AN inexperienced Port Adelaide has gone down to fierce rival Norwood by 16 points in a heated clash on Friday night.
The Magpies pushed the Redlegs the whole way but couldn’t close the gap despite three goals from Dylan Williams and some strong individual efforts on the ball from Taj Schofield and Luke Surman.
Port opened the scoring within 30 seconds through Anthony Wilson, who was playing against his old team for the first time, however, the Redlegs held it in their attacking 50 for most of the quarter and capitalised on opportunities.
Cam Taheny scored the first before a flurry of behinds followed.
Norwood finished the term with three more majors and Port added a solitary behind to go into quarter-time 21 points down.
It was beginning to look ugly for the Magpies as the Redlegs kicked the opening two majors of the quarter to get the margin out to 32 points.
Port then kicked into gear as Jase Burgoyne ran into 50 and silenced the Norwood crowd with a stirring goal.
Williams then followed after missing an opportunity minutes earlier, before Kane Farrell slotted his first since returning from a nine-month layoff with a long bomb.
The Magpies looked hot and went into half-time with momentum and only a 15-point deficit to hunt down.
Taheny slotted the first of the third to halt Port’s run, but Ollie Lord stepped up to cancel that out with a towering punt on the boundary and celebrated emphatically.
Norwood would again wrestle the momentum back as it kicked back-to-back majors and the margin back out to 26 points midway through the term.
The Magpies refused to lie down and Williams kicked his second to give his side some hope.
It was followed up by Hugh Jackson, who set up a mouth-watering final term with a goal after the siren to make it 13 points the difference, receiving a stirring response from his teammates for his first league goal.
Despite Port’s rally, it couldn’t chase Norwood’s lead down as Taheny slotted his fourth before Henry Nelligan also converted.
Williams scored a late consolation goal after a strong mark in the square for his third for the night.
Taj Schofield and Farrell finished with 20 touches each, while Burgoyne had 21 in addition to his goal.
SCOREBOARD
Port Adelaide 1.1 4.4 7.8 8.11 (59)
Norwood 4.4 6.7 9.9 11.9 (75)
Port Adelaide
Goals: Williams 3, J. Burgoyne, Farrell, Jackson, Lord, Wilson.
Best: Schofield, Farrell, J. Burgoyne, Surman, Pasini.
