Well – that was a tough watch. “Super Saturday” on Fox Footy was certainly not so super this weekend!
The Geelong v Suns game had excuses given the rain that hit Geelong before and during the match, and while it was cold in Canberra last night, there were no other excuses for the dour and uninspiring football that was on display. Many pundits (myself included) had at least one, if not both, of these teams playing finals this season but both of these teams need massive improvement if they are to feature in September.
Apologies that this review is a bit later than normal. I normally send in my review a couple of hours after a game, but full disclosure – this one was so boring that I actually fell asleep at some point in the second quarter, so I had to get myself up this morning and watch the replay in order to review this snooze-fest.
The game started with a goal to Willie Rioli who was left all alone after an errant kick from D50 by Buckley was cut off. The next five minutes provided turnover after turnover between the arcs before Rozee got Port’s second courtesy of a dubious 50m penalty, and the Power had two goals with the Giants yet to trouble the scorers. Riccardi then won the “Rucklotto” and converted after a free kick to get the Giants on the board. After some more turnovers – largely with the last kick into the forward 50, Riccardi won a free kick and Hogan took the advantage roving the spoiled mark to soccer the Giants second goal of the game and level up the scores with seven minutes to go in the quarter. The rest of the quarter played out in much the same fashion with 1 more goal apiece – the highlight being a great contested mark from Cadman for GWS’ third goal.
Both teams would go into the quarter time break with three goals apiece (and over 20 turnovers each) and little did I know that this would actually be the highest scoring quarter for the game!
The second quarter saw GWS kick three goals, and Port kick two, including Hugh Jackson’s first ever goal in the AFL for Port Adelaide in just his second game, this quarter played out very similarly to the first albeit with a bit more pressure between the arcs turning it into something of an arm wrestle. Toby Greene amazingly stayed on the field for the entire second quarter even though he could barely move after copping a knee to the hip in a marking contest with Allir Allir in the first quarter – but more on that later.
The third quarter was arguably the worst of the game with one goal for the entire quarter to Port Adelaide after Georgiades, who had been absolutely spanked by Sam Taylor, found himself on Leek Aleer and managed to snag what would be his only goal for the game five minutes in. The rest of the quarter saw three behinds for Port, and GWS did not trouble the scorers once. The pressure from both teams was really good – which ironically lead to a really bad game of footy.
At this point I was beginning to think my nap last night was justified, and although well rested, I was almost lulled into another slumber during the third. You could say that Port really had the upper hand in this quarter, but for all of that they managed one goal and held a slender seven point lead going into the last.
Despite knowing the final outcome this morning, I couldn’t help but get excited when Jesse Hogan scored the Giants first goal in what felt like hours with a great snap to make it one point the difference.
Was this the Giants coming back against a Port team who had barely won a last quarter this season? The crowd certainly livened up a little for a couple of minutes – before another 15 minutes passed by and Whitfield uncharacteristically turned the ball over, leading to Moraes who started as the sub slotting his first ever goal to give Port a seven-point lead and me brief respite from what I’m sure was the longest 15 minutes of my life to date.
Given that the Giants had managed 2 scoring shots since halftime, you felt that 7 points might be enough and so it turned out. The Giants would manage a couple more behinds for the game, while Port would go on to add two more goals through Wines and Richards to run out 16 point winners and record just their 5th win of the season.
So what were the subplots in this one, and where does this leave both teams? Let’s have a look:
Toby Greene:
I guess this is not so much about Toby Greene, but more about the Giants and potentially their medical team and a couple of decisions they made in this one.
Is Brent Daniels fit? He certainly didn’t seem to be underdone after coming on at halftime. So if he is fit, why did he not start? If he is not fit, why was he the sub? Why not bring him back through the VFL to get some match fitness into him?
These are the questions I was asking myself as I watched Toby Greene limp around in the second quarter.
See, Greene had been largely ineffectual before he copped Allir’s knee to his hip late in the first, with Bergman following him everywhere and doing a pretty good job of keeping him quiet.
In a forward line that was already not functioning, why you would choose to leave a one-legged Greene on the field for a whole quarter, when you have the option to bring on Daniels had me baffled.
If Daniels was deemed not fit enough to play three quarters, why was he even sub? If he was fit enough, then why was Greene out there for a quarter longer than he should have been?
In a game dominated by defence, where both forward lines really struggled to find avenues to goal, Greene’s ability to create was sorely missed by the Giants, but Daniels would have surely offered more than Toby did limping around the joint in the second quarter.
It just made no sense to me.
The Orange wall:
You’ll hear the term “Orange Tsunami” on the reg from AFL commentators, and it never got going in this one. However there certainly was an “orange wall”, particularly in the first quarter.
