There is nothing like a Showdown.
Sure, there are rivalries and the AFL will try to sell you on them to drive their product, but when you’re talking about an organic rivalry, nothing compares to Adelaide v Port Adelaide. Irrespective of where they sit on the ladder, you are guaranteed something special when these two teams meet.
In the infancy of The Mongrel Punt, this was my favourite game to cover. We had a large following of Adelaide supporters – they were the first to jump onboard with my coverage, and it is something I have not forgotten. As we attracted new writers, others started to express their interest in covering what I believe is the biggest home-and-away clash of the season. Matt Oman, an Adelaide fella, lived and breathed the Showdown. As such, the honour of covering it has gone to him for the last three years and he has done a bang-up job.
Even though I wasn’t covering it, I would always be glued to this game. Yeah, I had other games to watch and review, but I never, ever missed a Showdown – never will. If you’re a football lover and you don’t tune in to watch this game, do you really love the game that much?
This one was a see-sawing, rollicking clash, with both teams having moments where they looked like the dominant team. Port started strong in the first quarter before the Crows reeled them in. Then it was the Power fighting back as Adelaide gained the ascendancy. Like a tug-of-war pitting two powerful foes against each other, it was always going to come down to one team making a surge whilst the other slipped.
That team surging was the Adelaide Crows.
In a Port Adelaide home Showdown, the Crows dropped the hammer on the Power to send them to 1-2, whilst winning their first game of the season.
In the preseason, the Crows looked impressive. They ran hard, defended well, and looked slick. At 0-2, things clearly were not going to plan in the real stuff, but with young star-in-the-making, Riley Thilthorpe kicking five and recruit, Izak Rankine snagging four, things started going their way. A seven-goal last quarter, with the Crows kicking the last six of the game, sealed a brilliant win for Adelaide as they opened their account at the expense of their crosstown rivals.
It had a bit of everything and I loved every second of it. Let’s jump into the good, bad, and ugly of Showdown 53.
THE GOOD
THE REPLACEMENT
With Darcy Fogarty sitting this one out (which was a huge disappointment to me, as I reckon h is fantastic), a lot of responsibility rested on the shoulders of the 2021 number two overall pick, Riley Thilthorpe.
After snagging five goals on debut, Thilthorpe had huge expectations on him, but as most young forwards encounter early in their careers, doing it once is one thing, and backing it up with repeat performances is another.
As a result, Thilthorpe found himself back in the SANFL a little more often than he probably anticipated. Perhaps this five-goal blast is enough to convince Matthew Nicks and company that he belongs in the ones.
With Tex hobbled a little early in the game, Thilthorpe stepped up, firstly snagging a goal over his head in a snap not dissimilar to the goal he kicked against the Saints to win the game a couple of years back.
He then added four more over the course of the game to put his stamp on te contest as the best key position forward in the game.
The Crows are somewhat blessed with options, with Elliott Himmelberg also waiting in the wings for an opportunity, but in this one, the kid they’re hoping will be the next big thing in the forward line gave every indication that he is just about ready to assume the throne and reign alongside The Fog.
A trio of Fogarty, Walker, and Thilthorpe, with Rankine, Murphy, and Rachele at their feet… that is a potent mix.
THE DESK
I love the way Rory Laird goes about his footy. In short – there is n bullshit about his game, at all. None. Nada. Zilch!
He works at the coalface and does what some of the other stars in the league get fawned over for, but Laird does it without the fanfare or recognition.
Last season, I raised the question as to why Laird shouldn’t be considered for an All-Australian position. I asked who people thought were ahead of him. And then I asked how they were ahead of him.
It was the last question that seemed to stump them.
You see, Laird was not just good in 2022 – he was brilliant. And he has started this season out in much the same way. Whilst Connor Rozee (who did get that All-Australian blazer) had the most touches on the park, with 28, Laird’s 26 touches comprised of 11 clearances and 18 contested possessions. He also snagged a goal and a direct goal assist amongst his six score involvements.
If someone like Lachie Neale had a game like this, it’d be worth three votes, every single time. I’m not sure Laird gets the same automatic respect from the AFL Media, or the umpires, and it is a damn shame.
He was huge in this game, putting the team n his back at stoppages to clearly be the best clearance player on the park, and I reckon it’s about time Matthew Nicks and the Crows really started hammering home how bloody great their diminutive onballer is.
If they don’t do it, who will?
THAT KID FROM THE GOLD COAST
Would Izak Rankine be your All-Australian small forward at the moment?
He’d have to be close.
He started the game like a rocket. Matched up against Tom Jonas, in a move that surprised me, he was far too nimble and agile inside forward fifty, using a combination of speed and high Footy-IQ to find the footy and hit the scoreboard. All it took was for Jonas to ball watch for a moment and Rankine was off the races.
