AFL round 15: Connor Rozee backs Port to make flag run, full analysis of loss to Brisbane Lions
While many are writing Port Adelaide off, captain Connor Rozee is backing his side to respond and make a run for the flag in 2024.
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Port Adelaide captain Connor Rozee believes “100 per cent” that his team can still contend for a premiership this season despite suffering a third straight loss, its biggest since 2019.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that we can be one of the best sides in the competition,” Rozee told The Advertiser after the 79-point home defeat to Brisbane on Saturday.
“We’ve beaten some great sides this year already.
“It’s a really long season, there’s still 10 games to go.
“Win seven or eight of them, we’ll go close to the top four.”
Rozee’s resolve came amid a wave of criticism about the Power’s performance and doubts about how far it could go this year.
“It’s the glass half-full or glass half-empty outlook,” he said.
“We’ll look at it like we’ve got a long time to make this season whatever we want it to be.
“Others will probably look at it that it could go the other way.
“If they want to look at it like that, so be it.”
The Power’s loss was it biggest since an 86-point defeat to North Melbourne in 2019.
It had not been crunched by such a margin at Adelaide Oval since the second Showdown of 2017 (84 points).
Port kicked the opening two goals on Saturday, before getting smashed.in every facet of the game.
It lost inside 50s 71-46, clearances 42-27, stoppage clearances 28-10 and contested possessions 151-111.
Asked how alarming the performance was, Rozee said: “Throughout a season, you have bad losses. It’s a long season and things are never as bad or good as they seem in the moment. They’re a really good side and they’ve hit some form. We weren’t tough and strong enough around the footy. We beat Essendon by a big margin. Good sides have (big) losses, it’s about how they respond to them, rather than let them dwell on it for the rest of the season”.
Port was down by 15 points at quarter-time, 45 at the main interval and 64 at the long break.
There were a smattering of boos at three-quarter time before thousands of the 32,862 supporters walked out in frustration during the final term.
“We’ve got some of the most passionate fans in the country and we didn’t play up to scratch today,” Rozee said.
“It is what it is.”
Asked if workrate was an issue, Rozee said: “Not specifically. It’s us defending for way too long. We’ve been the best side in the competition for getting the ball back in the past and front-half turnovers, but we’ve probably lost a bit of that.
“Once that momentum goes against you and you’re defending for long periods of time, it can be really tough to have those fourth or fifth efforts.
“We’ll try to find ways to get the ball back quicker because it’s a much easier game when you’re not chasing them for 70 per cent of the game.”
One positive for the Power was debutant Logan Evans (20 disposals) in defence.
“I thought he was really good and took the game on,” Rozee said.
HALF-HEARTED, WEAK POWER EFFORT SENDS FANS HOME EARLY
Port Adelaide is in an alarming funk.
Forget the top four, the Power is fighting just to make the top eight.
On a day Port Adelaide celebrated 20 years since its 2004 premiership, the present-day side looked nothing like a team that could match that feat this year.
Saturday’s 79-point defeat to a revitalised Brisbane heaps pressure on coach Ken Hinkley and will ensure the Power is without a win in more than a month by the time it travels to Melbourne to face St Kilda next round.
Port’s lost three in a row, all to finals contenders, only adding weight to criticism that it is too often a frontrunner that beats up on lesser sides and falls short regularly against the top ones.
After last week’s 22-point away loss to GWS, Hinkley said his players appeared lethargic and premiership midfielder Kane Cornes questioned the team’s hunger, saying “they don’t look like they want it enough”.
On Saturday, plenty of Port’s efforts made Cornes’s observation look spot on.
Among them were half-hearted chases, weak tackles, too many players jogging when the Lions surged forward, guys getting pushed off the ball far too easily and defenders crashing into each other dropping simple marks.
Perhaps the biggest indictment on the Power was Brisbane piling on 12 consecutive goals across the second and third quarters.
That rarely, if ever, happens to good teams.
Brisbane kicked five majors in 10 minutes in the second term, added two more before the main break then another five to start the third quarter before Mitch Georgiades broke the streak 24 minutes in.
The Power forward cut the margin … to 70 points.
“This has been a really, really concerning performance from Port Adelaide,” Fox Footy’s Mark Ricciuto said.
It says something about the Power’s mettle when things go against it that nine of its losses over the past two seasons have been by at least five goals.
Six have been by at least 42 points.
During the Power’s mid-season bye, when the club sat fourth with an 8-4 record, its football boss Chris Davies brushed off scepticism about the club’s 2024 form.
“You can’t win the flag in June but you can certainly put yourself out of contention and right now we’re well and truly still in contention,” Davies said.
“I understand that the expectation on us is reasonably high and that’s not a bad thing that people right now feel a bit negative with us being 8-4.”
Port’s performance on Saturday showed why there was such scepticism and why Jason Dunstall labelled them a “fake top-four team”.
The two problem areas it sought to address during the trade period – ruck and defence – reared again as Ivan Soldo was dropped, the recalled Jordon Sweet was smashed by Oscar McInerney and the Power backline leaked goals, conceding one every three inside 50 entries.
“Port Adelaide’s defence is looking really brittle,” Ricciuto said.
Colleague Cameron Mooney added: “They’re panicking”.
The next quarter, Ricciuto chimed in again: “Their backline is in disarray. They don’t look like stopping them at all.”
“That was a training run how they brought it from one end to the other,” Dermott Brereton said on Fox Footy.
There were a smattering of boos from the home crowd at three-quarter time when the Power was down by 64 points.
More came when Hinkley was on Adelaide Oval’s big screen, a sign of the Port faithful’s discontent in the 12th year under the coach.
The attendance was 32,862, though that dwindled badly in the last term as many refused to stay and watch.
Port’s premiership heroes could have been forgiven for walking out too and heading early to their celebratory festivities.
The Power’s hopes of ending its 20-year drought this season look very unlikely.
Hinkley needs to find solutions quickly to address Port’s slide because you suspect he needs to at least make the top eight to keep his job.
SCOREBOARD
POWER 3.2 5.5 6.9 10.13 (73)
LIONS 5.5 12.8 18.11 23.14 (152)
PHELAN’S BEST
POWER: Butters, Rozee, Horne-Francis, Farrell, Houston.
LIONS: McInerney, Neale, Dunkley, Hipwood, Andrews, Zorko, Bailey, Daniher, Wilmot.
GOALS
POWER: Georgiades 3, Lord 2, Sinn, Marshall, Finlayson, Butters, McEntee.
LIONS: Hipwood 5, Daniher 3, McInerney 3, Reville 2, Morris 2, McCluggage 2, Cameron 2, Ah Chee 2, Rayner, Bailey.
INJURIES
POWER: Sweet (head knock), Rioli (calf – late withdrawal).
LIONS: Nil.
UMPIRES: Power, Findlay, Fleer, Rodger
32,862 at ADELAIDE OVAL
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: JASON PHELAN’S VOTES
3 McInerney (Bris)
2 Neale (Bris)
1 Dunkley (Bris)
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