PORT ADELAIDE has finished its pre-season with a 60-point loss against Adelaide in the final SANFL trial match before Round 1.
Young AFL-listed players Ollie Lord and Jackson Mead were the standouts for the Magpies in an overall-scrappy display at Alberton Oval on Sunday.
A strong first quarter set up victory for the Crows where they kicked seven unanswered goals, with Port Adelaide unable to claw the margin back, despite the last three quarters providing a more even contest.
Port Adelaide senior coach Tyson Goldsack reflected on his side’s lack of intensity and consistency throughout.
“Our skills aren’t where they should be, our pressure wasn’t either,” he said.
“The first (quarter) was a long way away from what we want, and then we kind of closed that gap a little bit.
“We know that’s a long way from where we have been in training and in the intraclub, even last week we were better than that.”
Goldsack identified some positives from the game being the contested ball work and the offensive aerial contest, particularly from Lord.
“Our contested ball was really good and our contest offensively in the air was okay,” he said.
“[Lord] contested really strongly and got a couple of rewards late by taking marks inside 50, and he just kept turning up all day.
“Jackson Mead was strong again too. I liked his work.”
The Crows gained ascendency early in the contest, kicking the first few goals in quick succession, while some wayward kicking from Port left them unable to respond, only registering five behinds in the first quarter.
The momentum for the Crows continued into the second quarter before some repeat forward 50 entries from the Magpies finally resulted in the first goal being scored by SANFL-listed player Nick Moore.
Quickly after, a slick centre clearance resulted in a snap goal from Francis Evans, but the Crows rallied to increase the half-time margin to 46 points.
A Crows goal kicked off the second half, before scoring quickly dried up for both sides. Mead finally broke the deadlock with a goal, before Port’s defensive efforts were undone by an Adelaide score on the siren.
Lord was the highlight in the final quarter for the Magpies, taking two strong marks inside 50, and converting both into goals.
But the Crows wrestled back momentum and ran away with the game in its late stages, kicking the final three goals straight to secure the win.
Goldsack said there is plenty for his side to focus on this week, heading into the opening round on Saturday.
“Probably just tidying up the little things, the speed of the game, playing at our tempo rather than having to defend at the opposition’s desired tempo,” he said.
“At the moment we’re half playing one way and half playing another way. We need to find a balance of being able to attack and also defending the way we want to.”
Port Adelaide will take on Adelaide again in Round 1, in an AFL curtain-raiser at Adelaide Oval on Saturday, 1 April at 3:10pm.
Scoreboard
Port Adelaide 0.5 2.7 3.9 6.11 (47)
Adelaide 7.2 10.5 12.8 16.11 (107)
Goals: Lord 2, Moore, Evans, Mead, Hagan
