In a five-goal blast to end the second term, Port Adelaide stood up to the Essendon aggression, dragged them to an edge of their own, and knocked them over it. From there, the Power dominated the Bombers, cruising to a 69-point win in the game many viewed as the main event of Gather Round.
Both clubs brought the heat early on, and we looked poised to see a game befitting the prime-time Friday night slot, but the class of the Port Adelaide midfield quickly came to the fore, providing Port with a huge advantage at centre clearances (+13), and combined with a defence that shut down the best of the Essendon forwards, it became a walk in the park for Ken Hinkley’s men.
And a walk in the park is a good way to describe it, as Connor Rozee ran riot through the first half, walking, dancing, and sidestepping his way through whatever the Bombers could throw at him. He kicked three goals to go along with his 20 first-half touches. From there, it became a three-man show, with Jason Horne-Francis and Zak Butters both taking their turns in the Gather Round spotlight.
As Port blew the game wide open in the third quarter, the trio combined for 29 disposals, as they were harder and faster than their Essendon counterparts. The way they were able to simply run through the Bombers’ attempted tackles was ridiculous. One of the commentators mentioned it was “the future” of the Port Adelaide Football Club.
No, no, no. Not the future.
This is the current state of the Power. This is right now, and this display should be enough to put the fear of the football gods into teams, as these blokes have not yet hit top gear.
But enough about them in the preamble. Let’s jump into The Mongrel’s Big Statements.
And to celebrate Gather Round, this one is staying open for all. No paywall.
SHOWING THE OLD MOB WHAT THEY MISSED
Oh, you thought I’d start with the three blokes in the middle who will feature heavily in every single match report you read?
Yeah, I could have, but then, I would be just like every other match report you read, and I know you come here for something a little different, so we’ll start with the job Brandon Zerk-Thatcher did on Kyle Langford in this game.
BZT was phenomenal, and continues his excellent start to life in Port colours. Last season, Langford had games where he continually bobbed up, slotted important goals, and put the Essendon forward line on his back. Playing as the deepest forward in this game, he immediately became the primary focus of Zerk-Thatcher, and the recruit was right up for it.
I don’t think we’re going to see much written about the game of BZerk – defenders who defend first are not sexy enough to sell newspapers or generate clicks for sites with advertisers to satisfy, but far out, we need to look at what Kyle Langford was able to do in this game in order to appreciate Zerk-Thatcher’s effectiveness.
Prior to this game, Langford had eight goals in 2024. He remains on that number following this one, as Zerk-Thatcher flat out refused to allow Langford room to move. The last time he was held goalless was Round Seven last season, so it has been close to a year since Langford has been silenced for an entire game.
BZerk was all over him, attacking the contest and backing his judgement, leaving Langford looking slow and a little bit lazy as he waited for the ball to come out the back too often. It’s great when it works – easy goals follow – but when it doesn’t, the lack of forward fifty pressure allows an easy exit for the opposition.
In other games where Langford has been restricted to single-digit disposals, he has still managed to slot at least one goal.
Not in this one.
So complete was Zerk-Thatcher’s job on his former teammate, that close watchers and those appreciative of a great defensive effort would be tempted to bump one of the big three out of the votes and insert him into the top players on the park. I am certainly tempted, and I am sure that Zerk-Thatcher will feature heavily in the scoring in our Defensive Player of the Year Award this week.
His stats are nothing to write home about – ten disposals, six marks, four intercepts, and three one-percenters. Stat heads will likely skip over his game, but they’re missing out. This was a brilliant outing from the former Bomber, and one that would have had many Essendon supporters wondering why they didn’t try just that bit harder to hold onto him.
A McKay/Zerk-Thatcher combination would be wonderful… but an Aliir/Zerk-Thatcher/Ratugolea combination might just be better, still.
At this stage of the season, and yes, I know it is very early, Zerk-Thatcher would have to be in contention for an All-Australian spot. And if he is not in the conversation, are the selectors even watching Port games?
ROZEE BRILLIANCE
Okay, time to get onto the star of the show, and as much as I liked the game of Jason Horne-Francis, the Port Adelaide captain was the one that got his team up and going when it mattered.
