by Booney » Wed May 19, 2021 11:02 am
Is this it, has the bubble burst? I’m not willing to write Port Adelaide off just yet, I am however beginning to question what it is we’re trying to do. For several years we’ve played a pretty basic but nonetheless an effective style of play. Win the contest, get the ball forward, push up from defence and get repeat F50 entries. Whilst we’ve not been the most offensive side (when it comes to scoring) we’ve been consistently stingy in defence because of that territory advantage.
This year we’re playing a different brand and particularly against the more damaging midfields we’ve come up short. Using our ball movement from defence has certainly been added to our game and we’re not as hell bent on keeping the ball forward. Is it a deliberate plan to make us more balanced and give us another dimension or, is it a result of our midfield giving up that territory?
The loss to the Eagles felt like one of those games in WA that they can pull off against anyone, they do it regularly over there and I wrote ( and still do ) that one down as a mulligan, however, the loss to Brisbane and this loss to the Bulldogs give me more reason for concern.
Two things, firstly slow starts, on both occasions slow starts have effectively put the contest out of reach early on as we’re generally (see above) not a prolific scoring side. Saturday night the Dogs pile on 5 unanswered goals in 15 minutes in the first term and we find ourselves 25 points down. Granted, we too found ourselves on a run of 5 straight in the second term but it felt like that was our shot and 12 goals for the night against a team as attacking as the Dogs would never be enough. In Brisbane they had 4 at ¼ time, we ended up with 5 for the night. Game over.
Secondly, spread. In Brisbane McCluggage, Lyons and Zorko beat us on the spread and gave their forwards the best look at it. Against the Dogs Macrae, Daniel, Bontempelli, Treloar, Smith ( not a bad list of mids by the way ) tore us to shreds on the outside.
Now we’re talking about two pretty handy midfield units here, the concern is though if we can’t have our midfield matching theirs when it comes to inside and outside ball then can we truly challenge at the pointy end?
In Brisbane we lost clearances by 3, -4 in the centre. On Saturday we lost them by 6, -1 in the centre. Inside ( Wines in particular ) wasn’t where these games were won and lost. In isolation those numbers should not be of concern, they’re not defining, the Bulldogs however had +48 uncontested possessions. Their spread killed us. All too often they flicked a handball sideways to a player with pressure only to flick another one sideways to a player in the clear. Work rate defensively on the outside wasn’t good enough and the strongest midfield in the competition isn’t going to let you off if you allow that. For the first time the loss of Butters and Duursma was really obvious.
So what went well? Wines, again, continued his brilliant form of 2021, anther complete set of numbers from one of the best inside mids in the game. Georgiades and Fantasia with 2 goals each looked dangerous and ready to take their opportunities while we all had a grin when Hamish Hartlett took his hamstrings back to 2015 and chased down Jason Johannisen. Great moment. Drew keeps performing, Aliir keeps playing his role and Ladhams, albeit it up against a make shift ruckman did his job and looked to enjoy having the #1 ruck mantle.
Unfortunately the black cat someone kicked at Alberton isn’t over it and we’re set to lose Clurey for a stint with a broken jaw, McKenzie should come in for him. The injury list is building and it will be nice to get some back sooner rather than later. Depth is really being tested with regulars Lycett ( sus. ) Houston, Butters, Duursma, Clurey, Rockliff and more recent arrival Jones all on the sidelines. 6 or 7 of what would be in our best line up missing and we need to get through the next 2 unscathed against Collingwood and Fremantle before the bye.
Boons best – Wines, Boak, Georgiades, Amon
Changes –
In – McKenzie
Out – Clurey ( Inj )
One other is Houston is right, perhaps Bonner goes to the sub and Frederick back to the SANFL for a full game after being the sub 2 weeks in a row.
PAFC. Forever.
LOOK OUT, WE'RE COMING!