ON the back of two poor performances against Norwood and the Eagles, Port Adelaide must respond with a stark performance against Sturt in SANFL Multicultural Round at Alberton this Saturday.
OPPOSING FORCES
PORT ADELAIDE
LAST MATCH: Round 5, 2015: Port Adelaide 6.8 (44) def by Woodville-West Torrens 9.7 (61)
STURT
LAST MATCH: Round 5, 2015: Sturt 22.10 (142) def North Adelaide 12.8 (80)
HEAD TO HEAD (since 1900)
Port Adelaide 187 v 100 Sturt
LAST FIVE
Port Adelaide 2 v 3 Sturt
THIS YEAR
Port Adelaide: W2 L2 v W3 L2 Sturt
PLAYBILL
SANFL Multicultural Round
Port Adelaide v Sturt
Alberton Oval
Saturday 9 May
First bounce: 2:10pm
Academy: 11:25am
Hashtags: #portsturt
Broadcast: LifeFM
This is a Port Adelaide home game - all Magpies, We Are Port Adelaide upgrade members admitted with membership card. All Essential category members admitted on presentation of card.
Tickets available at gate: Adult $14, Concession $8, Children U18 Free
MULTICULTURAL ROUND
Multicultural Food Court - all items $6.50
Including Mexican Ariba Aribba Nachos, Classic Greek Yiros, #63 Asian Special Fried Rice, Curry in a Hurry, Four'n Twenty pie floaters.
As part of SANFL Multicultural Round, Alberton will have orange line marking on the 50-metre arcs, players will wear orange arm bands and shoe laces, and goal umpires will wave orange flags.
TIME MACHINE
Round 12, 2014: Port Adelaide posted a convincing win over the Double Blues at Unley in a wet, muddy match where Aaron Young dominated through the middle and Robbie Young booted four goals up forward.
PORT ADELAIDE 2.6 4.9 9.10 12.11 (83)
STURT 3.2 4.7 7.11 8.15 (63)
Best: A. Young, Newton, Summerton, R. Young, Clurey
Goals: R. Young 4, Shaw 3, Neade 2, Slattery, Newton, A. Young
at Peter Motley Oval
FOUR QUARTERS
THE STAKES
Port Adelaide must win this weekend to keep pace with the league leaders. While Norwood is again leading the charge atop the ladder with South also playing high quality football, the Eagles have been probably the most impressive team early this year. Sturt and West are also in good form, so Port Adelaide needs to perform strongly against the Double Blues to be considered a contender this year,
The loss of Jared Polec will give one of Port's SANFL players the chance to step into the club's AFL side this week. That may weaken the Magpies, depending on who's selected. However Jarman Impey will be made available this weekend and the question is whether he'll return through the AFL or SANFL. Anthony Biemans will be assessed to play after being a late withdrawal from last Saturday's match with a calf injury. At Unley, Matt Duldig, Mark Evans, James Watt and James Wundke will all have fitness tests and could be chances to bolster the Sturt line-up this weekend.
THE HISTORY
Port Adelaide had the wood over Sturt last year with two wins from two contests, but prior to that the Double Blues had performed well against the Magpies. The lopsided historical ledger won't be changed for long though, and one of those wins will be remembered this weekend - the 1965 Grand Final - where Port won a thriller at the death in front of a record Adelaide Oval crowd.
THE VIBE
After last week's poor performance, Garry Hocking hasn't held back in calling for a polar opposite performance from his team this weekend.
