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Opinion

Port's doubters could not be more wrong

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Roar Rookie
8th July, 2020
25

They say a week is a long time in footy and for many Port Adelaide fans, Saturday night’s loss to Brisbane was the end of the world.

Seeing the comments on social media was nothing short of people throwing the toys out of the pram at their side’s first loss of the year.

While it wasn’t the best overall performance from Ken Hinkley’s men – getting beaten up around the ball, losing the contested possession count 118 to 105, something that Port Adelaide prides itself on – they won the stoppage clearances 31 to 19 but lost the inside 50 count 48 to 35.

The first quarter hurt Port, kicking 1.6 to 2.1. The story could have been much different had the goal kicking been more accurate.

The second quarter is where people really got annoyed at Port. It was something of a flashback to the team’s awful performances last year. No run, no effort and they simply got bullied and outworked around the ball to in the end concede six goals while managing just the solitary goal thanks to youngster Zak Butters just before halftime.

Apart from the second quarter debacle, Port more than held their own against one of the best teams in the competition now in Brisbane.

Ken Hinkley

(Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)

After halftime there was not much difference in the two sides with the damage already being done earlier. Port kicked 4.5 to Brisbane’s 4.7 and when you look at the final margin of 37 points, all of that can be attributed to Port’s horror second term.

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Now I could just be in the minority here, but Saturday night’s loss is not the end of the world.

Port Adelaide had been on top of their game for four straight weeks, which is hard to do, and there was bound to be a down week and unfortunately for Hinkley’s men it was not a good look as there is a huge difference between Port’s best and worst game.

Travis Boak was once again a shining light with 26 touches while Zak Butters was solid with 18 disposals and two goals in what was a disappointing night.

Big forward Charlie Dixon was held goalless for the first time by Harris Andrews and much of the criticism was towards the power forward.

Let’s be realistic here. Andrews is a premier defender of the competition and in defence of Dixon, the ball coming in didn’t make it easy on him. Numerous times it was just a bomb to a two or three on one, and seriously, we can’t expect many of those duels to be won consistently.

So yes, the performance was not great. It did not look good. But let’s be completely honest, teams are allowed to have an off night every now and then, right?

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That was Port Adelaide’s first bad game in five. In a truly testing time they still sit atop the ladder at 4-1 while only playing one home game in Adelaide to start the year, so I would advise against writing off the Power already after one loss.

They regroup and go again this week against the Giants. For people doubting them after Saturday night, they could not be more wrong.

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