AFL 2022 Fremantle v Port Adelaide: All the latest news for the round 16 contest

Mitch Georgiades and Hayden Young produced marks that will be shown in every highlight reel for this season, but which one was best? Watch and vote.

ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA – APRIL 23: Connor Rozee of the Power wins the Badcoe Medal during the 2022 AFL Round 06 match between the Port Adelaide Power and the West Coast Eagles at Adelaide Oval on April 23, 2022 in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Port Adelaide’s ambitious bid to pinch an unlikely place in this season’s AFL finals series has finally come to an entertaining end, surely.

The Power didn’t give up without a fight though, dominating the final term against Fremantle to fall just eight points short of a famous victory.

The Power has been arguably the form team of the competition over the past 10 rounds and almost produced a Houdini-like escape against the Dockers at Optus Stadium.

After giving up the first three goals of the game, in just five minutes, the Dockers then dominated proceedings to kick out to a 40-point lead late in the third term.

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Mitch Georgiades flies for an incredible mark against Fremantle at Optus Stadium. Picture: Daniel Carson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Mitch Georgiades kicked two of those early goals for Port and later produced one of two big marks that will be shown in every highlight reel this week as experts predict mark-of-the-year. His effort narrowly edges out the one claimed earlier by the Dockers Hayden Young.

But Rory Lobb did the damage for Fremantle on the scoreboard, kicking a career-high five goals, including three in an important third term.

Five times previously Lobb has managed four goals.

MITCH GEORGIADES 😲#AFLFreoPowerpic.twitter.com/UK6FtMsj0p

— AFL (@AFL) July 3, 2022

DOWN WITH A FIGHT

With their season slipping away from them, the Power kicked six of the last seven goals of the game to almost steal the four premiership points.

Brownlow medallist Ollie Wines almost single-handedly kept Port in the game in the opening half. The help came, but just a little late.

Port had its chances too. Usually reliable kicks at goal Robbie Gray and Todd Marshall (twice) both blew gettable chances in the final term, but missed.

The Power has now won seven of their past 10 games, but their 0-5 start to the season is now coming back to bite them.

The 15.9 (99) to 14.7 (91) result leaves the Power needing to win six of their remaining seven games to get to 13 wins and have any chance of playing in September.

However, 14 wins may even be needed to play finals this season, meaning Port can not drop another game in the run home.

They play Melbourne, Geelong, Collingwood and Richmond in those last seven rounds.

The result means Fremantle remains inside the top four, where it has sat now since round 4.

A big game looms next week against St Kilda at Marvel Stadium in terms of their bid to stay there.

Don't say it
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SERONG, SO RIGHT 🔥#AFLFreoPowerpic.twitter.com/CQkhOQCEzu

— AFL (@AFL) July 3, 2022

DOCKERS LESSONS LEARNED

A week after being outplayed by Carlton, Fremantle recorded its biggest half-time score for the season, against Port — 10.4 (58) — to lead by 25 points at the main break.

The Dockers have struggled to get the ball forward in the past two weeks, but had 30 inside 50s in the opening half on Sunday.

Of those entries into attack, 11 of them resulted in marks and set shots at goals.

Matt Taberner, Lobb and Nat Fyfe all hit the scoreboard in the opening two quarters, stretching Port’s defence.

Against the Blues in Round 15, the Dockers could not get their hands on the footy. They had only 351 touches for the game, their fewest since round 1

Ken Hinkley tries to lift his players at three-quarter time. Picture: Daniel Carson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Against the Power, they had 225 possessions in the opening two quarters; 67 more than Port. Most of the difference was in uncontested possessions. They owned it in the early stages of the game and were able to set up a handy lead.

And while they had so much more of the ball, Fremantle had somehow also managed to lay more tackles.

They were also dominated clearances, especially in the centre of the ground, another area they struggled in against the Blues.

Port’s makeshift ruck duo of Jeremy Finlayson and Charlie Dixon has served it well in recent weeks, but they found it much tougher against Fremantle’s Sea Darcy, with Andy Brayshaw and Caleb Serong at his feet.

