Port Adelaide fans will spend the next week hoping that the first two weeks of the season are not a flash in the pan.
The team from Alberton will face their biggest test yet when they host the Crows at AAMI Stadium in the local derby.
After a big win over the Demons last week The Power went into round two sitting on top of the AFL ladder, a position they haven’t held for a while. Everybody knows that last weeks victory was against a Melbourne side that really didn’t challenge at any point in the game, but you can only beat what’s in front of you.
Last year the club would have taken their foot off the loud pedal and coasted from half-time, allowing Melbourne to close the gap, almost like Mark Webber.
The build up to round two was also interesting with Port Adelaide honoring the memory of John McCarthy; there were calls for an attendance of 40,000 at AAMI.
The fans that love to hate the black, white and teal were readying themselves to gloat at another capitulation. I mean this is Port Adelaide; of course they are going to be disappointing.
Watching the game I felt the familiar feeling of dread wash over me as in the first quarter GWS kicked away.
Goals from Dylan Shiel and Jonathon Giles, coupled with basic mistakes by the Power, and the all too familiar confused and petulant facial expression from Alipate Carlile. GWS seemed to have the winning formula right.
You can blame the distraction of the fact it was a tribute game, but this first quarter was The Power of the last two years.
Scratching their heads, dropping their shoulders and generally looking like it was everyone else’s fault. It all suggested that Port were indeed going to prove the naysayers right.
The siren sounded for the start of the second quarter and the Port boys were re-born. When Ken Hinkley goes for a drink north of the Port Road cemetery he should never have to put his hand in his pocket. Whatever he said in that huddle worked.
Port played fast and direct football, defended high and kept GWS pinned in their back half. They took the lead early in the second term and never looked back.
Throw into the mix Westhoff playing like a man whose life depended on this game and a genuine goal of the year contender from Hamish Hartlett and Port are starting to look like a team that could be playing football at the pointy end of September.
Despite losing the clearance battle Hinkley’s men dominated pretty much everywhere else. Taking twice as many marks inside 50 is going to make it difficult for your opposition to keep up.
Westhoff kicked a bag of goals and Kane Cornes was his usual generous self with 30 disposals, even Carlile improved throughout the game and looked worthy of his four-year contract by the time the final siren sounded.
However the standout for me was the almost symbiotic relationship that Neade and Wingard seem to be developing, and if Kane Mitchell comes off the bench with that intensity every game then he may find himself looking like a road worker every weekend.
The other talking point may be that Dom Cassisi may find that he is waiting for an injury to break back into the twenty-two.
Jay Shulz (ankle) and Hamish Hartlett (back) will be monitored over the week, but they are expected to be ready for The Crows.
I’m not suggesting that the ever-present Tom Waterhouse stops taking bets on the premiership and the AFL hands the flag to Travis Boak now, but the signs are good for Port. Over the past two weeks The Power have kicked forty-eight goals, defended like men possessed and looked like they are thoroughly enjoying their football.
These are the signs that the Alberton faithful have been waiting for. The 25,122 people at Footy Park witnessed a new Port Adelaide.
A club with depth, a club with passion, and most importantly a club with wins under the belt.
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