Three goals and 20 touches in the first half hammered home just what a special talent Connor Rozee is.
That’s not exactly a surprise to anyone – he has had the makings of a genuine superstar of the game since his third game, when he slotted five goals to make the footy world sit up and take notice. However, this game was something else.
Club captains have moments where they stand up and make everyone realise why they were appointed the leader of their club. Some thought it may have been Zak Butters that was a better fit at Port, and I can see why, but when you watch Rozee play like this, breaking lines, tackles, and hearts with his run and carry, precision kicking, and scoring power, you soon come to realise that Port made the right choice.
And the reason they made the right choice was emphasised when Andrew McGrath laid a bump on Rozee in the third quarter. He was dropped right on his backside, but bounced back up and was soon back in the fray. Moments later, Rozee declined the opportunity to even up as McGrath found himself wide open whilst chasing the footy – he is much more valuable on the field than sitting on the sidelines for lining someone up as a retaliation.
As Rozee steamed out of the middle in the last quarter, took the game on and went for home, I have to admit, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I was barracking for him to kick his forth and bring the house down. It was the type of play that makes a player special. We saw it from him, Horne-Francis, and Butters in this game at separate times, and every time it occurs, you have a little shake of the head and wonder just how long this Port Adelaide team is going to be near the top of the AFL Ladder.
With Rozee leading the way, and ample backup in JHF and Butters, the nucleus is there – this is a premiership midfield waiting to happen, and in my mind, I am wondering “when”… not “if”.
THE DIFFERENCE 12 MONTHS CAN MAKE
There are a couple of points I wanted to touch on when it came to the game of Jason Horne-Francis.
Last season, he gave away the most free kicks in the league. This was largely due to attempting to break every tackle that was laid on him, and often coming up short. JHF is a bull, but he is a young bull. Amazingly, using the power of mathematics, I am able to deduce that he was even younger this time last year!
And when you’re a 19-year-old kid trying to shrug off the tackles of seasoned AFL footballers, chances are it’s not going to end well for you.
And it didn’t, with Horne-Francis thrashing around whilst being tackled, and being pinged for holding the ball when he couldn’t break through.
But this season, things have started a little differently. Not only is he smashing through tackles that may have held him up last season, he is changing direction and taking off, leaving those opponents standing there wondering what the hell went wrong with their tackling techniques.
Watching him crash and bash through packs, win the footy, and take off was a genuine highlight of this game, and something the Power missed last week. As good as Ollie Wines is (and he is not the player he was a few years ago), Jason Horne-Francis adds something to this Port team that Ollie doesn’t. JHF adds absolute mongrel.
He will fight, throw himself sideways, and swing his body around to ride out a tackle and continue on his merry way with the footy under his wing.
He finished this game with a game-high ten clearances. This included seven centre bounce clearances, as he had his way with an Essendon midfield who were just a step slower, and a step below the level of the Port Adelaide on-ballers.
The other aspect of his game that I loved was the way he was able to release players in better position, often resulting in forward forays with meaning.
In Thursday night’s game, I was critical of the role Matt Crouch played. He gets his hands on the footy, but his instinct to go backwards and sideways often impeded the progress of his team. Horne-Franics is the opposite. He extracts the footy and delivers it to players in a position to go forward with it.
At one point in the third, he won a centre clearance, worked the footy out to the far side of the centre, and gave off to a running and open Zak Butters after distancing himself from his direct opponent, and drawing Butters’ opponent to him. It gave Butters a clear lane to dart forward.
Had that been Matt Crouch, he would have given the footy to Butters way before and the Bombers would have hemmed him into the back of the centre square. As Jeremy Finlayson kicked the goal to cap the play off, I imagined where the Crows would be in the same position – stuck, chipping the ball around half-back and wing, wasting an opportunity.
It’s what separates a meaningful stoppage player like JHF from blokes who do little with the footy, like Crouch, or in this case, Darcy Parish.
Whack, huh?
Tell me I’m wrong.
THE THIRD-QUARTER SPECIALIST
There is no show without Zak Butters. He simply refuses to be left out.
