Port Adelaide AFL analysis: Are Ken Hinkley’s team the real deal or a ‘fake top four team?’
Premiership contenders or pretenders? It’s the probing question Port Adelaide can’t ignore as it heads to the bye with its top-four dream in jeopardy. SIMEON THOMAS-WILSON examines why.
Port Adelaide heads into its mid-season bye with an 8-4 record and still in the top four — for now.
But just where does Port sit in this year’s premiership race after Carlton’s fourth quarter – sparked by inspirational skipper Patrick Cripps — prompted a power outage at Adelaide Oval on Thursday night?
After the loss to the Blues, Power senior coach Ken Hinkley said his side was in the “mid-tier” of the ladder.
With Sydney far and away the standout side of the competition, you could say this tier includes the teams from Essendon in second to Gold Coast in 10th — and maybe the 11th-placed Western Bulldogs and 12th-placed Adelaide.
“We’ve played pretty well to this point, we’re accurately where we are, I think,” he said.
“We’re in that mid-tier that’s a big group of teams that are fighting.
“There’s clearly one side that is standing out and the rest are trying to sort it out.
“On tonight’s game we’ve still got a lot more to do and a lot more to sort out.
“But I’m sure that each of those teams through the mid-section of the ladder will think at different times that they’re going okay, and then that they’ve got room to improve.
“We’re no different.”
Australian Football Hall of Fame legend and four time premiership player with Hawthorn Jason Dunstall didn’t pull any punches as to what he thought of the Power.
“The old fake top four team, Port Adelaide, don’t know where they go from here,” he said on Fox Footy.
It must be remembered that the Power were without captain Connor Rozee and small forward Willie Rioli — who is now one of Port’s most important players — for the clash against the Blues.
But it was a loss that raised the same questions about the Power that many had coming into 2024.
And worryingly for Power fans, a new issue looks to be rearing its head.
Hinkley said the Blues defeat had exposed holes in Port Adelaide’s stoppage game, which had otherwise been one of the club’s strengths this year.
“There is plenty of growth in our team in a lot of areas,” he said.
“Tonight you could say it was around stoppage but we have been pretty good around stoppage
every time you lose you get a chance to learn, every time you win you get a chance to learn.
“It is just around how much learning you need and based off tonight you would say we need to do some learning.”
It’s true that the Power’s midfield can be caught out for being too attacking at times, but Hinkley’s right — stoppage isn’t one of Port’s big issues.
They are now at either end of the ground.
The defence was the big watch after Esava Ratugolea and Brandon Zerk-Thatcher arrived at Alberton in the off-season.
Early on it looked like there was improvement.
But against Melbourne in Round 3, the Power conceded nearly 100 points despite the Demons having just 45 inside-50s.
From Rounds 6-11 the Power have dropped to 10th in the league for points against, and are 15th when it comes to conceding points from turnovers.
“The first six weeks of the year, they were in the least one-on-one contests in the competition. So, they weren’t getting caught out, and when they did, they were the best team at not losing,” former Saint Leigh Montagna said.
“The last six weeks, they’ve been in the most-one-on-one contests — so they’re getting caught out more one-on-one — and they are losing the third-most in the competition.”
Carlton were able to get either Charlie Curnow or Harry McKay one-on-one when going forward and the Blues’ two-headed monster ended up kicking three goals apiece.
It also rammed home the emerging issue for the Power.
In a very welcome sight, young gun Mitch Georgiades kicked four goals and had his best game since his return from an ACL injury.
But the rest of Port Adelaide’s key forward brigade barely had an impact against the Blues.
Charlie Dixon had one disposal, five hit-outs and two tackles before he was subbed out of the game, Todd Marshall kicked a goal and had six possessions and Jeremy Finlayson started as the sub.
Dixon’s substitution, the second of the year so far, came after he was managed the previous week.
The 33-year-old is out of contract at the end of the year and now faces a big task to convince critics — and the club — that he should go around again.
Marshall kicked five goals against North Melbourne the previous week, but for all his footy smarts and work that doesn’t come up on the state sheet is he going to be the No. 1 option for the Power and take hold of a big game like Curnow and McKay can?
Finlayson is out of contract at the end of the season, was out of the side in pre-season only to get a spot when Ollie Lord went down with injury, and has had his season so far defined by his ban for using a homophobic slur.
Lord is highly rated and is edging closer to the match fitness required to compete at AFL level.
The 22-year-old kicked four goals in last year’s qualifying final loss to Brisbane.
Can he be the dominant presence the Power needs when he returns to the side?
Right now, there are probably too many questions around the Power.
“Have their off-season acquisitions really propelled them forward,” North Melbourne premiership player David King pondered on Fox Footy after the Carlton loss.
“Have they made the change they thought they would make?
“I feel that is open to debate and discussion.”
The Power have banked some really good wins — Essendon in Gather Round, Geelong away — had some quite bad losses (think Collingwood at the MCG and Adelaide in the Showdown) and in some games they found a way to win but arguably could have no complaints if it lost (such as Fremantle and Hawthorn at Adelaide Oval).
The club’s 8-4 record coming into the mid-season bye gives it a good platform to again qualify to finals, despite the second half of the season looming as tough one.
But after what happened last year, will the Power be able to make an impact when the whips are cracking come the end of the season?
Can the Power prove Dunstall wrong and become a “real” top four team?
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