Port is surviving its ruck dilemma

It's not ideal having Matt Lobbe out with injury, but Jackson Trengove continues to toil in the midfield.

For a bloke giving up plenty of size on his direct opponent each week, his effort has been exceptional, especially compensating for what he lacks in height with good work at ground level.

His clearances numbers weren't as high this week, but perhaps that has more to do with the return to form of Travis Boak (five) who led the rest of the Power's midfield brigade at stoppages.

Port can adapt quickly

Charlie Dixon bagged five goals, the majority coming in the second quarter. After that he disappeared from the game in terms of scoreboard impact (acknowledging that five goals is an excellent return in anyone's book, and his pressure and effort continued all day).

What is pleasing is that when the game opened up and the Power's smalls began to get involved. Aaron Young, Jarman Impey and Chad Wingard all got doubles (Chad probably should have finished with four) and 11 individual goal scorers is an excellent outcome.

Keep a game in Alice Springs...

... if only because the Power has a 100% hit rate there.

With Metricon Stadium being the only other venue where the Power enjoys an undefeated record, a fair few fans would be keen to keep the red centre on the Power's itinerary next year.

Melbourne might be pulling its home games out of the Top End though, so it might be a case of 'Watch This Space' for whether someone else takes up the opportunity to play in the heart of Australia.

Brad Ebert makes a good stopper

He's had a couple of jobs on midfielders during his career, and the Power midfielder was in strong form on Saturday against Melbourne's Jack Viney.

Needless to say, we think the Melbourne young gun wasn't happy with his direct opponent having a good day at the office.