However, it really took until the third quarter for Butters to exert significant influence in this game. I’ll risk being Mr Unpopular, here, but I thought he was ordinary in the first quarter, trying to be a little too cute with his use of the footy at a time in the game where the pressure was high.
I should elaborate on that statement.
Butters loves the quick gives and little chips that break a game open, but when the opposition are fresh, the margin for error with those possessions is really small, and when you’re trying to thread the needle with pinpoint handballs or chip kicks in traffic, things can come undone really quickly.
And they came undone a couple of times for Butters in the first quarter. One of them saw a goal float back over his head as a result of a miskick through the middle.
The scoreboard may not suggest it, but the Bombers were up for the fight early on. Their pressure game was ticking along, and perhaps they should have led at quarter time, with Port’s accuracy the only thing separating the teams. Whenever Butters tried something cute, the Bombers were onto it.
Of course, that all changed after halftime, as we knew it would. Fatigue kills defensive structures.
It is a rarity that teams attack the second half with the same vigour they do the opening bounce. There is almost a lull in the game that players can take advantage of.
Port did, and before we knew it, the margin was ballooning, and Butters seized the opportunity to strike. He had nine touches in the third, zipping in and out of places the Bombers didn’t even know existed, as he started to set up running plays with deft tap ons and creative handballs. It was the style he wanted to play earlier, but was brought undone. With Essendon starting to tire, it opened the door for him to play his natural game once again.
He finished with three direct goal assists, the best of which coming in the fourth quarter as he hit the pack at pace and fed a lovely handball to Darcy Byrne-Jones for his third goal. With 26 touches, seven tackles, and five clearances, he more than redeemed his “too cute” first quarter with almost the perfect combination of class and aggression after the main break.
With Butters, Rozee, and Horne-Francis all strutting their stuff, the Bombers reminded me of Leslie Nielsen in one of The Naked Gun movies. Even if you managed to stop two of the hands slapping you right in the face, a third one would come out of nowhere and leave you wondering what the hell hit you.
HOLDING HIS HEAD HIGH
At one end, you had Brandan Zerk-Thatcher turning heads, and at the other, it was the Bombers’ big name recruit, Ben McKay doing the same.
McKay got the unenviable job of putting the brakes on Charlie Dixon – a challenging prospect in a game where you lose by close to 70 points. However, McKay was strong in the contest all game, regularly outpointing Dixon inside 50 to end up with 14 intercepts and seven one-percenters.
Dixon still managed to glove four contested marks for the contest, but with just two disposals coming inside attacking 50, it was the work of McKay in the most dangerous area on the ground that made him stand out for the Bombers.
Essendon are really missing Jordan Ridley back there, as he gives them a good intercepting presence that can also come in over the top and kill a contest when required. He’ll be out longer than expected though, after re-injuring his quad this week. A healthy Zach Reid to help out would be nice, as well. Without them, it really felt as though McKay was a lone-hand in defence.
THE WILLIE RIOLI WE’VE BEEN WAITING FOR?
How dangerous did this bloke look in this game?
Every time he touched it, whether it was on the half-volley, followed by twisting and turning to lose his direct opponent, or off the hands of the pack, Rioli looked like a threat to score.
He is never going to be the type of player that goes out there, picks up 20+ disposals and covers a lot of ground – the bloke may cark it if he has to run that hard – but in a game with limited opportunities, a player like Willie can make them really count.
He kicked three in this one, added a goal assist, and even got a bit excited at one point and laid a tackle inside 50!
I know, right? What’s got into him?
Alas, he still managed to give away four free kicks, which in the context of this game isn’t too bad, but in a closer game… you’d probably want to see a little more discipline from him.
NOT SOLDO ON THE ESSENDON RUCK PAIR
I found it interesting that one of the talking heads in the booth mentioned that Ivan Soldo got whacked by Max Gawn last week. I genuinely thought Ivan did relatively well for the majority of the game, but Max got away from him for two minutes late in the third quarter to swing the momentum.
Anyway, that matters not, as he found himself matched up against the two-headed ruck combination of the Bombers, in Todd Goldstein and Sam Draper.
