Port Adelaide rebound by slaying Giants on the Gold Coast
Port Adelaide reasserted their premiership credentials with a resilient performance on Sunday to topple the Giants on the Gold Coast.
Port Adelaide reasserted their premiership credentials with a resilient performance on Sunday to topple the Giants by 17 points on the Gold Coast.
Aside from a misstep against Brisbane last week, the Power have adapted to the difficult challenges posed by this season better than any rivals.
They sit a win clear on top of Brisbane, Geelong and Essendon, although the Bombers have a game in hand.
The league is set to release at least Round 8 of this season’s floating fixture on Monday after it was delayed last week due in part to the worsening COVID-19 situation in Victoria.
The Power players woke at 4.30am in Adelaide and were on a bus to the airport for their flight to the Gold Coast, their base for the previous three weeks, to tackle the Giants.
In a match where the defensive pressure stifled the free-flowing football that both teams are capable of, the Power were headed in the third term by the flag favourites.
But they kicked four final-term goals to clinch a fifth win from six matches in what was a strong response to their loss last week.
The triumph prompted great joy in Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley, who was able to celebrate becoming an AFL life member on Sunday with a victory.
Hinkley, who played 132 games with Fitzroy and Geelong and also represented Victoria three times, has now coached Port Adelaide in 165 games.
“It was a different approach but great credit to our club. Our club has embraced it the whole way,” he said.
“We have been prepared to say ‘any time’. This morning was literally any time. We got up in basically the middle of the night to play a game and GWS did the same.
“I think that is what people watching the game have got to understand, a little bit of the challenges the players (are dealing with).
“People said on the weekend it is just great our players are continuing to play and keep the game going.”
Port Adelaide will play their sixth interstate match of the season when they clash with Carlton at the Gabba next Saturday.
Having shared the heavy lifting initially with the Crows, West Coast and the Dockers, technically Port Adelaide should reap the rewards of playing several matches at home in coming weeks.
There is an obvious caveat. Coronavirus has posed so many fixture challenges this year that there is no such thing as a certainty in 2020.
But Hinkley said the Power had played a crucial role for the AFL early in the season and expected to be rewarded with several matches at home, with fans in attendance, later this year.
The AFL will have eyed warily the announcement of positive coronavirus tests in NSW and Darwin, where it hopes to play matches, in recent days as it plots the next phase of the fixture.
After a round in which every match was played in Sydney and Queensland, the AFL will return in Perth and Adelaide next weekend for the first time since the season resumed.
The Eagles and Richmond, who edged Sydney by eight points at the Gabba on Sunday in the second-lowest combined score tally in AFL history, are building momentum.
The Tigers returned to the eight in what was a dour victory in slippery conditions in Brisbane but one that has merit given Richmond’s personnel loss from their win over Melbourne last week.
Richmond forward Tom Lynch, after breaking his finger against Melbourne seven days earlier and arriving late after undergoing surgery in Melbourne on Monday, stood tall in the third term taking a powerhouse contested mark against Dane Rampe and converting from 45m. It turned the tide and Richmond never looked back.
In the final match of the round, Cartlon kept alive their chances of playing finals with a comfortable win over pre-season top-four fancies the Western Bulldogs on Sunday night.
The Blues led from start to finish to run out 52-point winners.
The evenness of the season is indicative in the fact the Swans, who have lost three matches in a row to slip to 17th, sit only one win behind eighth-placed St Kilda.
Collingwood and Geelong flew to Perth on Saturday after their victories in Sydney for their clash on Thursday at Optus Stadium.
It will be the first match of the year with a big crowd, with 30,000 allowed in for that clash and the derby between West Coast and Fremantle next Sunday night
The Crows will host the first match in Adelaide since the Round 2 showdown against the Power when they take on St Kilda next Monday night.
Kenny in the middle 🚿👠#weareportadelaide pic.twitter.com/c6eQxS0HTf
— Port Adelaide FC (@PAFC) July 12, 2020
ðŸ¯What an ugly game 😩
— Cheryl Critchley (@CherylCritchley) July 12, 2020
ðŸ¯But we'll take it ðŸ‘
ðŸ¯In the end, a good effort by a depleted side
ðŸ¯Chol was great in the wet
ðŸ¯Some nice work by Dylan, Flossy, Kamdyn, Bakes and Jack Graham
ðŸ¯Also brave of Tom Lynch to play
ðŸ¯Onwards and upwards...
ðŸ¯ðŸ†xðŸ†ðŸ¯#AFLTigersSwans #GoTiges
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