THE sun shone bright over Alberton Oval for Port Adelaide’s Round 10 SANFL clash with Norwood.
Led by club co-captain Ollie Wines who had 38 disposals, eight clearances and a goal, and Magpies captain Cam Sutcliffe’s four goals, Port defeated its traditional rivals by 45 points.
After leading for most of the afternoon the Magpies were challenged early in both the third and fourth terms, before a late five-goal burst helped them to a 17.11-113 to 10.8-68 win.
Port got off to a great start with returning 203cm ruckman Sam Hayes finding a goal with his first kick in Port Adelaide colours following a knee reconstruction.
The Magpies’ early dominance was quickly undone with the Redlegs controlling the next 10 minutes.
Lightening quick forward Anthony Wilson enjoyed a damaging three-goal game against Port earlier in the season and once again found plenty of the ball early, securing two of his team’s first three goals in identical fashion.
He escaped his opponent and slammed home his majors from the goal line, before teammate Cameron Shenton goaled from a pack to put Norwood up by 10 points at the 21-minute mark of the first term.
Port won the possession, 98 – 74 and inside 50s, 13 – 10 in the first quarter and got a roll on late in the term.
Charlie Dixon received a bullet pass from Wines to kick his first goal, before Willem Drew went on a run through the middle of Alberton Oval to find Aidyn Johnson, who goaled to take back the lead at the 26-minute mark.
Magpies captain Cam Sutcliffe snapped around the corner for his first goal to give his side a seven-point lead at the first break.
Port started the second term with the same momentum it finished the first, with Dixon making the most of a Redlegs skill error in their back half to find Billy Frampton in the goal square.
Trent McKenzie played an important role in setting up a defensive wall across half back and took repeated intercept marks to send the ball back the Magpies way with his trademark long kick.
Port were on a roll and had five goals in a row when Frampton kicked back-to-back majors, which stretched its lead out to 19 points at the 11-minute mark of the second term.
Norwood wrestled itself back in the contest and the game went goal for goal approaching half time.
Cody Szust kicked Norwood’s first goal in nearly a quarter before Sutcliffe snapped his second goal two minutes later.
The Magpies led by 19 points at the major break with Wines gathering 17 disposals in the first half.
The goal for goal pattern continued in the third term with Sutcliffe and Wilson each kicking their third goals just minutes apart.
The Redlegs had the better of the middle stages of the third quarter and managed three goals in a row to close the gap to just six points.
Boyd Woodcock marked and kicked a much needed steadying goal for Port, 19 minutes into the third term as the game became a scrappy affair with neither side wanting to give up territory.
Drew burst through the 50m ark and booted another steadying goal for the Magpies, before a Jack Elsworthy chase did just enough to effect what would have been a certain Wilson goal in the final seconds before the three quarter time siren.
With Port leading by 17 points at the last change Norwood sprinted out the gates in the last quarter with a classy goal to Zac Richards to put the pressure on.
Peter Bampton booted another goal for the Redlegs at the nine-minute mark but from that point forward the match belonged to the Magpies who blew Norwood away with five unanswered goals.
Charlie Dixon enjoyed another impressive day out with three goals, 12 disposals and eight marks while Brad Ebert had a nice return game with 22 disposals in front of a good crowd of 3261.
SCOREBOARD
PORT ADELAIDE 4.3 8.5 11.7 17.11 (113)
NORWOOD 3.2 5.4 8.8 10.8 (68)
DISPOSALS: Wines 38, McKenzie 26, Atley 23, Drew 23, Ebert 22
GOALS: Sutcliffe 4, Dixon 3, Cox, Frampton, Hayes 2, Drew, Johnson, Wines, Woodcock 1