And what did we see in this one?
Well, we saw Soldo push hard forward, slotting a goal to go with his ten disposals and 23 hit outs. And we saw the combination of Draper and Goldy not really work, at all.
Yeah, they combined for 34 hit outs, but were any of them more effective than Soldo’s to open up space for the Port mids? I bloody doubt it!
When you consider that Soldo was forced to go it virtually alone (Jeremy Finlayson had a total of zero hit outs from his 12 ruck contests), you’d have to give the points to the former Tiger. He has really slotted in well for the Power, and even looks like he could be Lachie Jones’ dad!
Lachie – “Ivan, can I grow my hair and moustache like you?”
Ivan – “If you must.”
Lachie – “Can I call you dad?”
Ivan – “Yes… junior.”
Maybe Dad can sit down and have a chat with Lachie about some of his errors? I like that he is hard at it, but he does undo a but of his hard-working here and there.
QUICKIES
Well, last week, I gave Andy McGrath a nice little wrap up for his ball use against the Saints. This week, he kicked like a mule, with two of his shitty inboard kicks failing to hit targets and leading to goals on the turnover. After such a big week in Round Three, to see him have six turnovers from 16 disposals… disappointing.
I suppose he had a few mates – Mason Redman looks like he is suffering from Samson Syndrome. Brad Scott should buy the bloke a wig and tell him to start playing hard footy again.
A nice return for Mitch Georgiades, who just looks like such a natural footballer to me. Two goals from 15 touches and eight marks… not a bad way to reintroduce yourself to senior footy. The win makes it a little sweeter, as well.
Loved the game of Darcy Byrne-Jones. He kind of looks like one of your Nana’s uglier friends with that hairstyle, but far out, he works hard across half-forward, applies pressure, and then runs back toward goal at breakneck speed. Players like him make a huge difference in the way a team can trap a ball in their half of the ground.
Jade Gresham could have had four goals to halftime had things gone a little differently. He certainly looked like the most dangerous option the Bombers had when the ball hit the deck. They’d really be hoping that Jayden Davey starts to push his way into the senior side sooner rather than later. They need a genuine small forward.
Mentioned the pace of the Port midfield. It really showed up players like Will Setterfield, Jye Caldwell, and Darcy Parish. None of them could match it with any of the Port runners on the outside and were often left in their dust.
Speaking of Parish, I mentioned Matt Crouch as an ineffective accumulator, above. Throw Parish’s game into the mix with him when we talk about this contest. 21 touches, two clearances, just 54 metres gained (that’s 2.6 metres per possession), and bugger all impact.
And a hammy for Archie Perkins? He was one of the players that looked up and about in the preseason. And now… we await the scans to tell us how long he’ll be out.
Ditto for Travis Boak, who was subbed out of the game and looked pretty uncomfortable. I feel like we’re seeing the changing of the guard at Port, and I am not sure about Boak in this team, particularly on the wing. The role does not suit his style.
And one more positive for Essendon to finish up. It’s the second week in a row Xavier Duursma has looked settled on the wing. He is not dominant by a long stretch, but he’s doing the work and is starting to look like he belongs, which is something he didn’t really look like his last two years at Port. A decent outing from him.
IN SUMMARY
A solid start, with both teams testing each other. One passed. The other failed miserably.
The Essendon Edge is over and done with – they were beaten by a harder team in this one; one that stood toe-to-toe with them and refused to back down.
If Port can get Marshall and Dixon marking inside fifty a little more often, then this team is formidable. Their defence is sorted, their midfield is high-quality, and their role players are very polished. Now, they just need big clunks on the bail out kicks and they’ll be very tough to stop.
Massive thanks to those who support this work. This is the only review of mine that will remain open this weekend. All others will be behind the dreaded Mongrel Paywall. If you enjoyed this, please consider becoming a member to access all my reviews and standalone articles through the weekend, week, and the entire season. Cheers – HB.
Like this content? You could buy me a coffee – I do like coffee, but there is no guarantee I won’t use it to buy a doughnut… I like them more. And I am not brought to you by Sportsbet or Ladbrokes… or Bet365, or any of them.