The Power leave the field after being defeated at Optus Stadium. Picture: Will Russell/AFL Photos via Getty Images

TOUGH TIME IN ATTACK

Fremantle has let teams walk into attack in the past month.

For the first nine games of the season, sides averaged only 43 inside 50 entries against Fremantle.

But over the past five weeks that average has blown out to 58.

Two of those games resulted in losses, to Collingwood and Carlton.

In the first three quarters on Sunday, Port could manage only 35 and with that came a 34-point deficit at the last break.

They had 15 though in the rampaging final term when they added 5.3 to Fremantle’s 1.1.

SCOREBOARD

DOCKERS 4.2 10.4 14.8 15.9 (99)

POWER 4.2 6.3 9.4 14.7 (91)

ELBOROUGH’S BEST

Dockers: Aish, Lobb, Darcy, Clark, Brayshaw, Pearce.

Power: Wines, Boak, Rozee, Burgoyne, Gray, Bergman.

GOALS

Dockers: Lobb 5; 2 Aish 2, Taberner 2, Schultz 2; Brayshaw, Frederick, Fyfe, Serong.

Power: Georgiades 2, Dixon 2, Rozee 2; Bergman, Boak, Burton, Farrell, Marshall, Powell-Pepper, Mead, Amon.

INJURIES

Dockers: Taberner (hamstring). Power: Jones (hamstring), Duursma, replaced in selected side by Bergman.

UMPIRES

O’Gorman, Stevic, Howorth.

VENUE

Optus Stadium

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

BRAD ELBOROUGH’S VOTES

3 Aish (DOCKERS)

2 Wines (POWER)

1 Lobb (DOCKERS)

Rockliff: How it has become all Rozee for Connor

Connor Rozee has become a real weapon for Port Adelaide.

The criticism of the Power’s midfield, and I was a part of this when I was at Alberton, was that it was too one paced and it didn’t have that damaging front of half player.

But with Rozee, and Zak Butters who I’ll touch on more later, this can be a really big weapon for Port Adelaide’s midfield going forward.

He had a quiet start to the season, and was stuck in the forward half for the first four and a half games of the season for a number of reasons.

But now that he has gone into the midfield and is finding the footy I think we are seeing the best of Connor Rozee.

From Round 5 onwards, when he made the switch into the middle at halftime against Carlton, his disposals have increased by 52 per cent, from 12 per game over the first four games to 24.9.

His contested possessions were at 4.5 per game, they have been nine per game from Round 5 onwards.

His metres gained has increased to 337m per game from 164m, his score involvements are 5.7 per game, up from 5.3 per game, and his tackles have increased from 1.8 per game to 3.6.

But importantly for Rose is his time in the midfield and forward lines has completely flipped.

In the first four games of the season Rose was spending 79 per cent as a forward and 21 per cent in the midfield.

Connor Rozee has been a huge success since moving into the midfield.

From Round 5 his midfield time is at 71 per cent while his forward time is at 29 per cent.

We all know that he burst onto the scene in his first 12 months and two years and then had a couple of injury setbacks but I think he has found his niche now.

When you first come onto the scene you don’t get a lot of attention because the opposition doesn’t know what you can do.

The hardest thing for Connor was that because he was so good in his first season the opposition started to put work into him and tried to work him away from the positions he wanted to get in.

So you always find that generally speaking that their first year is really good when a player comes into it, then their second year is a little bit flatter on the back of the opposition knowing what they can do and putting some time into them.

Also if you look back on it he had some injury concerns and wasn’t able to train a great deal during the week and then was trying to go out there and perform.

But I think the best thing about Connor is that he has been able to work through those tough times, and they haven’t been the worst of times, but they can define you and help you appreciate the game a lot more.

He has had challenging times where he has had form patches where he hasn’t been able to touch the ball for a few weeks and when you are stuck forward it can be hard to impact the game.

Connor Rozee wins the Badcoe Medal against West Coast Eagles at Adelaide Oval this season.

But he is a player that Port Adelaide want to have the ball in his hands, especially as an attacking midfielder who can impact in the front-half.