With two goals in the first quarter, Rankine announced that he was going to be a factor in this one. The sad thing was that everyone could see it, apparently. Except for Ken Hinkley.
Look, I don’t get the hate for Tom Jonas – he is an excellent defender and always gives his all. There have been games where he has held this Port defence together over the years when they’ve been under siege, but at 32 years old, it is ridiculous to think that he is going to be able to match it at ground level with a player like Rankine. He was set up to fail, and Rankine sensed it.
That matchup didn’t continue into the second half, but by that stage, Rankine was playing with confidence. He is the type of player that gets a good start and is up and about for the remainder of the game as a result. That was due to a poor coaching decision. The Power have players like Darcy Byrne-Jones hanging around in defence – why not put him on Rankine? How about Kane Farrell?
Jonas was a mismatch. If I know it, I am pretty sure Rankine became aware very quickly. His eyes would have lit up and the goals would have suddenly seemed larger. He was excellent in this one – 17 touches, eight score involvements and four goals is a day out for a small forward.
YOU DOWN WITH SPP?
Yeah, you know me!
No, I am not talking about other people’s… err, property (look it up, people). I’m talking about the bald bull from Port Adelaide that plays like every action he undertakes is the most important thing he’ll ever do on a footy field.
Sam Powell-Pepper is to Port Adelaide what Toby Greene is to GWS, or what Jordan de Goey is to Collingwood. I don’t mean the off-field stuff – frankly, I don’t care about most off-field stuff when it comes to footy – I mean the way he attacks the footy and can change the complection of a game with both his skills with the footy and his unabashed drive to get to the footy irrespective of who stands in his way.
SPP is a beast, and if there is a ball in dispute, you’d have to be either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid to situate yourself in his path and think nothing is going to happen. Powell-Pepper takes the most direct route to the ball, and if that means you have to be knocked out of his way, then so be it.
It’s crazy to think that just two seasons ago, there were many questions about his future at Port. He was the type of player that would slip in and out of games way too often, offering little in the way of consistency, but that seems to have changed quite dramatically. SPP is now (sorry Ryan Mathieson) the barometer of the Port Adelaide team. When he is up and running, the club grows another leg. When he is attacking the footy with reckless abandon, others follow suit.
Powell-Pepper has made the transformation from a sometimes maligned figure to a beloved talisman of the Power. With three goals and some wonderful attack son the footy, he was right up there with Port’s best for the game and we’re now getting to the stage where may just be Port’s most valuable player.
THE BAD
DBJ – IMPACT MINIMAL
I mentioned above about deploying someone to play on Izak Rankine who was a bit better suited to the role. How Ken Hinkley didn’t opt for his 2020 All-Australian to curtail the new Crow recruit astounds me.
I mean, it It’s not like Darcy Byrne-Jones is destroying teams from half-back with his disposals. As a matter of fact, if you can point out to me the last time he really took the game on and kicked his way successfully through traffic, I’d really appreciate it, because I cannot remember at all.
He seems to take the safest option, or simply jams the ball on his boot when in trouble. He rarely, if ever, takes the time to compose himself and make a challenging kick to open the game up, yet, there he is, every week, taking up a spot in the Port Adelaide defence like he is irreplaceable.
He’s not, and it is about time he started playing that way.
As a running half-back, DBJ should be cutting teams to shreds through the middle, but to see his 16 disposals result in just two score involvements is indicative of how damaging he… or in his case, he isn’t.
I’ve been ff DBJ for a while, now. Coming into this season, with several young Power players coming through the ranks, I wondered whether he’d even be in the best 23 at points. After watching him in this one, I cannot help but gravitate back to those thoughts. If he is not locking down on someone, he should be cutting them up on the rebound. He is doing neither. He’s just… there.
And anyone can just be there.
WHEN IS PLAY ON NOT PLAY ON?
The free kick awarded against Lachie Sholl for holding the ball in the side’s defensive fifty was a bit of a shocker from the umpire.
After taking a relieving mark, Sholl appeared to look sideways without ever leaving the line of the mark. The umpire called play on and Sam Powell-Pepper immediately wrapped him up in a tackle to win the free kick and slot the ensuing kick at goal.
I’m not quite sure the ump thought this one through.
Yes, Sholl looked sideways, but he did not take a step off his line, and Powell-Pepper was obviously inside the protected zone when the umpire decided that looking like you’re gonna play on is close enough to playing on in his book.
SPP jumped on Sholl immediately, who had no chance of getting rid of the footy, and won himself the free kick. Had it been in general play, I reckon that would have been a stoppage, but because Sholl had taken possession, it was deemed that he had prior opportunity.
