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Port Adelaide and the West Coast Eagles will contest a match that will be crucial to how the top eight looks as season’s end. Join our live blog with scores and commentary from 7.45pm AEST.
If a football fan had visited a mediocre fortune teller at the season’s beginning, who could predict that one of these teams would be undefeated and the other 1-3 going in to Round 5 but wasn’t able to identify which team was which, the thinking would be that Ken Hinkley had made a reasonable start with a win in the first month.
While Port Adelaide played some spirited football early last season and showed signs of promise, that intensity soon dropped off.
The attacking tactics the Power has adopted has produced results and brought excitement to a club that looked to have a toxic culture in the past few years.
On the other hand, 4-0 would have been seen as a perfect springboard for the Eagles to launch their premiership assault.
With key players such as Nic Naitanui, Sharrod Wellingham and Mark Nicoski waiting to come back, West Coast would have been planning on finishing the season strongly.
But early season wins were always necessary to secure a top two spot that would potentially allow them two home finals leading in to the grand final.
Fair to say the pressure is firmly on John Worsfold’s team to do whatever it takes to deliver a win this week.
The return of Beau Waters should give West Coast more run from their backline after Shannon Hurn was ineffective in the loss to Carlton last week.
However if the Eagles continue fielding players who aren’t fit enough they will struggle.
Waters is returning from a calf injury and wouldn’t want to be lacking any running power against this Port Adelaide outfit.
Similarly Darren Glass looked to be in real trouble against Carlton with a dodgy shoulder but may be forced to play because of the Eagles’ injury woes.
Mitchell Brown’s inclusion has come at the expense of Will Schofield (who’s been named as an emergency) and the young defender will have to be very good form to beat either Justin Westhoff or Jay Schulz, who have kicked a combined 23 goals.
The Power is playing with real belief and will be especially confident at AAMI Stadium with a 9-3 record there against West Coast.
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