And now we come to the main event of Gather Round – six months in the making, following Ken Hinkley’s taunts directed toward Jack Ginnivan, and the Hawthorn’s captain’s retaliatory insults back toward the Port Adelaide coach.
This has been the match the AFL has wanted since the final siren of the 2024 Semi-Final, and it just so happened to fall at the conclusion of Gather Round – a guaranteed full house at the Adelaide Oval, and the eyes of the football world glued to it
A lot of water has trickled under the bridge since James Sicily almost dropped Luke Breust as he jawed with Ken Hinkley.
The Hawthorn waters have seemed pristine, with a 4-0 start to the year quickly dispelling any notion that their 2024 season was a flash in the pan. However, the Port Adelaide waters have been far murkier. Perhaps even a trace of blood could be found in them, as the succession plan to move from Hinkley to Josh Carr could be more appropriately labelled the “ion” plan.
There had been no success.
Up until this game, that is.
In the finale of Gather Round, these two renewed acquaintances at the Adelaide Oval, in front of a packed house. Could the game live up to the build up? Could the Hawks exact a measure of revenge against the team that booted them out of the running in 2024? Or was this one of those games, with Port Adelaide having their backs to the wall, and coming out swinging?
Was this the main event the AFL hoped for? Or was it going to be Clubber Lang beating Rocky Balboa to a pulp?
To say I was pumped for this one would be an understatement.
Ding Ding – let’s jump into The Main Event.
Oh, you saw the graphic, right? I’m pretty proud of that one. I loved Rocky III, and it felt fitting that I had Port represented by Clubber Lang.
This was obviously representative of the first fight between Clubber and Rocky Balboa, and as such, it was a mauling in the first quarter, as the Power slammed on six goals to one from the Hawks. Sitting back and watching this, there was a huge contrast in styles, and more importantly, a contrast in attitudes, right from the first bounce.
I don’t know what the Hawks were going for, but their approach to this contest was passionless. There was no anger in them, no competitive spirit, and no willingness to mix it up.
Port, on the other hand, played like they had something to prove, and you know what… maybe they did. Their coach was under the pump, and really, has been for years, and they played like they actually gave a shit.
Every punch the Hawks threw, they missed. Every miss was countered by the Power putting one, two, or three on their chin in rapid succession. The Hawks have been the ‘Hollywood Hawks”, according to some, but in this one, they were like a cast of extras in a B-Grade movie. It was Port with their names up in lights, and the Hawks were more akin to a straight to DVD release.
After one quarter of football, here is what the Hawks looked like.
I’m not quite as proud of that picture…
I have to credit the Port pressure for beating the Hawks like government mules, as it undoubtedly caused many of the skill errors from the Hawks, but there were other wins from the Power that were created and cultivated by their coaching panel. Let’s have a look at them.
SAM POWELL-PEPPER TO JAMES SICILY
I loved this – it was the perfect person to plonk on Sicily, as Sam Powell-Pepper is a combative beast, and as James found out the hard way, he is not someone to sag off and play the percentages on.
SPP changes the percentages.
There were several times in the first quarter that Sicily opted to allow Powell-Pepper to go to the contest whilst he hovered 20-30 metres away, waiting for the cheap intercept. Sicily has made a living out of playing that role, and Hinkley had him well scouted. Whenever he tried it, Powell-pepper bobbed up to punish him.
At face value, Powell-Pepper didn’t have a massive game, but what he did do was throw the Hawthorn defence into chaos. With an extra player at the contest, SPP was able to win the footy and hurt the Hawks. He finished with six touches in the first half, but added a goal and three tackles, as he added to Port’s manic pressure and forced the Hawks into mistake after mistake.
With Sicily unable to have influence, he was soon moved forward, where he provided a marking target, and for a small while in the last quarter, looked like he may bring the Hawks right back. It was not to be, however, and I wonder just how much of that big lead Port established came about because Sicily was so ineffective in his defensive post in the first half?