HB penned an article earlier this week about the best defensive trios in the game currently. He had GWS second in the league with the two Lachie’s (Ash and Whitfield) and Sam Taylor. But he also mentioned Buckley and Idun, and even Bedford make up this impressive defensive unit.
Bedford was largely ineffectual as a tagger today, spending time between Rozee and Butters and shutting neither down, but the work of the other GWS defenders was elite in this game.
I noted at the end of the first quarter that Buckley and Taylor had five intercept possessions each and they were a huge reason for the early part of this snooze-fest. Not to say that is a bad thing for them, but whether it was Port using the ball poorly, or Taylor and Buckley just reading the ball better than Georgiades or Finlayson, every foray forward from Port seemed to end in the hands of either Buckley or Taylor.
Buckley was so good at intercept marking v Finlayson in that first quarter that you could have been mistaken for thinking he was the leading forward!
These two would finish the game with a whopping 26 intercept possessions between them, with Lachie Ash adding 8 to aid the cause. Taylor also had the most contested marks in this match with four.
Remember the days when key forwards regularly won the contested marks in a match? I kind of miss those days sometimes, but such was the quality of Taylor and Buckley today that not too many forwards would have been outmarking them.
It was kind of like what came first today – the chicken or the egg? Were the Port forwards (and the midfield kicking it to them) that bad, or were Taylor and co that good?
Zak Butters:
What a game from Butters!
With 32 disposals (21 contested) , 7 tackles and 12 clearances he lead this Port team through the middle all night. He just refused to give up on any contest, any loose ball, any tackle!
While you could look at the stats and assume that Tom Greene from GWS had a similar game – he just did not have the type of impact that Butters had.
Butters hits contests at 100 miles an hour, there is no backwards step. Whether he is hunting a player or the ball he knows only one way and one speed. And when he wins the ball it is that speed that allows him the time and space to use the ball effectively.
He often “jukes” opponents, a little half step to the right or left to send his opponent the wrong way before turning the other way and accelerating away to clear space.
As Pies man, he kind of reminds me of a mix between Pendles and Nick Daicos, only harder. That’s not to say that Pendles or Daicos are soft, but Butters attacks contests with reckless abandon – just ask the AFL coffers that he has donated significantly to over his career! He can put on a sidestep and find space just as well as Pendles can, but he also has that acceleration through his first few steps that Nick Daicos has. This means he can create space, but then accelerate into that space and away from his flat-footed oppoenent.
And while all of that is great, what impressed me most today was a contest out on the wing, where the ball was in dispute and there was Butters, basically by himself with four or five GWS players in the camera shot. GWS eventually got possession and started handballing it around to get one of them open, and each one of them were put under pressure by Butters – he refused to give up, even in chasing the last player in the chain where you could see he was knackered, he put the head down, took a deep breath and charged at the player with the ball to impact the kick into 50.
I’ve always known he was a good player Butters, but I’ve never really watched him as closely as I did in this one, and it’s fair to say I’m now a fan.
Other stuff:
Interesting ruck battle with two rookie ruckman. You don’t see that too often and they were probably both a bit lucky to not be coming up against more established players. Both played really well and had Visentini converted the couple of shots he had on goal I would probably have given him the chocolates, but instead it was probably a bit of a draw between the two.
Good to see Kane Farrell back for Port Adelaide. I think it is underestimated how much drive Farrell offers this Port side from half back, particularly after they lost Houston in the off-season.
Miles Bergman played a pretty good today following first Greene, then Daniels wherever they went. This meant he spent a bit of time on the midfield and didn’t look out of place. Is there a future for him in there? With Wines’ health a little bit in question, and Boak being around since the Jurassic age, perhaps Bergman gets a chance through the midfield in the coming weeks?
And that’s about it for this one – it really was a tough watch!
On this evidence, I don’t think either of these teams will be playing finals. I don’t think I had Port in my top 8 pre-season anyway, as once they announced a succession plan I knew it would all be downhill, because they always go well, right?
Giants on the other hand I had in the top 4, along with many of us, and their season has been a little disappointing to date. Truth be told it was their defence that kept them in with a chance at this one, but their midfield was well and truly owned by Port’s, and their forwards could not really get a sniff.
The Giants are off to Brisbane to play the Lions, and honestly I don’t see how they win that, particularly if Greene can’t get up in time. Port get Melbourne at home which is an interesting game as both teams are capable of turning it on, but also both teams are capable of being absolute dogshit! I’ll go Port for that one just because it is in Adelaide.
Apologies again to all for the lateness of this review, but if you had the misfortune to watch that entire game I’m sure you will understand.
