AFL Round 10 Port Adelaide v Geelong: All the news, analysis and fallout as injury carnage hits Adelaide Oval
There was unprecedented injury carnage at Adelaide Oval on Saturday as the Cats went on a second-half blitz. But does it explain – or excuse – another Power capitulation?
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With Port Adelaide’s season balanced on a knife’s edge, the Power is sweating on the outcome of scans to injured trio Jason Horne-Francis, Lachie Jones and Josh Sinn.
Horne-Francis and Jones both suffered hamstring injuries in the first half of Saturday’s 76-point thumping at the hands of Geelong, while Sinn copped a nasty hip injury in the opening minutes of the game.
The Cats suffered their own injury toll, with Patrick Dangerfield and Jack Bowes also ruled out with hamstring injuries in the first half at Adelaide Oval.
“They’re all bad, they’re all expected to miss more than one week, I’d imagine, but we’ll wait and see what the scans say,” coach Ken Hinkley said.
“We’re not in the position right now to say whether they’re one week or two week or a four-week hamstrings.
“Clearly for both sides, the Cats lost a couple too … it was a significant hamstring day, wasn’t it?
“Slippery conditions, the weather, I don’t know, all those things you have to consider, but it seems a bit too coincidental to have for all in the first half, two very early on in the game.”
Hinkley’s charges offered little resistance in the second half, suffering a third loss of 76 or more points this season, to make it three defeats on the trot and slip to a 4-6 record.
The coach felt his side’s injury toll played a part in the loss to Geelong, but conceded there were more issues at play as his team struggles to find consistency.
Cats coach Chris Scott described the Power as a team in transition in his post-match press conference, but Hinkley disagreed with that label.
“I don’t think that’s completely accurate, but I imagine why people would think that and say that,” the coach said.
“That’s the reality of what are we four and six? So, that’s why people will come to those conclusions.
“Some of the losses have been quite big, significantly big, but I don’t think it’s a transition moment (for us as a team).
“I think we (need to) come to terms with what’s really, really important for us and play it for a long periods of most games.
“We’re not terrible, but we’ve had some terrible losses.
“We haven’t been consistently good, and that’s the challenge for any team.
“If you want to be at the top, you’ve got to be consistently good at that.
“If you’re inconsistent, you’ll be where we are currently, it doesn’t mean you can’t get back to doing what you do and knowing what you do, and we do know what we do well.
“The challenge is for us to make it more consistent than we have been able to do this year in the first 10 rounds.”
Injury adds to insult in another Power horror show
A bizarre first half of injury carnage on Saturday claimed star Geelong skipper Patrick Dangerfield and Port Adelaide’s Jason Horne-Francis, but the Cats overcame the injury toll to smash the desperately disappointing Power.
Jeremy Cameron was quiet early, but exploded for a stunning seven goals in a dominant performance by Geelong that consigned the struggling Power to a third defeat in a row.
Dangerfield and Horne-Francis suffered hamstring injuries in cold and slippery conditions at Adelaide Oval, as did Lachie Jones and Jack Bowes, while Josh Sinn copped a game-ending hip injury in the first quarter.
With the Power down an extra player in the second half, Geelong took full advantage with a five-goals-to-one third quarter.
With Port exerting little pressure, the rampant Cats piled on eight unanswered goals in a devastating burst before Mitch Georgiades broke the run with four minutes remaining.
The conditions made for a tough slog, with the first score not coming until 12 minutes into the first term, but Bailey Smith’s class shone through, the prolific onballer continuing his fine vein of form.
Oisin Mullin largely nullified the impact of Zak Butters, with Port floundering in the second half, conceding 12 of 13 goals at one stage in a drubbing that leaves its season delicately poised.
The loss left Ken Hinkley’s side with a 4-6 record, while the Cats bounced back from a tight loss to GWS to improve to 6-4.
CASUALTY CHAOS
Horne-Francis, Sinn and Bowes left the game in the first quarter, with Dangerfield and Jones knocked out in the second.
Sinn limped to the bench inside the opening two minutes after copping Mark O’Connor’s knee to his left hip then disaster struck again when Horne-Francis pulled up from a chase clutching his right hamstring.
The young star cut a disconsolate figure as he limped from the ground between two trainers to take his place on the bench.
Then Bowes and Dangerfield departed within minutes of each other, with both suffering injuries to their right hamstrings.
“We’ll probably have to play a bit slower clearly, a bit more straight line, and keep it in a bit of a contest,” Hinkley told Fox Footy at halftime.
“We’ll see what happens from there because, you know, they’re down a couple two, but they’ve got one extra one on the bench.”
NOT AGAIN!
Jones had been doing an excellent job on Cameron, but his day ended prematurely 20 minutes into the second quarter.
Jones has an unfortunate history with hamstring injuries, and he pulled up clutching his left one after evading Cameron and getting a handball off.
The Power defender was unable to go with Cameron on a lead before he could leave the ground, with the Cats’ forward bagging his first after taking an uncontested mark.
Cameron went back-to-back in fine style, slotting an outstanding goal from out near the 50m arc on the boundary to give the visitors a nine-point lead at the main break.
The star Cat rubbed salt in the raw wounds of home supporters with his seventh coming just seconds before the final siren.
MAXIMUM RANGE
Max Holmes provided a bit of comic relief after the halftime siren after he was awarded a free kick – the problem was the ambitious Cat was 85m from goal on the boundary line.
Undeterred, he moved a bunch of television cables out of his way and set sail, but his ill-timed torp landed well short.
SCOREBOARD
POWER 2.4 3.6 4.9 5.9 (39)
CATS 3.1 5.3 10.9 17.13 (115)
PHELAN’S BEST POWER: Rozee, Powell-Pepper, Wines, Burton, Visentini. CATS: Cameron, Smith, Dempsey, Miers, O’Connor, Mullin, J Henry, Atkins.
GOALS POWER: Powell-Pepper 2, Richards, Byrne-Jones, Georgiades. CATS: Cameron 7, Dempsey 2, Stengle, Neale, Mannagh, Humphries, O Henry, Close, Bowes, Atkins.
INJURIES POWER: Horne-Francis (hamstring), Jones (hamstring), Sinn (hip). CATS: Dangerfield (hamstring), Bowes (hamstring).
UMPIRES Fleer, Deboy, Heffernan, Stevic
33,508 at ADELAIDE OVAL
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
JASON PHELAN’S VOTES
3 Cameron (Geel)
2 Smith (Geel)
1 Dempsey (Geel)
Originally published as AFL Round 10 Port Adelaide v Geelong: All the news, analysis and fallout as injury carnage hits Adelaide Oval
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