BACK TO BEDLAM
Oh, no. Not again.
You could almost feel it, the souls of thousands of Eagles fans once again dying a little as Jack Whitlock kicked truly. A quarter of the way through a single quarter, it was 25 to zero. Port had kicked a goal before West Coast had touched it. When they did, their first real disposal went sailing out of bounds, one of way too many lasso frees they’d given away. Port players had more space around them than the average scarecrow, the Eagles were lucky if their dump kicks took a bounce before inevitably being hoovered up by an opponent and sent right back into the fray.
There was no strategy, seemingly no plan. Hell, even their first score came almost entirely by accident, a typical Reid stoppage clearance, it pinballs to Waterman who wheels around with an hour of free time. He misses, and it looked like the start of an utterly, utterly miserable two hours for the long-suffering devotees of the West.
Then the Eagles decided to change how they moved the ball. Obviously seeing that their bomb-it-and-hope strategy to the wings was paying off like an empty pokie machine with the plug pulled,they attacked the corridor on counters and it rewarded them with a Bo Allan goal very much against the grain.
It was so successful, they forgot to do it again for about an hour. Ex-Crow Harry Schoenberg brought some Showdown energy to the game and had some nice involvements that helped the Eagles begin to compete, but the real issues were in the back half. The amount of hopelessly faint-hearted turnovers in the back half really was unforgivable, with Lukosius and Georgiades dominating their contests against Young and whoever else drew the short straw of being an Eagles key back. I know it was Reuben Ginbey… I just didn’t want you thinking I was a West Coast fanboy. Occasionally, West Coast would win an aerial contest, bring it to ground where their crumbing was at least on-par, but then a rushed dump kick would simply see it in Port hands again, where their run scattered the Eagles like pigeons.
THE GREATEST YEOMAN
If Elliot Yeo was rolling the dice at a big-money table, he wouldn’t even roll snake eyes – one of the dice would simply turn blank and the other would ricochet into his eye, that’s how unlucky he is. To say the Eagles need him to perform is like saying you need a second leg to get around, and yet that leg has been injured for quite some time. Well, groin, mainly, but you get the idea.
So to see him kick the Eagles’ first goal must have been a huge lift for the side, even if the six points came accidentally as the big E absolutely looked like he’d missed the pass to Waterman in the hotspot.
Whatever.
He’d come to party and in the second, he began to lead a comeback attempt. The margin had blown out to 29 thanks to Butters dominating the midfield and Georgiades outpacing the defence, as per. The defence wasn’t holding up, especially as they parted like the Red Sea to allow Moses Durdin a startlingly easy path to goal.
But Yeo and Schoenberg showed cleverness with deft kicks, Schoey setting up two goals. These majors changed something – the Eagles began to use the corridor a bit more, they really began to pressure the disposal of Port’s runners who, up to that point, even had time to mop up fumbles without the slightest worry. Jack Graham typefied this, earning a holding the ball free that he converted into six handy points. This was a huge lift and from here, the pressuring intensity spread to the midfield. Liam Baker began messing with the timing of entering the stoppage, scattering Port’s structure and allowing Tim Kelly and Willem Duursma to pile on the clearances around the ground. Yeo set up seven points off some pinpoint passing, which should have been twelve if not for Waterman continuing to have the yips.
Port’s disposal was still far cleaner, make no mistake, but their strength had been in using open space to move the ball quickly and without pressure. As the Eagles tightened the amount of time ballcarriers had, Port’s disposal gradually got worse – it felt like watching their first match against the Kangaroos all over again.
Their forward delivery had been high and generally favoured the strong hands of Luko and MG but with that bit more pressure on that linking kick, the targeting of their big men was less precise which gave the time needed for Young and Ginbey to make impacts. As if to underline this, a hurried rebound kick in the looming shadow of half-time was cut off by Yeo at full speed. He speared the ball to Waterman whose long range bomb was on target for once to that point, cutting the gap at the break to eight…with a caveat. This effort was seemingly too much for the Yeoman, who was withdrawn from the game from that point due to a strain to his oft-troubled groin.
If West Coast wanted to win this one, they’d have to do it without their barometer.
REID ALL ABOUT IT
As if to underscore the mammoth task ahead of them, the Eagles conceded a goal within the opening 40 seconds of the second half. They needed someone to step in and fill in Yeo’s shoes, to be that hard-in midfielder with grunt, grit and tenacity.
It was time for Harley Reid.
And what better way for him to stamp his authority on the game than with some good, old-fashioned…let’s charitably call it gamesmanship. Channelling Stuart Broad as the Eagles got the next centre clearance (a much more fumble-filled effort than Port’s), he claimed a bump ball as a mark despite an acting performance worthy of Sofia Coppola. He then drew a 50m penalty as young Port man Mackinlay committed one of a few actions that made him a Reverse Brownlow candidate today. Another major reduced the gap to three.
Despite handy efforts from Watkins, Lai and Burgoyne down back, Port simply got nervier as the gap closed. They missed chances from long and short range, and while their talls still owned the airways down back, it was a different story once it fell to ground. Waterman and Cripps showed how damaging that forward unit can be in general play, especially as it was now Port’s turn to try and answer every attacking threat with dump kicks out of the 50.
All of this had happened with Butters off for a head knock, mind, as Deven Robertson had treated him like a broken arm and put him in a sling. Unfortunately for Port, as soon as Butters came back on, Ratugolea limped off with an upper leg complaint that mothballed him for the remainder of the contest. Port’s saving grace in defence, their ability to spoil the young Eagles forwards with their two experienced keys, was gone. Shanahan, Waterman and Duursma went aerial but missed the chances they earned – Shanahan in particular started taking marks like they were going out of style.