Credit Hinkley and the work of Powell-Pepper for that.
CONNOR ROZEE TO HALF-BACK
It is a little-known fact that Rozee won a SANFL flag as a youngster, playing off the half-back flank. You had commentators in the box, who are paid pretty significant amounts of money to inform you of this stuff, stating that he had never played the role before.
In the AFL, they were right.
But as a broader statement, they were wrong.
Rozee played half-back for the North Adelaide Roosters, and guess who his coach was – the bloke who will take over from Ken Hinkley after this season, Josh Carr.
Ohhhhm now we’re putting it all together – no wonder he looked so relaxed in teh role, and his positioning was so good. After an up and down start to the season, this would have been like putting on an old pair of jeans and finding they still fit.
I wish I had an old pair of jeans that still fit. Even a new pair would be good.
Rozee was permitted all the time and space in the world, as he collected the footy with ease, and without encumbrance. With players like Nick Watson and Jack Ginnivan responsible for ensuring he had someone keeping him accountable, the Port captain put the Hawthorn forward to the sword.
Not only did he find plenty of the footy, but he ran forward and slotted two long goals. They came in the first half, whilst the game was hot, and as the siren sounded to signal halftime, Rozee wandered off Adelaide Oval with 16 disposals, three intercepts, and four rebound 50 disposals. In short, Rozee did as he pleased.
This was a huge win for Hinkley and perhaps Carr, as well, who could see their skipper had been having a tough time in the midfield. With Willem Drew, Jason Horne-Francis, Ollie Wines, and Zak Butters in the guts, it gave Rozee the chance to better utilise his skills coming out of defence.
And you know what?
Maybe in a few weeks, the combination of Rozee and Farrell will have people wondering why the hell they needed Dan Houston in the first place!
WILLEM DREW TO JAI NEWCOMBE
If you’ve read my stuff for a while, you’d know how much I appreciate Willem Drew.
Actually, all midfielders that are capable of playing accountable football, whilst going about their business and collecting the footy get a big tick from me. Drew has a heap of mongrel in him, and gets ticks all the time… and not just because he hangs out with dogs.
Boom tish.
No, Willem Drew knows how to play accountable footy, and as the Hawks desperately searched for someone to display some clean hands in the first quarter, he made damn sure that it wasn’t going to be his direct opponent, Jai Newcombe.
Newcombe may have finished with 29 touches, but when the Power were running all over the Hawks, every time he touched the footy, he was beset upon by Port players. Chief amongst them was Drew.
Newcombe had five touches for the quarter – four by hand, as he was forced to get rid of the footy quickly each time. That his net metres gained was just three metres for the quarter should indicate that there was no burst from stoppage, no runs, and no penetrating disposals to give his forwards a chance.
When the Power needed Newcombe contained, they looked to their Red Menace to do so, and once again, without bells, whistles, or things that go “wheeeee”, Willem Drew got the job done.
He finished with 26 touches, eight clearances, and a whopping 33 pressure acts. Fitting, for the most accountable player the Power possess.
Suck on a Willem Drew, Hawthorn.
Of course, it wasn;t all about the coaching moves – some players just took it upon themselves to do what they do, and do it brilliantly. I’ll drop some names in here.
THE MAN
The return of Zak Butters last week was… well, it was a little underwhelming. Not because he wasn’t good – 30 touches and nine clearances is a great return, but because his team was ordinary, and good performances in those types of games don’t mean too much. It’s like being the best of a bad bunch, really.
But being the best of a good bunch… well, that is more what happened in this game.
When Port slotted their third-straight goal to open the game, there was a nice little stat for Mr Zak Butters.
Port Adelaide – three goals.
Zak Butters – three direct goal assists.
This bloke is the architect of the Port offence. It is his vision, combined with his elite ability to actually execute the disposal to create opportunities for his teammates, that sets him apart. He refuses to slam the ball on his boot and hope for the best (in truth, that’s what Connor Rozee has been doing under pressure, so moving him to half-back not only alleviate that problem, but replaced that aspect with the composure of Butters).
