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Port Adelaide have kept their slim finals hopes alive with a 63-point win over St Kilda.
>>MATCH REPORT: Port Adelaide thrash St Kilda
Chad Wingard’s four goals where the highlight of a game where neither side really seemed to get out of second gear.
The Power were probably lucky early on to be let off the hook by some poor kicking in front of goal from the Saints.
However they motored away in the second half to win by a sizeable margin and give themselves a sniff at cracking back into the top eight by year’s end.
Port Adelaide 17.10.112 def. St Kilda 6.13.49
The Port Adelaide Power must win to keep any chance of finals alive when they host the St Kilda Saints at Adelaide Oval today. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 12:40pm Local, 1:10pm AEST.
It’s amazing that this far into the AFL season, a match between a pre-season premiership favourite and last year’s wooden spooner could be one between two teams next to each other on the ladder, as the Power sit in 12th and the Saints just one rung behind in 13th.
As it stands, the pre-season favourites Port are going to struggle to make finals, as they currently hold only seven wins.
With this being the first of just six games left in their season, they will need to win at least five and quite possibly all six of those games in order to make finals in 2015.
With matches against Hawthorn and Fremantle in that time, it just doesn’t seem that likely – though the Dockers match in the final round could be a gimme if Ross Lyon again decided to rest his players en masse before a finals campaign.
There’s no sense in looking too far ahead yet though, because before anything else Port need to clear this hurdle, a young upstart St Kilda team who have definitely performed above expectations this year.
The Saints have a tough home stretch to come, facing Fremantle, North Melbourne, Geelong, Sydney and West Coast in their last five games after today – all sides in the top eight.
So this might be their last legitimate chance to get a win in 2015, and it’s a chance they’ll want to take if so.
Their chance will be made all the more difficult by the absence of skipper Nick Riewoldt who is going to miss through calf soreness.
The Saints are also missing Jack Lonie and Sam Gilbert, with Tom Hickey, Dan McKenzie and Tim Membrey into the side.
Port have made two changes, dropping Jarman Impey and Angus Monfries for the likes of Jasper Pittard and Sam Gray.
Prediction
It’s not beyond the Saints to win this one, but I think Port’s knowledge that they really need to win will push them to victory.
Port Adelaide by 12 points.
Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 12:40pm Local, 1:10pm AEST.