IN a year when so many have put a question mark against Port Adelaide's merit as a top-eight contender, Ken Hinkley's crew has responded with an exclamation mark.
Port Adelaide's 23-point win against much-admired top-eight resident Sydney at Adelaide Oval on Saturday afternoon makes a strong statement on what could unfold in the next nine weeks of the AFL home-and-away season.
Port Adelaide remains on a tightrope, probably needing another six wins from those nine games. But, as Hinkley has recently noted, if "the competition is not sold on Port Adelaide", this assertive win will make many pundits hold an open mind on what could still unfold from Alberton during the next two months.
Port Adelaide advances to 6-7 and extends its winning streak against Sydney to six. By the live ladder on the final siren, Port Adelaide remained 12th but the gap to the top eight was reduced to two wins.
The significant notes from this round 14 clash are:
KEY forward Todd Marshall continuing his stand-out season with a game-high score of 4.2.
FELLOW key forward Jeremy Finlayson showing how he can ably adapt and persist when asked to lead the Port Adelaide ruck.
BROWNLOW Medallist and vice-captain Ollie Wines accepting the challenge to prove this Port Adelaide group can maintain standards in the absence of long-time warriors Travis Boak and Robbie Gray. He finished with a game-high 33 disposals.
AND more carnage on the injury front with novice ruckman Brynn Teakle (collarbone) having his AFL debut cut short and prime midfielder Zak Butters (knee).
Under the greatest pressure - by the reality of the premiership ladder, costly injuries and Sydney's strong start - Port Adelaide found its trademark game to repeatedly pin Sydney within Port Adelaide's forward half of the field. The turnover rate burnt Sydney (and even frustrated some of its key players) while Port Adelaide opened the third term with a six-goal charge (without conceding a score) to build a commanding 42-point lead at the start of time-on.
From time-on of the first term - when Sydney led 3.1 to 0.2 - Port Adelaide dominated the scoring rush with 12.6 to 3.9 to have a 34-point lead at three quarter-time. At this point, the game was held strongly in Port Adelaide's hands ... and not slipping while the team's defensive systems were so firmly in place.
Port Adelaide's resilience was tested by two major injury blows at the start of the second term - each significantly influencing the team's power at stoppages.
Port Adelaide's newest player, mid-season rookie draftee Brynn Teakle, did not get even an hour on the field for his AFL debut. The East Fremantle recruit was out of action in the 14th minute of the second term with a left-collarbone injury, the result of his strong bump on Sydney midfielder Justin McInerney.
Less than 10 minutes earlier, midfielder Zak Butters - Port Adelaide's best player to this point - had limped off with a concerning left-knee injury after having his legs tangled and twisted in a tackle. His injury activated wingman Xavier Duursma from the medical substute's chair.
Teakle started in the ruck facing former Port Adelaide ruckman-forward Peter Ladhams at the first centre bounce that was decided on a free kick (in Sydney's favour) off the ruck contest. His first moment on the statistic sheets was for the highlight reel - a strong mark in front of the old scoreboard to intercept a Sydney attempt to load up on inside-50s during the first term.
Teakle's cruel exit - after building up five disposals, two score involvements and nine hit-outs, three to advantage - forced ruck duties to again be shared by key forwards Charlie Dixon and Jeremy Finlayson with Finlayson again in the lead role. The presence of four tall forwards - Dixon, Finlayson, Marshall and Mitch Georgiades - became an invaluable insurance policy.
Finlayson's follow-up work in ruck is his emerging strength. From the first centre bounce of the third term, Finlayson's second effort loaded up midfielder Connor Rozee for a running kick to the goalsquare where Dixon roved the ball for his first goal of the match.
While Port Adelaide was shuffling its ruck unit, Sydney was paying dearly for the lack of discipline from Ladhams who conceded two free kicks - for hits on Lachie Jones and Ollie Wines, both off the ball - with each moment setting up converted set shots at goal.
Port Adelaide's resistance against mounting pressure was best summed up by the desperate defence of captain Tom Jonas entering time-on of the second term. It was a symbolic play in the spirit of "never, ever" giving up at Port Adelaide. Caught behind two Sydney forwards running onto Lance Franklin's pass from outside 50, Jonas moved past Isaac Heeney to mow down Will Hayward creating a turnover quickly turned into a rushed behind rather than a goal that would have levelled the scores at 6.3 apiece.
Jonas's desperate play also was true to the nature of a draining and demanding contest in which the on-field pressure translated to the scoreboard through the last 15 minutes of the second term when neither Port Adelaide nor Sydney could score a goal, even when Marshall, Georgiades and Franklin were presented with seemingly basic set shots. The last 10 scores of the term were all behinds - three from Port Adelaide, seven from Sydney - to put the half-time margin at four points in Port Adelaide's favour.
The key match-ups in the Port Adelaide defence were as expected: Allir Aliir against his former Sydney team-mate Lance Franklin and Tom Clurey on Logan McDonald. This key duo in the Port Adelaide defence conceded just one goal to Franklin- and would pay tribute to the "team defence" system that dramatically changed the script after Sydney opened with forward-50 dominance.
It was a fascinating opening - and an energetic first quarter loaded with pressure on a combined count of 26 tackles putting a measure on the heat in the contest. Sydney took 18 minutes to build the first significant lead of 17 points. Port Adelaide needed 10 minutes to wipe out this gap and create its own reassuring lead at quarter-time.
Sydney won the territory battle early by dominating the inside-50 count and finding many marking opportunities on these forward sorties. All of Sydney's first four attempts to score were from set shots - three from marks inside-50, the other from a free kick in a marking contest.
Port Adelaide won the opening quarter by eight points, however - even if it had to wait until 19:35 had been played for its first goal: An opportunist moment for Butters after the Sydney defence was put under immense pressure at ground level.
Another Sydney error in deep defence loaded up key forward Todd Marshall for the second goal. Intense pressure on the Sydney defenders gave midfielder Connor Rozee the right to take the play-on advantage from a free kick to score the third. Marshall scored from a set shot on the siren to complete Port Adelaide's four-goal burst in nine minutes and 50 seconds.
That 10-minute swing in momentum was notable for Port Adelaide swinging the count on mark inside-50 to its favour - 7-3, 6-0 in this 10-minute patch - to narrow the inside-50 differential to two (11-9 in Sydney's favour).
Butters was the dominant Port Adelaide player of the opening quarter (nine touches) - and the first casualty with a left knee injury after having his legs caught up in a tackle from Sydney rival Harry Cunningham five minutes into the second term.
Again, rather than collapse under the pain of bad luck, this Port Adelaide team found the resilience to find some of its best football of the season. And it finished its work with an exclamation mark.
PORT ADELAIDE v SYDNEY
PORT ADELAIDE 4.3 6.6 12.8 12.10 (82)
SYDNEY 3.1 5.8 6.10 8.11 (59)
BEST - Port Adelaide: Wines, Marshall, Rozee, Bonner, Finlayson, Burton, Amon, Aliir.
GOALS - Port Adelaide: Marshall 4, Dixon 2, Bonner, Burton, Butters, Houston, Powell-Pepper, Rozee.
INJURY - Zak Butters (left knee), Brynn Teakle (left collarbone).
MEDICAL SUBSTITUTE: Xavier Duursma activated in the second term for Butters.
CROWD: 30,455 at Adelaide Oval.
NEXT: Gold Coast at Adelaide Oval, Sunday 3.40pm