Instead, Butters massages the footy like he has flown in from Thailand. Just executes those thirty-to-forty metre passes that give his teammates every opportunity to make good on them.
He finished this game with 33 disposals to lead all players, eight clearances, and four goal assists amongst his 11 score involvements. Our very own Matt Oman has a healthy, yet somehow unhealthy love for Butters. In his eyes, Zak can do no wrong, and you know what? When it comes to this game, I can see why he loves this bloke so much.
Butters was everything that defines Port Adelaide in this game, and as long as he is playing in this team, they’ll have heartbeat in 2025.
ALIIR ALL OVER CHOL
I used Aliir’s body for the cover art for this article. It was fitting, as he beat Mabior Chol to a pulp in their duel.
On three occasions, Chol appeared to have Aliir dead to rights in terms of position. It seemed as though all he had to do was hold his ground and mark the footy. However, somehow… some way, Aliir was able not only to work his way into the contest and make it a draw, but he was able to win it.
Now, I am happy to concede that some of that may be due to the overall shitness of Mabior Chol, who seemed to channel his 2024 finals form in this game, but he could have made a difference here or there had Aliir not been so fan-bloody-tastic with his recovery, closing speed, and body strength.
The big defender had the eight intercepts in this game, but for me, it was more about the way he completely shut Chol out of the game. With just five touches and one mark, Chol was a non-factor. Hell, even the contested grab Chol took kind of bobbled out of his hands, into his head, and back into his hands. ‘
It was close to a complete performance from Aliir, who continues to smile his way through the AFL season. Plenty to smile about in this game, wasn’t there, Double-A?
GUNNERS
I went to a Guns ‘n’ Roses concert at Calder Park, way back in 1992, I think. It was a stinking hot day, and there were some shifty buggers there selling water for eight bucks a bottle. Given the event was so poorly organised, and there was no other option but to die of thirst, I did buy one.
I have two other memories of that day. It took two hours to get out of the carpark, because there was no public transport available, and it is the worst possible venue to exit when thousands of others are thinking the same thing. And the phrase that I heard every ten seconds from people around me.
“Gunners…”
I almost heard that word as much in this game – I started to have flashbacks.
Jack Gunston is got a couple of cheapies as the Hawks tried their best to make a contest of it, but at 112 years old, he should be applauded for the way he was able to find the footy on at least four other occasions, and convert when everyone else around him was struggling to get a touch.
Quite a few people I know screwed their nose up when he announced he wanted to come back to Hawthorn. They didn’t believe the Hawks needed him.
Well, with Calsher Dear and Mitch Lewis hurt, and Mabior Chol the only other option, the Hawks were lucky to have him in this game. He kicked six snags for the game, matching his career-high, and though he is now lacking the pace and agility he once had, he retains the goal sense and footy IQ that made him such a weapon for so long.
He now has ten goals in the first five rounds. Hell, I thought he may have been lucky to get ten for the year. Go well, Gunners.
THE BULL
Jason Horne-Francis has the footy 29 times in this game. Only 13 of these were considered contested possessions, but far out, every time I seemed to see him grab the footy, he had someone trying to latch onto him, and he’d wiggle his hips like he was auditioning for a role in Magic Mike, and change direction suddenly.
Like magic… that tackler would be gone, and JHF would dart off in the opposite direction.
When he first entered the league, he would give away so many free kicks because he was attempting to play this exact style, but he was still just a boy. He didn’t have that strength through the legs and torso to power out of tackles.
But that was then.
This is now.
Now, Horne-Francis is a nightmare to deal with. He flat out refuses to give up when someone wraps him up in a tackle. You see so many players concede that there is going to be a stoppage, and they just allow the tackle to remain. But Horne -Francis has this inner drive that just says “F-U… no way I’m allowing this to happen!”
