PORT Adelaide struggled to score against Melbourne at the start of their round four encounter at Adelaide Oval. The rematch in Alice Springs on Sunday turned the script upside down.
The end result from such disappearing acts, however, is the same. Port Adelaide's loss by 14 points is made more flattering than the 32-point loss at Adelaide Oval by the three-goal rush in time-on of the last term at Traeger Park.
But the consequences of allowing the AFL premier to go on a seven-goal run at the back of the third term and the start of the final quarter is to put spikes on Port Adelaide's tightrope path to September's top-eight finals.
Port Adelaide started this round 18 game with earlier results (in particular North Melbourne beating eighth-ranked Richmond by four points on Saturday) narrowing the once long bridge from the bottom 10 to the top eight.
A day that began with Port Adelaide ranked 12th and one win off eight spot ended with the rise to 11th (while Gold Coast was losing to Essendon) and percentage falling to 106.9.
This leaves no change to the big picture - Port Adelaide still needs to find four wins from its remaining five home-and-away matches that continue with another major test next weekend with the home clash with Geelong at Adelaide Oval on Saturday.
MG MVP | Vote for your best afield against Melbourne
But this game in Australia's Red Centre - where Port Adelaide had beaten Melbourne in the three earlier encounters - leaves another chapter in Port Adelaide's long book of missed opportunities in Season 2022. At times, Port Adelaide measured up against the AFL premier. It simply did not do it for long enough - and probably without enough dare to make Melbourne feel vulnerable to falling to its fifth loss in the past seven weeks.
A game with eight lead changes finally found its definitive script late in the third term. Melbourne built momentum with three consecutive goals (two from the ever-exciting Kysaiah Pickett who finished with 6.1) to have a 10-point lead at three quarter-time. Not even the break stymied Melbourne's push to victory with the momentum swing also delivering the first four goals of the last term that set up a match-high lead of 31 points .
Between Miles Bergman's second goal that gave Port Adelaide a nine-point lead at the 10th minute of the third term to Travis Boak's second goal at the start of time-on of the last quarter, Melbourne scored seven unanswered goals.
Game lost - and not even the three goals during time-on of the last term take away the question of why Port Adelaide faded after doing all the hard work to set up a critical win.
Last time, at Adelaide Oval in round four, Melbourne held Port Adelaide to no goal in the first half.
This time, Port Adelaide held Melbourne to no goal in an opening quarter - the first team to do such during Melbourne's premiership defence and for the first time since 2020 (when Port Adelaide did the same in round nine).
For those from boxing circles, the first term would be described as "two fighters feeling each other out". The high count of uncontested marks from both teams highlighted a game needing one side to take control of the agenda - and score.
Melbourne, as has been a trend in recent weeks, struggled to load up its key forwards such as Ben Brown until late in the third term. It had become heavily reliant on the opportunist ways of Pickett, whose six goals were the treat of a match that for too often lacked too much.
Port Adelaide, taking note of the lessons from the Thursday night encounter with the AFL premier in April, valued every possession while searching for the best way to unravel the Melbourne defence that thrives on chances to intercept forward-50 entries. In many ways it was too methodical and not enterprising enough.
Such a low-scoring opening on a sun-bathed Traeger Park - where there was no limiting factor from the weather (24C, no chance of rain) to stop any goal rush - was surprising considering the talent on the field. But playbooks, high stakes in a game that would shape the race to September's finals and lessons from an earlier encounter at the skinnier Adelaide Oval weighed heavily on this match.
It took 18 minutes and 27 seconds for the goal umpires (after signalling five behinds) to work both flags to recognise Port Adelaide midfielder Travis Boak running from a stoppage outside 50 to kick over the well-noted Melbourne defensive wall.
Four times in the first 10 minutes the Melbourne defence led by Steven May, who commands the league's No. 1 unit for intercept marks, chopped off Port Adelaide's carefully constructed passages through the midfield. The need to make inside-50s count on the scoreboard rather than the Champion Data sheets became Port Adelaide's biggest challenge - so did scoring goals rather than behinds when Melbourne's defence was caught off side by turnovers.
Port Adelaide's nine-point lead was built on goals from Boak and key forward Todd Marshall, again from a set shot after winning a one-on-one marking contest against Adam Tomlinson - and the Port Adelaide midfield honouring the hard work of makeshift ruckmen Charlie Dixon and Jeremy Finlayson against Melbourne's premiership duo of Max Gawn and Luke Jackson.
At half-time - despite Melbourne holding the advantage on hit-outs (19-12) - Port Adelaide's midfield unit was meeting the challenge of working to losing rucks and against an elite Melbourne stoppage unit by winning centre clearances (7-4) and all clearances (24-12). The scoreboard, however, had Melbourne leading by four points.
At the end, the numbers were mocked by the scoreboard. Melbourne, as expected, won the hit-outs 32-17. Port Adelaide won the centre clearances 13-11, despite the powerful work of Melbourne midfielder Christian Petracca stepping up to cover the absence by injury of Clayton Oliver. Port Adelaide won all clearances 40-26. It had more disposals than Melbourne, 407-350 (highlighting the want to keep the ball from the Melbourne players). It even won that well-known barometer of contested possession, only just 125-124 - and had more inside-50s (55-49).
The Port Adelaide midfielders were even making the clearances count as goals, particularly off their own boots with Boak, wingman Miles Bergman, shadow man Willem Drew and onballer Connor Rozee all scoring goals.
Of Port Adelaide's 10 goals, six were kicked by midfielders - exactly the same amount put on the scoreboard by Melbourne's opportunist forward Kysaiah Pickett.
Dixon opened the centre ruck duel against Gawn. He finished with 11 hit-outs while again giving everything while mixing the demands to be physically imposing against Gawn (18 hit-outs) and posing a threat in attack where he scored one goal (on a 50-metre penalty condeded by Gawn).
Key forward Todd Marshall was - again - Port Adelaide's most-effective forward. He finished with two goals. He needed those around him to join the scoring rush.
Marshall's reputation for seeing opportunity - where others think there is a dead end - and his commitment to support his team-mates makes for another highlight in the team review at Alberton. Midway through the second term, after the ball had spilled from Mitch Georgiades in a marking contest towards the boundary line, Marshall ignored the option of a set play from a boundary throw-in from a forward pocket to deliver a sharp handpass to team-mates Miles Bergman. The kick from a sharp angle - for Port Adelaide's fourth goal - was the appropriate reward for being bold where others would have opted for the boundary.
If only such spirit had spilled over more often to have Port Adelaide score more than 10 goals ... even against the AFL's most-demanding defence.
MELBOURNE v PORT ADELAIDE
PORT ADELAIDE 2.1 5.3 7.6 10.9 (69)
MELBOURNE 0.4 5.7 8.10 12.11 (83)
BEST - Port Adelaide: Boak, Rozee, Bergman, Amon, Dixon, Drew.
GOALS: Port Adelaide: Bergman, Boak, Marshall 2, Dixon, Drew, Finlayson, Rozee.
INJURY - Nil.
MEDICAL SUBSTITUTE: Jase Burgoyne (not activated)
CROWD: 6312 at Traeger Park, Alice Springs
NEXT: Geelong at Adelaide Oval, Saturday (4.05pm start)
