DID you believe?
At 5.30pm - during the half-time break of the Port Adelaide-Geelong clash at Adelaide Oval - it required extraordinary belief to carry Port Adelaide’s AFL finals aspirations.
The margin was 34 points against Port Adelaide. The curtain on a difficult season was falling lower and lower ...
But the Port Adelaide players did believe. They did not give up. They put up an extraordinary fight.
It was not until 6.39pm, in the final four minutes - in which Geelong power forward Tom Hawkins scored two “clutch” goals to break the deadlock - that Port Adelaide was formally beaten.
The 12-point loss to league leader Geelong has Port Adelaide slip to 8-10 on the AFL ladder with four home-and-away series games to play.
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Now there is the need for a miracle to get to 12 wins - and considerable faith that even with 12 wins there will be passage to the top-eight finals for the third consecutive year.
It will take a miracle to extend a challenging season to September’s top-eight finals. Port Adelaide’s testing equation now demands no slip-ups from the remaining four matches against Collingwood, Richmond, Essendon and Adelaide.
And if there is to be this miracle it will require the spirit - the “leave nothing behind” attitude - carried by key forward-ruckman Charlie Dixon and high forward Sam Powell-Pepper to spread through the clubhouse at Alberton.
Port Adelaide made this round 19 rematch with Geelong become a reflection of its season (that began with the handicap of a 0-5 start) when it stared at a 34-point deficit at half-time. To have the lead again with less than two minutes to play in the third term tells of a team that is true to its long-standing mantra of “never, ever give up”.
That eight-goal third quarter was a statement of intent.
The man with the greatest spirit was Dixon. The giant who has to be Port Adelaide’s best ruckman and best forward at the same time was the image of defiance and power during that memorable third term.
The highlight moment was the ruck contest in the 10th minute of the third term, in front of the goal at the southern end. Dixon took the aerial ball, used his big frame to knock away every obstacle and handed Robbie Gray the easiest passage to goal.
It was the fourth of Port Adelaide’s eight goals during the third term - the highest-scoring quarter of the season, so far.
Powell-Pepper, the man who spent his summer rekindling his love for the game, had his defining moment in the 15th minute of the last term when he spoiled Geelong forward Jeremy Cameron at the top of Port Adelaide’s 50-metre arc. It was a moment that would have had masterful commentator Dennis Cometti speak of “SPP” sneaking up on Cameron like a librarian. The turnover set up midfielder Karl Amon with a set shot that levelled the scores at 93-93.
From there, Port Adelaide scored 0.1. Geelong found the winning goals from Hawkins and put a tighter lock on its hold of top spot - and premiership favouritism.
Port Adelaide made its intent to stay in the fight for a late berth to the top-eight finals with a vibrant start. It set the agenda with speed - and found critical space created by handball - to put up the first two goals of the match within five minutes. It answered - with quickfire goals from Todd Marshall and the long-kicking Kane Farrell - Geelong’s inevitable response that came with three unanswered goals and a short-lived two-point lead entering time-on. And it led by two points ... until Geelong key forward Jeremy Cameron stoked the memory of the round 10 encounter at Kardinia Park with a goal on the siren (after a contentious mark against Aliir Aliir).
Of the 30 minutes and 12 seconds of the opening term, Port Adelaide led for 27:42 - and almost on every indicator on the statistic sheets where the notable differences were in hit-outs (14-1 in Geelong’s favour) and efficiency inside-50 (Geelong 50 per cent with six shots from 12 entries compared with Port Adelaide’s 41 per cent with seven shots from 17 entries).
Port Adelaide’s key defensive assignments were seemingly fixed on three of Geelong’s major forwards - Aliir on Gary Rohan; captain Tom Jonas on Cameron and Tom Clurey marking Tom Hawkins. The challenge of making sure opportunist small forward Tyson Stengle did not cut apart the Port Adelaide defence - as an encore act after Kysaiah Pickett’s match-winning six goals for Melbourne in Alice Springs on Sunday - did become a superb task for three-game defender Jase Burgoyne (with support from Ryan Burton and Darcy Byrne-Jones).
