A SHATTERED Port Adelaide has fallen three points short of the Western Bulldogs in one of the arm wrestles of the season at the Adelaide Oval.
A goal to Aaron Young with 17 seconds remaining brought the Power within three points, but they couldn’t break into its attacking 50 from the game’s final stoppage.
The intensity of the game showed the Power could at least match a top-eight side, but its inability to take advantage of a superior inside-50 count in the second and third quarters put paid to its hopes after controlling the middle part of the game.
Instead, both sides traded goals in an often dour struggle for supremacy.
Port fans would have been optimistic going into the final term after Dougal Howard booted the Power nine points ahead after the three-quarter time siren.
The Power’s hard-earned advantage came from arguably its most intense period of football for the year, where Chad Wingard kicked two goals in succession to reclaim the advantage.
The Bulldogs’ clinical response from the start of the fourth quarter put the Power on the back foot, before Dixon marked and goaled to keep Port in touch.
Finding options inside 50 became a challenge as the Bulldogs got on top at stoppages and cleared into its zone, but the Power had one last roll of the dice when Brad Ebert took his own courageous mark and banged a 40m goal to keep hope of a win.
It was Marcus Bontempelli’s final goal that iced the game in the visitors’ favour.
The Power dominated chunks of the game, but could not make it count on the scoreboard.
They ran forward with purpose, but the Bulldogs’ defence held strong and repeatedly ran the ball away from the danger zone.
The Bulldogs were efficient and clinical on the rare occasion they moved into their attacking 50.
Port Adelaide still sits outside the top eight with a 6-6 record ahead of next Saturday's away game in Perth against Fremantle.
Earlier in the day, a train signalling problem prevented hundreds of fans from attending the first bounce.
Best bits
SCOREBOARD
PORT ADELAIDE 4.3 6.7 11.9 14.13 (97)
WESTERN BULLDOGS 6.1 7.3 10.6 15.10 (100)
portadelaidefc.com.au’s best
R. Gray, Ebert, Boak, Neade, Pittard, Trengove
Goals
Neade, Wingard 2, R. Gray, Young, Impey, Boak, Wines, Dixon, Howard
Crowd
40,096 at the Adelaide Oval
