HOME, sweet home ... but not so sweet on the scoreboard. Port Adelaide brought the national stage to Alberton Oval on Saturday afternoon - and the visiting Western Bulldogs took home the four AFLW premiership points.
Port Adelaide walks away from the 19-point defeat knowing no-one will question the work ethic of Lauren Arnell's "inaugurals". But the lessons on how to convert raw energy to the scoreboard continue to mount. Chasing greatness is not simple in any elite football league.
In a brutal game loaded with heavy bumps, strong tackling and a shocking leg injury to a Western Bulldogs playmaker, Port Adelaide delivered on effort but fell short on the key performance indicators that are supposed to define "the Port Adelaide way" in AFLW.
Contested football was lost, 84 to 100. And in uncontested football, the Western Bulldogs felt very much at home at Alberton Oval.
"Contested football is what we base our game on ... and we lost that today," said Port Adelaide senior coach Lauren Arnell.
It was a day that turned back the clock with line-ups outside the Russell Ebert gates as Port Adelaide fans put aside lunch to be part of the 5367 in the sold-out affair at Alberton Oval. And they were true to the traditions - old and new - of Port Adelaide, particularly in their stirring rendition of the Never Tear Us Apart anthem before the first bounce that had some Port Adelaide players applauding in appreciation.
They certainly were vocal, as expected, to the umpiring, particularly in the last term when Port Adelaide - as unfolded a week earlier - worked against a heavy free-kick count.
They showed their appreciation at the end with rousing applause of the Port Adelaide players.
"We had five-and-a-half thousand people packing out Alberton today ... we are disappointed with the result, but to see our people back on our home at Alberton is a positive," Arnell said.
"Herstory" records Hannah Ewing as the first Port Adelaide player to score in an AFLW game - a behind from a set shot in the 11th minute of the first term.
Gemma Houghton scored the first Port Adelaide AFLW goal at home - roving behind a pack in the goalsquare at the southern end of Alberton Oval in the 10th minute of the second quarter.
And captain Erin Phillips is the first Port Adelaide AFLW player to rattle a goalpost at Alberton with her left-foot snap in the north-eastern pocket in the eighth minute of the third term. A goal would have levelled the scores. She did have the chance six minutes later - with a set shot from 45 metres directly in front of the northern goal - to score the goal that would have put Port Adelaide in front for the first time. The kick fell short and became a rushed behind from the spill off the marking contest in the goalsquare.
The scoreboard at half-time - Western Bulldogs 1.7, Port Adelaide 1.1 - told of the opportunities being made (but squandered) by the Victorian visitors. As hard as Port Adelaide was in the contest to hold an edge (12-10) at clearances, the Western Bulldogs were sounder in keeping and moving the ball. They were dominate in the disposal count (with 28 more possession than their Port Adelaide rivals) and were commanding territory as reflected by their telling advantage on inside-50 entries: 17-6. They also were holding territory at the goalfront with three marks inside-50.
The six-point gap was keeping the door open for a Port Adelaide surge behind the support of the home crowd.
Despite swinging the territory battle in the third term, with Port Adelaide having twice as many inside-50 entries as the Western Bulldogs, there was no great return on the scoreboard. While Port Adelaide scored just two behinds - both off the boot of Phillips - the Western Bulldogs extended their half-time lead to 10 points with Celine Moody completing an end-to-end run with a goal in the last minute of the third term.
The Champion Data statistics at full time tell the story by the numbers - Western Bulldogs had so much of the ball, 231 disposals to Port Adelaide's 153. The final count of inside-50s - 33 to 14 - tells how the Western Bulldogs worked this to a significant advantage with uncontested movement to the goalfront. The 3.10 did not reflect how the Western Bulldogs had solid command of the Sherrin - and spared Port Adelaide from a bigger margin.
Port Adelaide's intent to make any visiting team know it has played Port Adelaide - and at Alberton - again was emphasised by the manic tackling to create turnover. After almost cracking the ton with tackles against West Coast at Lathlain Park a week earlier, Port Adelaide opened the match with 27 tackles in the first term - and finished with 68.
The Port Adelaide players even tackle in tandem, as Rising Star nominee Abbey Dowrick and key forward Gemma Houghton did, bringing Elle Bennetts to ground on the boundary in front of the interchange benches in the ninth minute of the second term. Dowrick won the free kick - on a holding-the-ball call - and the play was completed with Houghton entering the history books as the first Port Adelaide player to score an AFLW goal at Alberton Oval.
Ebony O'Dea set this agenda from half-back during the third term with her assertive defending that included a sharp intercept at the centre circle, a play that almost certainly stopped the Western Bulldogs setting up a scoring play - and certainly deserves recognition at the team review next week.
Port Adelaide midfielder Maria Moloney, one of the standouts in the season-opener against West Coast in Perth seven days earlier, can take it for granted that she will command close attention. Moloney was locked in an absorbing duel with Jessica Fitzgerald and Western Bulldogs premiership captain Ellie Blackburn. Moloney finished with six disposals - and six contested possessions - and the understanding many AFLW rivals will regard her as the barometer at Port Adelaide.
The second quarter is probably to stay in the history books as the longest in AFLW, for the most horrible reasons. With 1:36 to play, Western Bulldogs midfielder Britney Gutknecht was severely injured and 31 minutes later taken from the field in an ambulance after suffering a broken right leg in a smother applied by Dowrick on the western wing late in the term. The siren closed the quarter at 48 minutes and 28 seconds with the Western Bulldogs deserving their six-point lead.
AFLW ROUND 2
PORT ADELAIDE v WESTERN BULLDOGS
PORT ADELAIDE 0.1 1.1 1.3 1.3 (9)
W BULLDOGS 0.4 1.7 2.7 3.10 (28)
BEST - Port Adelaide: Ballard, Foley, Dowrick, Surman, Tahau.
GOAL - Port Adelaide: Houghton.
CROWD: 5367 (all tickets sold out) at Alberton Oval.
NEXT: v Carlton at Princes Park, Sunday 12.10pm.
