The Port Adelaide Power put a disappointing Brisbane Lions team to the sword on Saturday afternoon, winning by 83 points at the Gabba.
The visitors led from the get-go, and it’s not an understatement to say that the first quarter was all but a training session for the South Australian club – they were dominating the Lions.
Port booted seven goals in twelve minutes as the Lions were all but absent from the field.
As the early minutes kept rolling on, and Port’s goals kept coming, Brisbane fans would be forgiven for thinking that their team hadn’t shown up to the stadium yet.
Thankfully, Brisbane decided that losing a game by a million and one points wasn’t that exciting an activity to complete on a Saturday afternoon, and decided to attempt to steady a rapidly sinking ship.
As the quarter begun to draw to a close, Brisbane were able to produce glimpses of the form that had them taking the game up to the reigning premiers last weekend, and were able to stem the bleeding (slightly) with two late goals courtesy of Hipwood and Close. Still, they were well down, and needed to respond fast.
The second quarter saw Brisbane’s position becoming much more unsteady, with Port slamming on another four goals, and a bunch of behinds, and had even the most optimistic of Brisbane fans bracing for a huge loss.
Brisbane, to their credit, did become better as the quarter wore on, and while they were unable to make any genuine indent on the scoreboard, they did produce some much better intensity and vigour, and were able to show that they had, regardless of the scoreboard, the effort.
And, that effort certainly emerged in the third stanza. Both sides, at varying times, produced some excellent football, and even though Brisbane’s deficit was still very big, no one can deny that for that half an hour, they made a game of it.
Goal for goal at times, Brisbane was finally producing the type of footy that had them taking the game up to the reigning premiers last weekend.
Unfortunately, for all their excellent work in the third quarter, their characteristic fatigue began to impact Brisbane’s efforts, and Port finished off the quarter strongly to take a lead of 75 points into the final break.
The final quarter was Port Adelaide domination, with the visitors slamming on goal after goal to initially snuff out the (very faint) chance of a Brisbane upset, and then they were just aiming for percentage.
The final margin could’ve been bigger, admittedly, but nonetheless Port finished off with four final quarter goals and an 83-point win.
Port had ten individual goal kickers – headlined by hauls of four goals to Robbie Gray, Charlie Dixon and Jarman Impey, while Jackson Trengrove had three majors and Sam Powell-Pepper booted two.
Chad Wingard, Powell-Pepper, Jasper Pittard and BRad Ebert racked up the disposals, while Paddy Ryder narrowly won an intriguing ruck battle against Stefan Martin.
Brisbane’s disposal count was led by Tom Cutler, Lewis Taylor and Daniel Rich – none of that trio, though, were super impressive with ball in hand.
Mitch Robinson was probably Brisbane’s best; while Tom Rockliff and Dayne Zorko weren’t that noticeable, disappointingly.
Ben Keays was the most prolific youngster, with Harris Andrews over shadowed by Port’s on-point forward line and Eric Hipwood the victim of extremely limited forward supply.
Port have a clash with West Coast next weekend, while Brisbane would be desperate for a good performance against the winless Sydney Swans.
Final score
Brisbane Lions 10.7.67
Port Adelaide Power 22.18.150
Paul D
Roar Guru
You look at what Suckling brought to the dogs, having a booming, accurate kick out of halfback is just so important to getting your attack going. Rich tries very hard to fill that role and does but can't do it all himself. Harwood has shown glimpses too but goes missing in games. It's broken play that lets us down, a lot of the players are fine kicking after a mark in midfield, but trying to do that short pinpoint 30m kick to a forward on the lead, while at full sprint - well, that is beyond a lot of them
Brendon the 1st
Guest
I feel your pain, bad kicking is bad football and really hard to watch as a supporter. Port were in Brisbane's position a few years back. It's going to be hard to keep Schache, but it's vital, a few players that can kick would also need to be targeted.
Paul D
Roar Guru
Very disappointing day. Really irrelevant game of football - as others have said, nothing in it at all for Port as it was just too easy, and I must confess this was the most jekyll & hyde performance I can remember from us since our early season form in 2015 before we stunk it up round 1 vs the pies. It wasn't that we dropped off either, Port were all over us right from the get go. Probably just far too good and our boys have played enough football by now to know when they're in trouble, even before the first bounce
George
Guest
Dogs were back to their best against GWS. A bit more accurate kicking and the would have won. With some tall players coming back they will be right up there in finals.
Brendon the 1st
Guest
Hard to say what this game means, Ports pressure was great but Brisbane was woeful, turnover after turnover. Port need a big scalp away from home to really be considered a genuine chance. Round 10 v Geelong at Simonds stadium looks to be a big test of where they're at.
powa
Guest
their skills are above average, but not as good as GWS, Crows or Geelong, I do think they may be better than Richmond though, not sure about the dogs; they have been patchy
Sammy
Guest
Port this year are good at putting weaker teams to the sword but have come up short against the best. When the opposition can't put real pressure on they can play the game on their terms and look strong. But when they are pressured across the ground for 4 quarters the have been found out a bit. They are tracking as a team likely to finish between 5-8