He thrashes around like a Blue Marlin on the line, and he is now at the point where he snaps the line and makes his getaway.
He is now the big bull in the yard of the Port midfield, and his crash and bash style is going to wreak havoc on this competition in the next few years. He was a beast in this one, but unlike so many beasts, he retains a large measure of skill to complement his physical power.
It is a rare combination, and as he sliced a 45-degree kick inside fifty in the final quarter, if you didn’t take a second to smile and nod at the precision of his delivery, do you even really love footy?
LET’S TALK A BIT MORE ABOUT PASSION
The Hawks started to play with some passion in the second half, but it was too little, too late. Had they brought that type of heat earlier in the game, maybe we’d be writing about a very different result, but the fact remains, they didn’t. And they paid.
I wonder whether Sam Mitchell intentionally ordered is charges to steer clear of being too emotionally-invested in the game, early on. I think there is an argument for it – the Hawks looked detached, almost as though they were going in with an “all business” type of mindset.
I understand why.
Whilst I am sure Port took their foot off the gas late in the game, there remains the chance that they were spent. Emotional investment can drive a performance, but it can also drain the energy. Were the hawks attempting to conserve some energy to make a late run?
If so, they left things far too late, and gave Port far too much of a headstart. The Power embraced the magnitude of the event. They loved being in the main event. They walked right up to Rocky Hok-Balboa, and smacked him in the face until he was a bloody mess.
The Hawks tried to rally, and though it was not a knockout, the Power was much too far ahead on points for it to truly matter.
This may have been a good learning experience for both clubs.
Port are irrepressible when they paly with emotion.
Hawthorn are flat without it.
QUICKIES
What a first quarter from Joe Richards. Plenty questioned the contract Port offered him, but his tenacity was a highlight early, and he proved to be a tough man to beat, all game.
Willie Rioli’s “have a look at this” moment, holding the footy out to show Changkuoth Jiath before slotting the goal… look, I love a bit of showmanship, and Rioli got the desired result, which was a second shot at goal, but I don’t blame Jiath for putting him on the deck. It was disrespectful, the game was gone with Rioli’s first goal, and had Jiath been a little more fiery, he may have done something a little more untoward, like push Willie into the post, or fence, or something.
Ollie Wines looks leaner this season. Still strong, but leaner and a little more ripped. If only there was some way we could actually measure the weight of players, so we could confirm or deny this…
I’m sure one day the AFL will think of a way they can let us know.
I really like Jase Burgoyne on the wing, but he looks pretty settled when he plays as a distributor off half-back, as well. Sadly, I don;’t think he spent enough time on the wing to qualify for full points in our Robbie Flower Award this round, which is a damn shame. If he played wing the whole season, I reckon he could win it!
Not a great night for the Hawthorn small forwards. Nick Watson was barely sighted, unless he was trying to extract a free kick, and Jack Ginnivan… I genuinely don’t know what his role is, at the moment. He just seems to be there. At 12 touches and just 0.4 goals per game, he might be in danger of playing some VFL soon.
My god, Tom Barrass is big. Just watching him up against Mitch Georgiades, he is basically twice the thickness… and not just in the head! He’d be a hard man to move off the spot, and I reckon Mitch did pretty well to manufacture five shots at goal against him.
And that might do me.
In the main event of Gather Round, it was Clubber Lang, snarling, angry, and up for the fight, wearing his black, white, and teal, beating the hell out of Rocky Balboa, whose brown and gold colours suited the way they played the first quarter… because they shit themselves.
It is just the result Port needed, and with a clash against the Swans at the SCG next week, they will have to bring just as much heat as they did in this one.
As for the Hawks, they’ll lick their wounds, and maybe some other parts of their bodies, and front up to face the Cats on Easter Monday. Looking forward to that one.
As always, massive thanks to those who support this work. You can see the amount of care that goes into it. I love footy, I love writing about it, and I hope you enjoy reading it. Without you, this whole thing falls over. Sincerely… thank you – HB
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