ANOTHER inaccurate and turnover-riddled game from Port Adelaide has consigned it to 13th place on the ladder after suffering its third consecutive loss - and fifth for the year - at the hands of a relentless Richmond at the Adelaide Oval.
The Sunday night send-off for retiring stalwart Kane Cornes was not the one any of the 45,000 at the Adelaide Oval wanted.
Needing to respond to last week's shock loss to Brisbane, the Power struggled to get into the game early and found itself trailing the Tigers from the get-go.
Richmond booted three goals in a scrappy, pressured opening quarter and kept the Power to just three behinds, creating a foreboding scoreline going into the first change.
A night of horrors ensued when some of the Power's best forward movement was thrown on the scrap heap by erroneous kicking into attack.
Stray kicking at goal, too, burned chances to maintain pace with the Tigers.
Port had eight individual point-scorers, and just three goal kickers, to sum up its underwhelming night.
Unable to find a target regularly in attack and with its main options often outnumbered up forward, Port Adelaide couldn't shake Richmond's asphyxiating defence, which was on from the first bounce and maintained through to the final siren.
Too few were able to get into the game consistently, and when a stricken, almost immobile Jackson Trengove grabbed the jumper of Jack Riewoldt early in the final term to stop the Tiger forward scoring, the resulting free kick saw the margin balloon again.
While it 'ballooned' to just 19 points, in the context of a contested, frustrating game, it was significant.
When Tiger sub Connor Menadue booted Richmond's ninth, the momentum the Power had managed to establish in the third quarter evaporated.
The shame for the Power was that its third quarter was an improvement on its poor first half and it was able to produce encouraging ball movement, but execution where it mattered wasted those positives
Richmond were scoreless in the third and the Power controlled the ball, but couldn't make it count on the scoreboard.
Travis Boak toiled hard for the Power and Jack Hombsch was again solid in defence, while Pittard worked to create opportunities through the middle of the ground.
Angus Monfries and Chad Wingard booted two goals each, with Gray scoring Port's only other for the night, having worked himself back into the game after being kept quiet in the first half by Grigg.
And Kane Cornes, in his final game, at least took away one small win.
The retiring veteran had 28 touches and kept Trent Cotchin to just 13 in the first three quarters before switching away from him in the final term.
Chaired off by mates Travis Boak and Angus Monfries, it was ultimately a disappointing night for Cornes, but one which should have his teammates desperate to atone for in coming weeks with a trip to Alice Springs to take on the in-form Demons.
SCOREBOARD
PORT ADELAIDE 0.3 3.6 4.10 5.12 (43)
RICHMOND 3.4 7.5 7.5 11.10 (76)
GOALS
Monfries, Wingard 2, R. Gray
PORTADELAIDEFC.COM.AU’S BEST
Boak, R. Gray, Cornes, Hombsch
INJURIES
Trengove (TBC)
SUBSTITUTE
Karl Amon replaced Nathan Krakouer at three-quarter time
CROWD
45,268 at the Adelaide Oval
