PORT Adelaide has missed the finals after a disappointing loss to the Eagles at Alberton on Saturday.
It took an upset between South Adelaide and Norwood to seal it but a victory would have confirmed Port Adelaide’s first finals series since 2008.
For most of the game it looked like they would be playing again next week.
However, a three goal advantage vanished after the Eagles stormed back to level the scores at the final change.
Port briefly took the lead to begin the final quarter behind a Daniel Kulikowski point but the ball soon ended up down the other end and never came back.
The Eagles ran over the top of the Magpies in the final term and dominated the later stages of the match, kicking the final seven goals for the game.
The Magpies put in a strong effort against the breeze in a first quarter that was marred by skill errors from both teams.
The game started to open up in the second quarter with Port’s forward pressure forcing the Eagles to turn the ball over.
Two goals in three minutes by Steven Summerton, who was brilliant in his 100th game, tied the scores again.
A superb piece of footy by Daniel Kulikowski running back with the flight of the ball resulted in a goal to Matthew Rose.
Another goal by Matthew Lokan deep into time on opened up a 10 point advantage entering the half.
Sam Gray stretched the lead to 18, the largest for the match five minutes into the third quarter with a goal from a free kick.
Steven Summerton was the only multiple goal kicker for the Magpies who clearly missed ruckman and part-time forward Ivan Maric and hardnosed on-baller Luke Harder.
Mark Dolling led all ball winners with 27 possessions and Sam Gray and Shayne Biacsi weren’t too far behind.
Kory Beard was relentless in working the ball out of defence with 7 rebounds 50s to go along with a team high 9 marks.
But the likes of Matthew Goldsworthy and Chris Hall took advantage of Port Adelaide’s poor marking inside their defensive 50 as they routinely took uncontested marks in the forward line.
On the other hand, Port Adelaide had trouble finding a target up forward and even experimented by moving backman, Josh Thurgood up forward to start the second half.
After last week’s super performance by Matt Lokan and Terry Milera where the pair combined for 9 goals, they were nowhere to be found most of the game and only registered one major each.
Unfortunately for Port Adelaide this meant that the Magpies went goalless from midway through the third quarter until the end of the game.
Now they’ll have to wait until next year before they kick another.
The loss reflected the best and the worst of the Magpies in 2011.
The team was brilliant in patches and threaten to steal the game away but then would also go missing for extend periods of time.
Port Adelaide finished the 2011 campaign with 8 wins.
Magpies 2.1 7.3 8.6 8.7 (57)
Eagles 4.2 5.5 8.6 12.8 (80)
Goals:
Magpies: Summerton 2, Lokan, Biacsi, Gray, Eckermann, Milera, Rose
Eagles: Hall 3, Allmond 2, Cicolella, Goldsworthy, Lane, Lewis, Staple, Toumpas, Treeby
Best:
Magpies: Dolling, Summerton, Gray, Beard, Kulikowski
Eagles: Raymond, Lewis, Hall, Goldsworthy, Rowntree
