The final game of Round 18 saw bottom-placed West Coast Eagles taking on a wounded Port Adelaide lineup.
Last week, the Power lost three players, in Sam Powell-Pepper, Esava Ratugolea, and Dante Visenti. The Eagles have been shattered by injury, as well. They’ve lost several top-line players over the course of the season, including Jeremy McGovern and Dom Sheed to retirement, and Elliot Yeo to a long-term injury. They come into the game bolted to the bottom of the table with only one win, and they currently sit three games behind the rest of the pack.
Blow-by-Blow
Realistically, with both teams essentially out of top-eight contention, a win is largely meaningless, even though in Port Adelaide’d case, it would move them into tenth spot on the ladder.
Mitch Georgiades opened the scoring for the Power only a minute into the game. Port’s lead only lasted a few minutes before Bailey Williams evened the score for the Eagles. The Eagles then kicked their second goal of the game a few minutes later through Tyler Dewar after he intercepted a short kick from Brandon Zerk-Thatcher.
The Eagles then kicked their third, after Jack Williams was able to sneak behind Aliir Aliir. Jamie Cripps appeared to kick the Eagles’ fourth goal straight, but it was overturned on review. However, the Eagles kicked their actual fourth goal moments later through Tyler Brockman.
There were alarm bells ringing for Port, as the Eagles looked to be playing their best footy of the year.
Miles Bergman finally managed to kick Port’s second goal of the game after taking an uncontested mark in the forward 50, and converting the subsequent set shot. The Eagles then got several opportunities with Harley Reid, eventually converting a snap from about 30 metres out. The Eagles’ lead then grew to 25 points just before the siren, with Matt Flynn taking a mark in the goal square.
Port Adelaide were the first to score in the second quarter, with Joe Richards kicking Port’s third, to cut the margin to 19 points. A few minutes later, Georgiades had a chance to kick his second and cut the margin further, but he was pushed as he kicked, resulting in his shot skidding through for a behind.
Liam Baker finally kicked the Eagles’ first goal of the second quarter after they had a sustained period of attack without scoring a single behind. The two teams then traded behinds until Mitch Georgiades became the first multiple goalscorer of the game with his second. Port then kicked another through Darcy Byrne-Jones, which cut the margin down to 12 points. The teams then traded behind for the final five minutes of the half, which saw the Eagles run into halftime with an 11-point lead.
Jason Horne-Francis then halved the margin at the start of the second half, kicking a quick goal from the first centre clearance. However, Jack Williams was able to restore the margin out to 11 points after taking a strong contested mark. Port missed multiple opportunities to reduce the margin as well, before Richards kicked his second goal to cut the margin to just three points.
The natives were getting restless.
Port had opportunities to regain the lead in the third quarter but squandered multiple opportunities. After a sustained period of Port attack, the Eagles were able to break to the other end, with Jobe Shanahan kicking a behind and a goal within 90 seconds to give the Eagles a seven-point buffer. This was cut back to six with Joe Richards missing a gettable set shot late in the quarter.
Finally, early in the fourth quarter, Darcy Byrne-Jones was able to kick Port into the lead. With seven minutes remaining, Horne-Francis then kicked a dribbler that somehow avoided Harry Edwards, before Mitch Georgiades kicked his third of the game to seal the result for Port Adelaide.
Horne-Francis then burst away from the stoppage to kick his third goal of the game to extend Port’s lead to 26 points. This would remain the final margin as time expired.
Horne-Francis and Reid go head-to-head
It’s not often that two former number one picks go head-to-head in such a physical encounter, however, that is exactly what we got when West Coast’s Harley Reid squared off with Jason Horne-Franics. And it was Horne-Franics who came away with the points in the battle.
While Horne-Francis was instrumental for his side, gathering 27 possessions and kicking three goals, Reid did his best to get the Eagles over the line with 27 possessions and a goal for the game. Unfortunately for Reid, there just wasn’t enough help around him, compared to Horne-Francis, who was ably assisted by Zak Butters in the middle.
