Mostly clueless, sometimes inept, and then completely unstoppable – the 2018 Port Adelaide Power.
Port weren’t just bad for the first two-and-a-half quarters against the Giants on Sunday – they were bad with no apparent path to being good. GWS had them covered for physicality, for run, for skill – for football, really.
Where the Giants were imposing, the Power were timid and reluctant. The Giants were clinical and the Power were comical – seemingly every foray forward ended by a shanked kick, a dropped mark, a banana-peel slip; a medley of errors for the family to film on VHS and mail to a TV station.
And then, all of a sudden, Port forgot about being hopeless, and started playing football at its best and purest. Reluctance gave way to ferocity, confusion to conviction. They started, finally, winning the ball in the clinches. They had a logical method forward, and a singular target inside 50 powerful enough to give the entire team structure.
The ground was theirs – they started winning the positional battle and the numbers one too, cutting off every Giants’ attack before it began. After spending most of the game strolling inside 50 unimpeded, GWS couldn’t get the ball past the wing.
A lost game was saved and a pretty dire, foregone spectacle suddenly became compelling. For a moment, anyway. The revival was short-lived, the Giants regaining ascendancy as if through sheer muscle memory – they just ‘remembered’ that they were the better team.
What was left was a 22-point loss, an oddly perfect margin that summed up both the gulf between the teams while vaguely alluding to Port Adelaide’s winding, uneven journey to certain, briefly uncertain defeat.
Brett Deledio of the Giants (Photo by Adam Trafford/AFL Media/Getty Images)
What to make of it all? The Giants, it can be said unequivocally now, are back to being a force. Outside of Port’s one commanding surge, the Giants were always in control, playing the game on their terms. If not for some poor decisions and finishes by Josh Kelly and Toby Greene inside 50 – failures that seemed born much more of complacency than pressure – the game would have been over much sooner.
That’s the Giants, though – complacency is a part of the DNA. So is ecstatic brilliance, though, and ‘GWS passages’ are still the cleanest, most devastating and artful passages in the game.
They’re complementing that perfection with a bit of grit now too. At its core, this win was less about the Hollywood clearances and more about the Nick Haynes spoils in defence. They’re probably going to have to beat Richmond at the MCG or West Coast in Perth to make the grand final, but it’s not beyond them.
It is, almost certainly, beyond Port. The names at the top are bright and shiny, but there’s not enough substance after them. The bottom six are too poor, the back six too overwhelmed. The foot skills across the entire team are a disease that Robbie Gray can’t cure by himself.
Tom Rockliff was never going to help that problem – his recruitment was always a little peculiar, as if the football Gods mandated that Port bring in Rockliff’s hardness to offset the distinct lack of it in their other free agent additions.
Tom Rockliff recovers after running laps at Alberton Oval. (AAP Image/Ben Macmahon)
At some point, you have to be able to execute the game’s fundamental skill, and if you can’t, you can’t also have a misfiring forward line and a frightened defence. Right now, the Power seem like a middling team that can only go as far as Gray’s brilliance takes them – when he has a game of almosts, like he did on Sunday, there’s little to hold onto.
Paddy Ryder’s absence was significant but also instructive. Only the Port Adelaide coaching stuff know why the decision was made to have Charlie Dixon lose ruck contests while Jack Watts and Lindsay Thomas were left as the focal targets inside 50.
Ken Hinkley is prone to baffling decisions. Port are regularly outclassed by the tier above them, often looking devoid of ideas and structure. Those things only came on Sunday when Dixon finally shifted permanent forward, a half too late.
Ryder will be back soon, Tom Jonas as well. A spot in finals should be assured – Port’s surges are imposing enough to topple less talented teams. Taking out the trash, though, might be all the Power are good for. An uneven team limited to only occasional patches of brilliance, its destiny to watch the better teams step over them, as the Giants did Sunday.
Jack supports port
Guest
It's football not rocket science you silly intellectual people's who command big lofty words You Kick a ball You Hand ball a ball And never tollerate someone poking the dirty end of the stick at your club god bless your lil hearts I took my lad to his first port game on the gws game He came away smiling and happy Bless him That was the worst performance I'd seen since the week before Hatchet jobs stop when you win
Paul D
Roar Guru
I’d love a why St Kilda shouldn’t exist article frankly No one here would comment on it tho
Powerboy
Guest
I notice that virtually all comments stopped when the fatuous and intellectually bankrupt motives of the author were so easily exposed. To those who continue to regard the article as either valid or fair I can only say that your opinion is exactly the same as your fundament - we all have one. To resort to attacks upon the person who so easily exposes such nastiness hidden behind flowery prose merely demonstrates how blinkered you are to the obvious when confronted by such a pretentious use of language. There was no need to reply to this article with a football argument because this was not an article written about football. It was a hatchet job, plain and simple, and to even deign to do anything else but to dismiss it out of hand would have paid way, way too much credit to the hack who wrote it.
Dean
Guest
I see no name calling, I do see you embarrassing yourself again with that comment considering the barrage of personal attacks you made against the author. Nice deflection too on Port's shameful trifecta of Gambling reliance and promotion.
Powerboy
Guest
Dean resorts to the usual method of the children in the Roar echo chamber and goes directly to pathetic name calling and using his clubs record as an excuse for his lack of intellectual rigour and logic. Bravo! Expectations met.
Dean
Guest
Yes a fine accumulation of Premierships sitting clear ahead with 5, I understand the jealousy you feel considering the Puffer's are stranded on 1. Are Port the only club with the terrible trifecta of gambling revenue coming from pokies, Ubet gambling sponsorship and the Adelaide Casino. Quite hypocritical considering how much advertising Port Adelaide do on behalf of the gambling industry. I have no problem with the Hawks revenue streams.