Reid was still kicking around, the sting went out of his game at the start of the last term when he copped a big front-on hit, which led to a Port whole-ground rebound. That seemed to be the problem for both sides – as soon as the ball entered the zone between the centre line and their own attacking 50, necessitating their defensive line coming up the ground, they’d lose the ball and the opponent would have insultingly easy counters with players more open than legs on February 13th.
Reid then decided to play the role of a Port fan that thinks Zak Butters is leaving, by decking him and giving away a 50. Of course, it was no danger as it was in the hands of the ruckman, who missed, then Evan McKinlay who in a wondrous span of thirty seconds both dropped the ball when eight metres out from kicking a go-ahead goal, then tried to play on from a mark around Harley goddamn Reid. Reid smothered the potential inside-50 kick and you know what this means – Port’s pressed up too much, whole ground rebound, six points down the other end.
The ten point gap saw Josh Carr drop Lukosius behind the ball in a role he performed admirably, however, the lack of an experienced target up front in his stead really did begin to show. Jack Whitlock was decent, and as I’ve written before I’m confident the kid’s going to be incredible. He’s not Jack Lukosius, though.
What Lukosius couldn’t help stop was yet another dashing run from Reid who’d taken the game by the curly ones, leading Jones a merry dance before arcing a perfect little pass to Cripps who really should have sealed it there and then, missing from 20 on a slight angle.
Port then finally began to play with some spirit, almost trying to match the aggression of Harley Reid. Unfortunately, they expressed this by giving away two dumb frees, and Waterman made them pay to the tune of another six points from the car park.
DOES ANYONE ACTUALLY WANT TO WIN THIS GAME?
The last term saw more than its fair share of missed chances and inexplicable decision-making. Deven Robertson once again tried to headshot Butters, and that began a series of Port attacks. The Eagles began to get caught in the awkward choice of taking the game on or playing it safe, and continually tried to hold possession with cute handball chains on the defensive 50. This worked about as well as you’d expect from a side with one win last year, with Port scoring some quickfire goals.
Harley Reid was flagging in energy but to be fair, he’d also copped a head-clash from Butters and one full-sized Jordan Sweet riding his back all the way to the ground like the ending scene from Doctor Strangelove. Despite that, he was still trying to open up heads in any contest he was remotely near.
Port narrowed the gap to seven, but Reid grabbed the clearance, however, the link-up play wass too slow. Port flooded back, the ball went out and then West Coast, as if they were suddenly terrified at the prospect of actually winning, tried to throw it away. Reid, so good for the last hour, gave away a needless free to nullify the stoppage, and Graham failed to stand on the mark and gave away a 50.
Whitlock grabbed his third goal in short order thanks in large part to Lukosius being behind the play to supply him on a rebound, and one point was all that separated Port from an embarrassing loss, rather than a slightly less embarrassing win.
It proved to be a point too far.
Jobe Shanahan had a Leo Barry moment and the Eagles proved just competent enough with a mix of hack kicks and pitbull-aggressive intent around ground balls to survive.
THE TAKEAWAYS
This is obviously huge for West Coast. Yes, the win against North set them on a good path but this is their first win against a side that generally considers itself a contender in two years.
Tim Kelly, after a rough start, finally looks the player that we were all promised we’d see some years ago, while Reid showed he can impact games for sustained periods; this is the string I felt was missing from his bow. Bo Allan also played the best game I’ve seen from him.
The recent draftees looked great – Shanahan has great hands, Duursma already looks like a star of the future and is great overhead, as well, Lindsay played a sensational game down back, and CDT had his moments again. Schoenberg gave me plenty of joy to see him play well as a Crows man, while Matt Flynn probably had his best Eagles game. Seven tackles, indeed.
If they can fix the issue they have where they start like they’re on WA time, I can see this group knocking off not just Essendon and Richmond, but some real football teams.
As for Port, well, I raised some question marks in my last writeup but this just exacerbated them. They look brilliant when out in space. Phenomenal. So, so much fun. And then when the pressure even slightly ramps up, they melt like a chocolate bar you left in your car.
There were good performers on paper, sure – MG and Whitlock kicked goals, Butters and Farrell saw plenty of the footy, and their interceptors intercepted, but that just isn’t enough. Too few Port players played with the heart, aggression and tenacity that are expected when you pull on those jerseys and bear the weight of 150 years of club history, a weight that’s borne by less and less proud shoulders as matches tick on.
And yes, it’s not all negative; I was impressed by Josh Lai, a Port debutant who grew up in China and no doubt feels privileged to play for the only team to ever win there. But his performance mirrored his side’s as a whole. He had a blistering start, with eight touches in the first, but fell away and wasn’t even sighted at all in the last when the game was there to be won.
A lot is made of Essendon’s struggles and they totally deserve it, but Port are 1-2 after facing sides with a combined 2025 win tally of twelve. Their cross-town rivals, on the same record, faced sides with 47 wins last season. The next-easiest fixture for a 1-2 side is Carlton, with 24. The other three are at least another 11 combined wins up the road. They need to win next week, against a hopeless Richmond. But, incredibly, there’s every chance they won’t.
Port will enter that fixture under pressure to, for the first time all year, actually be Port Adelaide, and not just a football team that happens to wear their colours.