Stengle had no score at half-time, although he had assisted in one goal. He broke the drought in the 10th minute of the third term and followed up with his second early in the last term, this time from a set shot after captain Joel Selwood spotted the small forward unmarked 25 metres from the southern goal. He became part of the difference in a multi-prong Geelong attack led by four-goal Hawkins.
It was a game of many themes - and styles.
The nine-goal first term - with space for free-flowing play - was (perhaps inevitably in a sport that preaches defence as the basis for every game plan) followed with more accountable football ... and less goals until Geelong’s more methodical, more efficient systems created the difference.
Geelong ended an 11-minute patch of no goal from either side with four goals in time-on. The fourth - and a 34-point lead - was gifted by half-back Ryan Burton’s turnover to Isaac Smith on the half-time siren. It was symbolic of a game that had Geelong turning the screws more and more, putting Port Adelaide more and more in places and in positions that took a team eagerly stepping onto its collective front foot to be almost falling backwards.
Port Adelaide had another of those costly 20-minute disappearing acts (as known recently against Fremantle in Perth and in last weekend’s battle with AFL premier Melbourne in Alice Springs). It scored just one goal during the term. And while Geelong was neat, Port Adelaide was again clumsy with its ball use - and the consequent turnovers. It threw away the chance to score the second goal of the term - twice.
First, ruckman-forward Jeremy Finlayson was caught after he chose to play-on after taking a mark 30 metres from goal; then midfielder Kane Farrell missed everything from a free kick (for holding-the-man) at 35 metres from the resulting scrimmage for the loose ball.
If the game started with a “bruise-free” tone, it became more and more brutal - as noted with the pain carried by Dixon, defender Dan Houston, key forward Mitch Georgiades and midfielder Zak Butters to the medical rooms at Adelaide Oval.
If 20-year-old Georgiades needed confidence - particularly after so much commentary on his yips in front of goal - there could not have been a better start to deliver it than the opening minute of the game. A set shot in the goalsquare - after a neat chain initiated by Karl Amon from the first centre clearance - gave Georgiades his 16th goal of the season and his 56th in a 44-game career.
What followed was another perfect kick from 40 metres alongside the old scoreboard at the northern end in the fifth minute of the second term ... and his limping to the bench near the end of the second term. He started the third term and has his 100 per cent conversion rate continuing with his third goal - this one from a play on the run after being set up by Travis Boak’s handpass in the seventh minute.
Georgaides finished with 3.1 to be Port Adelaide’s leading scorer in the game - and he has another contender for the AFL’s mark of the year. This time he towered over the shoulders of Todd Marshall in the 11th minute of the last term ... and hit the post on the resultant set shot from 35 metres to leave the margin at five points in Geelong’s favour.
Port Adelaide completes its rotation of facing all its 17 AFL rivals at least once this season with Saturday’s away clash against finals-bound Collingwood at the MCG (1.15pm start SA time). The mathematics in the equation to the final eight are now based on winning every game - and some with significant margins - in the final month of home-and-away football.
PORT ADELAIDE v GEELONG
PORT ADELAIDE 4.3 5.5 13.7 14.10 (94)
GEELONG 5.1 11.3 12.6 16.10 (106)
BEST - Port Adelaide: Dixon, Powell-Pepper, Boak, Rozee, Aliir, Jonas.
GOALS - Port Adelaide: Georgiades 3, Dixon, Marshall, Powell-Pepper 2, Amon, Boak, Farrell, Gray, McEntee.
INJURY - Dan Houston (concussion, third term), Charlie Dixon (left ankle).
MEDICAL SUBSTITUTE: Riley Bonner (activated in last term to replace Houston).
CROWD: 30,937 at Adelaide Oval
NEXT: Collingwood at the MCG, Saturday (1.15pm start SA time).