Peter the Scribe
Roar Guru
Dean goes WHACK!
Powerboy
Guest
Salutations for the fine accumulation of AFL premierships, Deano, old chap? Now.....about the social hypocrisy......shall I call Trude and Pru? ...perhaps a rummage sale for the victims of the punt? Cheers.
Dean
Guest
PufferBoy I still think you are a little too worked up, perhaps you should take your little key board warrior fingers and give them a rest, you're embarrassing yourself. The 2014 prelim final was quite a long time ago so I dont see the need for you to be showing everyone how sore you still are about it. Also I absolutely separate the AFL and VFL era's and have fond memories of both. I think you will find it more common for the Essendon and Carlton supporters to debate that their teams have won more premierships than the Eagles, other interstate teams. At Hawthorn there's no need to do that as they clearly have the record for most AFL premierships at 5. Port have some records also, like the biggest losing margin in grand final history to a Victorian team so chin up PufferBoy you have 119 reasons to be happy.
Cat
Roar Guru
He is a NM supporter
peter chrisp
Guest
Pope Paul can i tell you don't like The Pies for memory you are a Dees fan it will be interesting to see how far you get i'll get you to do me a favour can you spell Collingwood for me?
The Brazilian
Roar Rookie
More unsubstantiated outrage, powerboy. The difference between Port and St Kilda being that Port were expecting/expected to challenge this year yet continue to disappoint and fail to consolidate when opportunities arise. St Kilda not so. Your hysterical anti everything Victorian outburst has been noted all too often and provides an easy out when required. Childish attitude IMO.
Dean
Guest
Settle down est 1997, the authors article shares the opinion of many fans of the game. Perhaps you should read Jays article from after the Tigers premiership. The title is Destruction Tour: How the Tigers eviscerated the rest of the AFL and everything we thought we knew. What you will quickly realise is that Jay is perhaps the most talented author on here and he should get paid for his time. This coming from a Hawks supporter.
Lroy
Guest
''They’re probably going to have to beat Richmond at the MCG or West Coast in Perth to make the grand final, but it’s not beyond them.'' That's an interesting comment because I probably agree with it. Just had a look at their run home, they could easily win their last 5 with a decent % boost with games against the Saints and Blues.. Adelaide away might be tricky, they seem to have the measure of the Swans so add 20 points to what they have already got and its looking Ok. Top 4 is no longer out of the question for them.
Powerboy
Guest
The article was written for one reason only. I would have said the same thing about ANY such article about ANY club. I look forward to Mr Jet-setter's hatchet job on St Kilda or any other similarly lacklustre club. Oh....I forgot, they are Victorian and so would offend the target Roar demographic in the echo chamber.
Peter the Scribe
Roar Guru
Have to agree with TTF after your last comment had so much outrage you made me re-read the article. There's lots of arguments you can use to defend your side rather than attacking an authors bio! For instance Port are the second lowest side for points conceded this year but in doing so have struggled with kicking a score in 2018 down to 15th. Why is this so would be a good place to start. Has Hinkley tinkered with the high scoring side of 2017 too much? Where has your score power gone?
Powerboy
Guest
Do you need a line-by-line critical analysis, Tigerfan? As I said, denigrate the recruits, refer to "flat track bullies", toss in chokers and say absolutely nothing complimentary. Pretty formulaic and lazy and all couched in wanker prose from a smart-arse who thinks his experience on an aeroplane qualifies him to comment on "pop culture" as he slags off a club he dislikes. I would have made exactly the same conclusion had the same been written about ANY club. Would you like a "Why St Kilda Shouldn't Exist" article next week?
The Brazilian
Roar Rookie
Your frenzied petulance and heartfelt outrage are both commendable and pathetic, powerboy. Your rebuttal smacks of self interest and a 'how dare you say that about my team' approach yet nowhere do you take the author to task about the actual content. 'Profound hope'? Surely that's just poor story writing!
Powerboy
Guest
My previous comment was inadequate.... This whole piece was one big hatchet job, from headline to footnote by an "expert" who claims to write with an eye to historical context and pop culture (whatever that is...). There was absolutely nothing objective about it. The entire raison d'etre was to rubbish a proud football club with cliched jibes that are as old as the league. The Roar and the author should be ashamed of themselves if this is the standard of "journalism" from a site that purports to seriously canvas sporting issues and topics. There was nothing sporting about this article. If Mr Croucher is so attuned to historic relevance he might reaquaint himself with the history of the only expansion club in the league that has such a revered and respected continuous history that goes back further than almost all others in the league. As for "pop culture", supping on Asian street food in N.Y or sipping lane-way lattes in hip Melbourne does not a football expert make. Who cares what Mr Croucher, or The Roar, think qualify him to make such pretentious claims in his biog! I am of the very profound hope that this publication does not pay for such crap. That would would be akin to throwing pearls before swine.
GJ
Guest
I think most people expected from Port this year. You finished 5th last year, narrowly missing the top 4, largely off of the back of a soft draw. The flat track label was well deserved for a team that went nearly 2 years without beating a top 8 side. You got the monkey well and truly off of your back this year and a few short weeks ago many expected a top 4 finish, possibly even a top 2 finish. Considering the clubs trading strategy in last years off season that was hailed by many media pundits as a master stroke most punters are expecting more than the rubbish performances the team has dished up in the last few weeks. Or earlier in the season when Ryder was missing through injury.