Reid has really worked into some form in the second half of the year, and is still very aggressive at the contest and the player. He and Horne-Francis have several similarities, and it will be interesting to see what type of players they develop into over the next few years.
Two bulls in a paddock for the next ten years?
Sounds like a matchup to keep an eye on.
More Pain for Port
Last week, Port had multiple players suffer significant injuries. This week, it was Conor Rozee who was subbed out of the game in the third quarter after he dislocated his finger. While it isn’t the same injuries that the team suffered last week, Rozee looked like he was in significant discomfort at the end of the game.
Rozee wasn’t the only Port player to experience discomfort during the game. Key defender Aliir Aliir had his knee heavily strapped heading into the game and wasn’t his usual spritely self around the ground, hobbling and limping off the park after Harley Reid landed on his bad knee.
No ordinary Joe
We tend to get caught up in the big-name recruits at the end of the year, but the Power’s acquisition of Joe Richards may be one that reaps rewards for years on end.
He was excellent in this game, and could have ended up with a handful of goals. He had to settle for 2.3 for the afternoon, but when you get your high half-forward kicking goals, and applying pressure like he did inside 50, you start to realise that Port picked a bit of a winner, here.
18 goals for the year now, and with him developing more consistency in terms of finding the footy, he is one of the more underrated recruits of the season.
Positive Signs for the Eagles
Despite ultimately losing the game, there were undoubtedly positive signs for the young Eagles side. Coming up against a team that has played in the finals, the Eagles led the contest for most of the game and were only overrun in the final quarter when they had run out of legs.
The Eagles played a high-intensity game, almost matching the more fancied Port Adelaide players with their attack on the ball and player. Despite a significant disadvantage in experience, the Eagles only ended up with 19 fewer contested possessions than Port, and only six fewer tackles. These numbers would be pleasing to Andrew McQualter, who would be neck deep in planning for the next couple of years. To see what he has at his disposal right now, and who is willing to do the hard stuff when the chips are down, would give him a great indication of who will still be at the club when West Coast begins to ascend the ladder once more.
However, the biggest issue for the Eagles during the game was how often they struggled to get the ball out of the centre against Port’s midfield. Port Adelaide had more than twice the number of clearances as the Eagles had for the game, largely led by the likes of Zak Butters and Jason Horne-Francis.
A fit Elliot Yeo might have made a big difference, as could Jack Graham, but he was on the sidelines due to an incident that came to light recently.
Relentless
What is the value of Zak Butters?
Is it his maniacal attack on the footy? Is it his courage?
Or is it the way he brings others into the game? I gravitate toward this one, as when Butters is “on”, the entire team lifts around him.
Butters picked up 37 touches to lead all players in this game, and unlike so many “accumulators”, he is the type to take the game on, rather than picking up cheap touches as the ball is switched. With seven inside 50s, Butters was once again integral to ensuring Port rallied past the Eagles and picked up the four points.
Really, he is one of the most enjoyable players in the league to watch.
The month ahead
Port Adelaide heads to Tasmania next week to take on the Hawks in a stiff challenge for the Power. The Hawks have lost only one of their four games at the University of Tasmania Stadium this season, and have only lost two games at the venue in the last three years. Of course, Port handled them with ease earlier in the season, so Hinkley and his charges will be pretty confident that they have the Hawks’ number.
Port then returns home for Showdown 58 in Round 20, and will face off against Geelong at GMHBA Stadium in Round 21, before ending the next month back at Adelaide Oval, where they will face off against the Fremantle Dockers.
For the West Coast, they face off against 17th-placed Richmond next week. If the Eagles cannot beat the Tigers, they are almost guaranteed to finish last this season, as it will see them fall four games back with five games remaining. They will then return to Perth for the Western Derby in Round 20.
In Round 21, West Coast heads to Marvel Stadium to face off against Melbourne before rounding off the next month back in Perth against Adelaide. West Coast have won just one game so far this season, but will have a chance to add to that against Richmond and Melbourne in the next month.
