PORT ADELAIDE has played out a physical and highly competitive internal trial match as it prepares for its first clash with AFL opposition.
On a warm Friday evening at the redeveloped Alberton Oval, a black team that chopped and changed snuck home by a solitary goal.
Rather than a probables against possibles match as is often seen in pre-season, the Port Adelaide coaches opted for two well matched teams, pinning a strong forward line against a well balanced backline, with first choice midfielders spread across both teams.
There were intriguing match-ups across the ground including the new leadership team Connor Rozee on Zak Butters and Charlie Dixon lining up next to new recruit Esava Ratogolea.
New rucks Ivan Soldo and Jordon Sweet went head-to-head in the middle with former Richmond premiership player Soldo getting the better of the early exchange, finding himself on the end of a pinpoint Ollie Wines kick inside 50, only to fail to convert the resulting set shot.
New captain Rozee, starting as part of a black team midfield including Ollie Wines and Jason Horne-Francis, appeared to find time and space to set up a goal for Darcy Byrne-Jones.
Not to be outdone, vice-captain Butters added one of the highlights of the opening quarter when he bounced several times through the middle before nailing a goal on the run from 35 metres out.
One of the bigger cheers of the opening term came when forward Mitch Georgiades – playing his first minutes since completing his rehabilitation from a long-term knee injury - received a dribbled pass from Dixon to walk into an open goal.
The coaches started to make changes after the first break with Wines, Rozee and Dylan Williams switching from black to white, and Butters, Jackson Mead and Lachie Jones going the other way.
Sweet would also switch sides as the second quarter progressed with Sam Powell-Pepper and Todd Marshall each booting two goals for the black team and SANFL-contracted Preston Cockatoo-Collins booting two for the whites in a relatively even contest that saw the black team in front by two goals at the main change.
There were more guernsey swaps at the half time break including Soldo and Horne-Francis slipping into white and Rozee returning to black, while Dixon was managed out of the game and Ratugolea not risked after some knee soreness.
Small forward Lachie Charleson got the white side going with an early goal, replicating an earlier classy finish by fellow draftee Tom Anastosopoulos
Jackson Mead’s left footed finish was probably the highlight of the quarter, and the father-son midfielder stood out in patches in part due to his play and partly due to his bandaged head after suffering a cut above his eye.
Marshall slotted his third goal for the blacks from a long-range set shot into a swirly breeze before Tom Scully booted his second from a complicated snap hard up against the boundary.
After spending much of the first three terms in the backline, Tom Clurey – after his long injury layoff – shifted onto the wing, going up against Jase Burgoyne in his new number 7 guernsey.
With the sun setting, players were tiring, and the teams continued to switch guernseys. SANFL-listed forward Nathaniel Cooper dribbled home a goal for the white side to put it in front, but majors to Francis Evans, Powell-Pepper and first-year winger Will Lorenz saw black sneak back in front and hold on for the win.
The game will have left the Port Adelaide coaches with some selection headaches, especially with defenders Aliir Aliir and Trent McKenzie, and forward Jeremy Finlayson each expected to be available to face Adelaide in a match simulation at Alberton Oval next Friday evening.
SCOREBOARD
PA Black 3.2 8.4 9.7 12.9 (81)
PA White 3.3 6.4 9.4 11.9 (75)
Black Goals: Marshall, Powell-Pepper 3, Byrne-Jones, Georgiades, McEntee, Horne-Francis, Evans, Lorenz
White Goals: Cockatoo-Collins, Scully 2, Butters, Anastasopoulos, Sweet, Charleson, Mead, Cooper, Cheesman
