the scoreboard.”
Byrne-Jones said establishing midfield dominance was key.
“We did a few things, we tried to get more even numbers ahead of the ball to compete which helped a little bit,” he said.
“But at the end of the day the game is won in the midfield and with contested possession, we were able to turn that around especially during the last quarter there and come out on top.”
In this there were some key performances.
With the giant Lloyd Meek bullying youngster Dante Visentini, key forward Charlie Dixon was thrown into the ruck.
“Charlie I thought was huge when he went into the ruck for us and gave us a bit of territory back,” Hinkley said.
“We thought Lloyd’s size was going to be critical, we knew he had been in really good form, he is ranked really high in the competition this year.
“Dante deserved his opportunity to play against him tonight but if size, and the conditions made size important, was required then Charlie’s size helps.”
It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Horne-Francis kept the Power in it when Hawthorn were on top, with the young star inspirational with his 27 disposal, two goal and 15 contested possession game.
Butters had just the three disposals in the third quarter.
In the fourth he had 17 and five clearances.
“He learnt a lesson, you might be OK for the first bit but you can still be great if we need you,” Hinkley said.
“He has stepped up very well as a stand-in captain.”
After being spanked in clearances for most of the day, the Power ended the game four off the Hawks.
Horne-Francis and Butters were massive in this.
THE END
Hawks fans will be cursing 2008 premiership player Campbell Brown.
With 43 seconds to go, he declared Hawthorn were home while commentating on Channel 7.
It ended up being one of the great mocks in recent times.
Houston launched the ball inside 50 and Willie Rioli was awarded a free-kick.
Crucially, he quickly went back and kicked a clutch goal, to bring it back to five-points with 22-seconds remaining.
The Hawks were in protection mode for much of the fourth quarter and tried to hold on one more time.
But Willem Drew won the clearance and gave it to the red-hot Butters, who bombed it forward.
In the chaos that ensued, Jed McEntee did what he does that makes the Power staff love him so much – laying a tackle that dispossessed the ball from former teammate Karl Amon.
And while he isn’t the best player when the Power play soccer at training, Byrne-Jones made sure all that practice paid off.
“We play a lot of soccer in training. Sometimes people think we play too much but we got a big return today in a really important second,” Hinkley said.
“Good for Darcy, I thought he was really brave all night.”
It was an ending that Power fans will watch again and again.
But for Byrne-Jones, he won’t watch a replay of it too much.
“I don’t want to drink my own bathwater. I’ll take it pretty easy on that front,” he said.
from the man himself 🥰 pic.twitter.com/FwzmCfji6m
— Yartapuulti FC (@PAFC) May 19, 2024
MATCH REPORT: POWER STUN HAWKS IN A HEARTSTOPPER
— Jason Phelan
Darcy Byrne-Jones kicked a goal with just seconds remaining to propel Port Adelaide to a stunning come-from-behind win against brave Hawthorn on Sunday, but the superb victory was overshadowed by a fresh heart scare to Ollie Wines.
There were 22 seconds left on the clock at Adelaide Oval after Willie Rioli booted his third goal to make it a five-point game, with Byrne-Jones in the right spot to soccer through the winner in the nick of time.
Wines, who was subbed out of a loss to Melbourne in 2022 with heart palpitations, went to the bench with just over a minute to go in the first quarter with the same issue and did not return.
Power football chief Chris Davies confirmed that Wines has medication for the condition and spent the second half resting in the changerooms.
Wines’ condition was clearly the top priority for the Power, but it was a difficult day for Port on the field who trailed by as much as 41 points in the third quarter before rattling home with the last six goals in a frantic finale.
Inspired by Blake Hardwick’s career-best five-goal haul, the Hawks were gunning for their third win in a row, but Sam Mitchell’s side slowed to a crawl in the final term, managing just one behind.
A week the Power showed great character to notch a drought-breaking win against the Cats in Geelong, Ken Hinkley’s men struggled to match Hawthorn’s intensity for three quarters before springing to life late.
It was a tense finale, with Jason Horne-Francis and Zak Butters willing their side on, the home side running down Hawthorn to improve to a 7-3 record.
WINES WORRY
Despite the worrying return of his heart issue, Wines remained on the Power bench during the second quarter.
The 29-year-old walked out to offer encouragement to his teammates at halftime and jogged to the changerooms with the team.
Wines was admitted to hospital for tests when he suffered palpitations in 2022 and missed Port’s next game.
The midfielder was replaced by key defender Brandon Zerk-Thatcher.
BLAKE’S FAB FIVE
A stunning four first-quarter goals to Hardwick got the hot Hawks off to a flyer.
A fairly mundane opening fired up when Butters was caught holding the ball by Calsher Dear deep in defence, with the Power star exchanging heated words with feisty forward Jack Ginnivan with a spiteful melee ensuing.
Dear missed everything with his free kick when the smoke cleared, but the fired-up Hawks maintained their intensity, slamming through the first four goals of the game to quiet the home crowd.
Hardwick couldn’t miss, sending four set shots sailing through the middle, as the Hawks charged to their highest first-quarter score of the season.
When Horne-Francis booted the Power’s first goal 25 minutes into a flat first quarter it was just the third time Port had gone inside attacking 50.
The Power were on the wrong side of a 17-4 inside 50 count at the first break and trailed by 31 points after managing just one goal in its lowest first-quarter score of the season.
Hardwick set a new career benchmark with his fifth late in the third quarter, but it would be his side’s second-last major.
UMPIRE, PLEASE!
The home fans were restless at quarter-time with the Power awarded four free kicks to Hawthorn’s 11 and the mood in the stands didn’t improve in the second with Hinkley’s side failing to win a single free kick for the term.
The free kick count had stretched to 15-4 nine minutes into the third quarter when Miles Bergman broke the drought when he was dragged down without the ball.
POWER 1.1 4.5 7.8 11.14 (80)
HAWKS 6.2 8.3 1 12.6 12.7 (79)
PHELAN’S BEST
POWER: Horne-Francis, Houston, Butters, Burgoyne, Farrell, Boak, Rioli. HAWKS: Hardwick, Day, Meek, D’Ambrosio, Amon, Worpel, Newcombe.
GOALS
POWER: Houston 3, Rioli 3, Byrne-Jones 2, Horne-Francis 2, Marshall. HAWKS: Hardwick 5, Mackenzie 2, Chol 2, Ginnivan, Dear, Day.
INJURIES
POWER: Wines (heart palpitations), Sinn (shoulder). HAWKS: Nil.
UMPIRES: Fisher, Deboy, Wallace, Young.
36,190 at ADELAIDE OVAL
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
JASON PHELAN’S VOTES
3 Horne-Francis (Port)
2 Hardwick (Haw)
1 Houston (Port)
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