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Opinion
There’s something off about Port Adelaide now we’re at the business end of the season – and it’s hard to know exactly who to blame.
Read any forum, and the second part of that opener isn’t even a discussion to be had. You’ve never seen a supporter base so opposed to their senior coach, particularly with at least one final to be played.
Nevertheless, the Power have had a really strong season: one that has entertained greatly, shone the light on elite young talent and suggests there’s a bit of longevity around here for the club.
Last week, they were competitive in the first half against Brisbane and then blown away. The defensive issues that have existed all season were exploited by the powerful offensive unit of the home team and has left them fighting to keep their year alive a little longer.
But we’re not really reading anything about that, are we?
Esava Ratugolea, Brandon Zerk-Thatcher, Jordon Sweet. Travis Boak, Brodie Grundy and a little bit of Tom Jonas. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think the Power finished 12th on the ladder and it was the start of the off-season.
Every club does their due diligence and just because a team is playing finals doesn’t preclude them from participating in these sorts of discussions, but we haven’t really seen it played out to this degree while a top-four team is still in the running.
It’s too much of a cop-out to suggest that this is an example of Port Adelaide getting ahead of themselves, but it does make one question their motives and mindset in September.
Port Adelaide have needed key defensive reinforcements and a new ruck all season long, so it’s not to say that these requests are ill-advised or anything… but the most professional outfits, the true contenders, don’t let anything leak out at this time of year, or allow for official requests to be put forward with something still to play for.
Even in the Brodie Grundy situation, you’d have expected the Power’s administrators to roll out some generic line about how ‘Brodie is a contracted player’ or that ‘any discussions will be had after the conclusion of the season.’
Instead, it feels like they’ve been overly transparent in their dealings thus far – even now that he has reportedly been told he won’t be needed- and when that is married up with a large qualifying final loss, red flags arise pretty quickly.
Then came a report indicating the club is looking to make a decision on Travis Boak to top it all off. The walls at Alberton must be made of mesh at this point.
Dejected Port Adelaide players walk from the ground after the round 21 loss to Geelong. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/AFL Photos/via Getty Images)
The club legend had an incredible career renaissance over the past few seasons but is no longer a true part of this team’s best 22, which is fine.
Yet these leaks don’t come up out of the blue, and they have the potential to have catastrophic consequences on a playing group. Not because the conversation doesn’t need to be had, but because just like fringe players from bottom 10 clubs announcing their intention to join days before a knockout final, the timing is simply horrible.
Is it a coaching problem? Management? Does the communication department have something to answer for?
At Port Adelaide’s best, and we saw a fair bit of it in that three-month undefeated run this season, they play scintillating footy, and their attack on the opposition is ferocious. Their upside heading into this September was flag-worthy, regardless of what their fans think of the head coach.
Defensive issues and the fact they don’t have an actual quality backman had been masked numerous times throughout the season by the work rate of the midfielders and high half-forwards. The high-octane offence showed they had multiple avenues to win, particularly when you consider the occasional Aliir Aliir 12-intercept game that ruined an opposition.
In fact, with a new-look midfield, on-field camaraderie and improved competency in role players, this actually felt like a different season to 2020 and 2021, where they always felt a little fraudulent in terms of trying to win the flag, despite just missing a grand final on both occasions.
But the issues of incompetency that have previously plagued and certainly continuously scarred Port fans for the last decade or so have started to creep into play, to the point where the on-field upside seems handcuffed by the off-field distractions.
A vocal majority of experts and fans believe that GWS enter this semi final as the likely victor now, a statement so far-fetched even two months ago that the right to having a Kayo subscription may have been revoked.
It’s hard to fully subscribe to the theory of a loss being the most likely scenario, given what the Power can produce, but with all the focus being on how they are going to try and change their list heading into 2024 rather than just looking ahead to the Giant obstacle that faces them tomorrow night, it will be a true mental test for this group.
It’s the last thing that any team needs going into a knockout game.
Sure, it will be great to add some new talent to the list. Sweet has been biding his time in the VFL behind Tim English and will look to Jarrod Witts and Toby Nankervis for some inspiration as to how secondary ruckman can flourish in the main role elsewhere; while Ratugolea and Zerk-Thatcher have their flaws but also have potential in a proper team structure, particularly the former.
That has got nothing to do with the immediate future, though. These three may be in the best 22 come Round 1, 2024, but they can’t be selected to play GWS. And that, in the end, is all that matters.
Port Adelaide’s off-field activity has dominated the club’s finals campaign so far, and it’s hard to know who to blame for that hindrance.
It’s time to see if their young stars can sweep the distractions to the side and lead them to a preliminary final appearance in the face of self-inflicted adversity.