It was a strange decision and had the Crows gone down in this one, I m sure it would have been a topic hotly discussed. That said, just because Adelaide won the game, that does not mean we should forget about it – these types of decisions impact the confidence of a young player, and I reckon Sholl struggled enough with that last season without a trigger-happy umpire making calls like that.
THE UGLY
JUNIOR RIOLI
I’m pretty sure this is not how Rioli imagined his first Showdown playing out.
Outclassed across the majority of the evening, Rioli was unable to impact the contest, save for one instance where he marked at fifty, and was permitted to waltz around Wayne Milera on the mark, as the defender failed to hear the umpire call “play on” and didn’t move until Rioli was almost past him.
Other than that moment, Rioli was barely sighted, but his worst moment came when he dropped an uncontested mark at attacking fifty, only to see the ball rebound the length of the field, where Rankine fed Lachie Murphy for goal.
In a nutshell, it was indicative of the impact the small forwards had in this game. At one end, you had Rankine, Rachele, and Murphy wreaking havoc around the footy. At the other, you had Rioli, Fantasia, and Lachie Jones looking as though they couldn’t get near it. The only shining light for Port, as covered above, was Sam Powell-Pepper, but when just one of your smaller forwards is finding the footy, it means that the defenders are able to one-off and aid their teammates more readily.
Junior Rioli was brought into this team impact games. He was brought in (on a reportedly fat contract) to stand up in big-game situations.
In this one, he didn’t step up – he stepped aside, and as he did, he opened the door for Adelaide to walk right on in and run away to a brilliant victory. He was not alone – not at all, but overall, his performance was close to the worst I’ve seen from him.
OTHER BITS
A quick assessment of Jason Horne-Francis’ game.
This is not a knock on him – I expect he will become a superb player over the coming years, however, there are points in games where he attempts to fend off or battle through traffic and he just doesn’t have the physical strength to do it successfully, just yet. Sometimes, yes… he can push his way through traffic, but right now it is as though he is attempting to play a game more suited to a six-year veteran than a second-year man. Once his body strength catches up with his will, he will be something to contend with, but until then, he may be well-served remembering he is only 19 (God help him…) and he won’t be able to brush off grown men at the top level all of the time.
I really love seeing Charlie Dixon attack the footy with two hands in marking contests. Sounds dumb to say that, I know, but the number of times I see him contest with one hand infuriates me, particularly if he is the one to first engage in contact and then he uses one mitt to try to mark the footy.
He was really solid in this one and threatened to be the difference, at stages. Jordan Butts has a bit of work to do in order to match it with Dixon going forward, as all Charlie needs against the Crows is semi-decent delivery and he can do some real damage.
Another captain’s knock from Jordan Dawson. He was fantastic early in the game and led the Crows’ charge after the Power kicked the first couple. He is emerging as a fantastic on-field leader. Was the wrong choice for the medal, though. Blind men could have selected a better option.
The collision between Todd Marshall and Max Michalanney was brutal, with the kid coming off second best. How great was it to see him get back on the park after a hit like that? Much respect to Max – that was gutsy AF.
Three goals to Luke Pedlar – great to see him playing good footy. He did cough at least one goal up at the other end (I have a feeling it may have been two but I cannot understand my own writing), but he is a hard nut who is now establishing himself as a weapon for the Crows, and the way he goes about it seems to fit with their combative nature.
I’m still really worried about the form of Xavier Duursma. Yes, we saw the bow and arrow celebration, which kind of felt like him saying “I’m back”, but we also saw him subbed out of the game, which was like Ken Hinkley saying “No… you’re not.”
My gut tells me something is up there, but I cannot quite put my finger on it.
A bit torn on the game of Jeremy Finlayson. I could see what he was trying to do early on, in taking his time, not being drawn into the frantic nature of the Showdown, but at the same time, I cannot help but feel that his play lacked the urgency that a game like this requires. I felt the same about Kane Farrell over the first quarter and a half, as well.
Sam Berry subbed out… he was struggling t get near the footy, but with nine tackles in a half, he was definitely not struggling in that area of the game.
And finally, a really solid game in the ruck from Reilly O’Brien. He is still a bit of a butterfingers at times, but he handled Scott Lycett well in this one, and emerged with the individual win
Overall, this was a brilliant win to the Crows, who could have given up the ghost on a couple of occasions. It showed true character. They get the visiting Dockers next week and if Freo are still struggling, they could all but end their finals dreams very early in the year.
As for Port, at 1-2, things are now looking a little dicey. Taking on the Swans at the SCG will be a huge task. I was very wary of their first five games this season as it was a tough run. I thought a 3-2 result would be ideal, with 2-3 being more likely… going down 1-3 would be very unsettling for Hinkley.
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