Port Adelaide fell to Central District on Saturday by 68 points, signalling the end of its 2024 SANFL campaign.

Quinton Narkle (32 disposals, two goals, seven clearances) was outstanding for the Magpies, with coach Hamish Hartlett praising his performance.

“Quinton was sensational,” Hartlett said.

“Obviously he’s been desperate to crack it into the AFL team for a long while now.

“He’s done really, really well as a sub for the last five or six games, but his attitude over the last couple of days, after finding out he was playing SANFL, has been second to none and his performance today was outstanding.”

Hartlett said the focus of the SANFL side now was to assist the AFL team, which is heading into its finals series.

“We spoke about [the AFL finals] in the change rooms, about making sure we can do everything in our power to help out the AFL program for the next few weeks,” he said.

“The boys will be disappointed about the way things have turned out this season, and none more so than myself.“But, you know, we understand the role that we’ve got to play over the coming weeks with the AFL.”

Central opened the scoring before Port Adelaide responded with two goals of its own.

The Magpies struggled with the Bulldogs’ pressure, finding it difficult to exit its defensive 50, however inaccurate opposition scoring kept the margin close.

At one point Central had registered 1.9 before piling on the next 14 goals as the floodgates opened in the second quarter, and the home side ran away with a resounding victory.

The result means Port Adelaide finishes its SANFL campaign in tenth place.

SCOREBOARD
Port Adelaide:    3.1  3.2     3.5      5.6 (36)
Central District: 4.9  10.9  13.12  15.14 (104)

Best: Narkle, Lorenz, Clurey, Walsh, Short
Goals: Narkle 2, Anastasopoulos, Chamberlain, Lorenz