When you are around the ball you don’t need him to necessarily be the first possession player, but he is the second possession one and in that phase off that so if Ollie, Boaky or Willem Drew is able to feed him he uses his legs to get out of a stoppage.

They have been looking a lot more damaging at stoppages when Rose has been able to use his leg speed to come out the front of the stoppage and they are the most dangerous clearances when you are able to come out the front against an opposition.

Teams structure up really well but the one thing that teams can’t defend at times is when you are shoulders out and you have leg speed which Rose has.

Connor Rozee’s ability to make an impact in the front-half is a huge bonus for Port.

I don’t think we see him in the back-half a lot and he doesn’t have to do that with guys like Ollie Wines who covers the ground, a Boaky who gets up and down the ground and Willem Drew who is the defensive mid there it gives Connor the opportunity and capability to be in the front half and be that burst player.

So I think he complements that midfield really well.

Zak has been in there too but I think with Zak out the last two weeks Connor has probably played his best footy, I think potentially he has been the best on ground for the last two weeks.

He was really good against Sydney and then against Gold Coast we saw him bob up for some really important goals in the front half.

So I think for Connor to get better he will have to continue to work on that and he may get some attention now through the midfield where as in the past the match-up might have been Wines or Boak and now they might have to look at Rozee.

There’s always a lot of talk about how good Rose can be, I don’t want to compare him to Chris Judd but once he gets the ball he has that burst ability Judd did have to burst out the front of a stoppage.

Chris Judd was able to burst out of stoppages.

Rozee is also quite powerful at stoppages.

How good can he be? Potentially one of the best in the comp I think as a forward half player who finds the footy around the stoppages and doesn’t need to have eight, nine or 10 clearances but can have five or six and can hit the scoreboard.

And I think the move into the midfield has freed him up as a forward as well, he has actually started to kick more goals and get some freedom.

When you go into the midfield unless you are being tagged you don’t have the same attention on you as you would when you play forward.

I don’t think you can put a ceiling on him, he is a fourth-year player who is getting some more midfield time and showing that he can be right up there.

He is a bit different to a Stevie Johnson but he can kick goals in the forward half and he is crafty enough around stoppages

I see him as being one of those high score involvement players, with a beautiful delivery inside 50 so I think his goal assists and goal scoring will be his weapon.

Butters is different, he is a little bit smarter in the fact he will try and change angles more through that little angle kick to open the play up and Zak will continue to grow as a player and pick the right times to do that.

I see them a little differently, Butters can open up the game a little bit with his short kicking, where Connor can open it up with his legs.

Connor Rozee’s running ability is one of his greatest assets.

That’s not to say that Butters can’t, he is very crafty at that, but I see Rose as that front-half bursting coming out of a stoppage with his shoulders out hitting a man inside 50.

You want those two in your forward half, not really doing the defensive work and that’s why these two compliment their midfield a lot.

Ollie is your out and out clearance player, he is your bull in there. Boaky is your two-way runner that gets defensively and forward.

Willem Drew is the pure defensive mid that can really lock down a player, puts pressure on, tackles and does the stuff that goes unrewarded at times.

I think it can really help Port Adelaide’s midfield evolve and become damaging.

The other big thing for Rozee this year is that he and Zak used to be as thick as thieves but my information from within Alberton is that they have parted ways and Zak has jumped onto Mitch Georgiades so Connor has really blossomed since Zak left him alone.

They were two peas in a pod and you couldn’t separate them but my information is since I’ve left is that Butters now has a bromance with Mitch.

With Rozee and Butters in the midfield more so now on I feel like there is a bit of an issue for Port Adelaide at small forward now with guys like Robbie and Mots near the ends of their careers and Orazio’s injury issues.

Port have been mixing and matching in recent weeks, we’ve seen Lachie Jones go in there.

But as we saw with Gold Coast just how important it is to have a crafty small forward there in Izak Rankine, how damaging he can be in the front half.

So for Port to be able to play Rozee and Butters through the midfield more I think they need to develop that area of the ground a bit more.

But the Power have definitely added a new dimension to their midfield.

Originally published as AFL 2022 Fremantle v Port Adelaide: All the latest news for the round 16 contest