Melbourne skipper Max Gawn won the ruck battle, but Port Adelaide’s plan curbed his influence around the ground
Melbourne captain Max Gawn had 40 hit-outs but little influence outside of that as Port Adelaide smashed the Demons. Ollie Wines reveals the Power’s plan to control the in-form ruckman.
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Port Adelaide midfielder Ollie Wines has revealed the Power went into Thursday night’s game against Melbourne with a premeditated plan to negate Max Gawn’s influence.
Even though the Demons skipper won the hit-outs against Port’s Peter Ladhams 44-13, Wines said Port was prepared for that to happen.
“They are a super stoppage team and we knew coming into the game what we needed to do,” he said.
“Peter Ladhams obviously went up against Max Gawn who arguably is the best ruckman in the AFL at the moment, and we understood it would be challenging to win the ball off the hand for us.
“So whatever we could do to negate the first possession, bring it to ground, clear the contest ... we knew that our run on the outside of the contest would be able to expose Melbourne.
“We knew if we were able to get it to those ball users on the outside, we were able to play some exciting footy.”
Port Adelaide’s well-executed strategy followed the team being hurt by Paddy Ryder’s dominance in the ruck for St Kilda in Round 8.
Ken Hinkley had lashed Power’s midfield for allowing St Kilda to be stronger than them around the contest.
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They were able to tighten up against the Dees, finishing slightly behind in clearances (29-30) and stoppage clearances (19-22), while leading the centre clearances (10-8).
“Certainly that’s what cost us last week, the hunt on the inside and the ability to get the ball forward from stoppage, and as a midfield group we were disappointed with how we let the team down last week – to do what we did against Melbourne around the ball was really good,” Wines said.
Despite his convincing win in the hit-outs department, Gawn had limited impact around the ground – finishing with 11 disposals, five marks and three tackles.
Melbourne defender Steven May said the Demons needed to find a way to overcome the plans other teams had for their star ruckman and captain.
“They had a good plan, I think our mids still got first use but we fumbled it a bit ... probably over-handballed a bit,” he said.
“They were cleaner than us and punished us off turnovers.
“Gawny is a super ruckman, teams will prepare for him and we need find ways to deal with that.”
Port Adelaide stayed overnight in Brisbane and flew back to SA on Friday to kick off three days of intense recovery ahead of Monday night’s game against the Western Bulldogs.
Wines said Port managed the minutes of himself, Travis Boak and Sam Powell-Pepper ahead of the clash.
“I think we will be pulling up pretty well,” he said.
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Originally published as Melbourne skipper Max Gawn won the ruck battle, but Port Adelaide’s plan curbed his influence around the ground