Port Adelaide are known this season as the year’s big improvers, the Power are approaching their first finals birth since 2007 yet they are still a very young team.
In Round 13 Port Adelaide outplayed Sydney Swans to win by 13 points.
Anthony Hudson called the game. Once Justin Westhoff kicked a goal to give Port the lead with six minutes remaining on a wet day, Hudson stated that the Power were an “irresistible force.”
Then last weekend we saw Chad Wingard kick the Power’s winning goal a part of his five-goal game.
When moments like this occur while Port Adelaide play, it brings you back to what Ken Hinkley has said a few times this year “we only have the third youngest list in the league.”
If a team that is so young has knocked off the reigning premiers and has a kid that can keep his composure in a high stakes game to kick a winning goal, then can we see a top four including the Power, Gold Coast and GWS in the coming years?
Port Adelaide has showcased their young list this year. Their list contains only four players who are older than 27 years old.
Captain Travis Boak is only 25 while Chad Wingard is 19 years old.
Other Port Adelaide players have struggled this year for various reasons and have been criticised for it by the media and supporters.
Two players that have faced this criticism are Hamish Hartlett and John Butcher.
Hartlett has been signalled out many times by the media for his inability to break tags. These commentators and journalists forget to mention that Hartlett has only played 64 games and is 22 years of age.
Harlett has been in the system for a few years now but he has been cruelly hit with hamstring problems.
When Hartlett manages to have hundred more games experience then we may see an unstoppable midfielder. Brownlow talk could rise once again for Hartlett as he was seen as a possible future Brownlow medalist when first drafted.
John Butcher is another player who has been condemned for his “stiff” run up in set shot situations and his poor ball drop. Yet again, John Butcher has a mere total games played tally of 19.
The AFL community usually sees a slower development for key position players such as Butcher.
Maybe patience is the key for the full forward’s critics, let’s judge in two or three season’s time where hopefully he has been selected consistently and hasn’t been seriously injured.
Some of the finest lists in the AFL have come off second best to Power’s young talent which is a scary thought for rival clubs.
Five gamer Sam Colquhoun is starting to show his small body can pull off some slick moves as he kicked his first AFL goal against Adelaide on the weekend.
The inexperienced Jasper Pittard (25 games) is starting to prove his speed can be lethal off the halfback line.
The suspended Tom Jonas (29 games) has kept some of the best forwards in the competition quiet this year such as holding Taylor Walker to one goal in the second half of Showdown XXXIV.
Andrew Moore has hit career best form in recent weeks as he develops into a player who is responsible for the ‘run with’ role.
As Bruce McAvaney mentioned in his Channel 7 commentary of Sunday’s game, Port have draftees who were picked at first round selections: 4 (Hartlett), 5 (Boak), 6 (Wingard), 7 (Wines), 8 (Butcher), 9 (Moore) and this year they may have a selection at pick 10, Round 1 in the National Draft due to Adelaide’s punishment for the Kurt Tippet scandal.
It’s time for Power fans to put on sunglasses, as the future looks bright for Port Adelaide.
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