SIX WEEKS ago Port Adelaide ruckman Brendon Lade was asked to make the ultimate sacrifice in football.
Lade, 32, a vice-captain, premiership star and dual All-Australian, was asked to go back to the SANFL for the first time in years while the club trialled emerging ruckman, and his potential replacement, Fabian Deluca.
Lade, who had been struggling for touch prior to his demotion, starred for the Power with a whopping 35 hit-outs, 22 possessions and seven marks.
Midfielder Shaun Burgoyne was perhaps the most pleased to see Lade return with the acting skipper racking up 18 clearances, most of which were the result of the big man’s tap work.
In-form onballer Dom Cassisi said Lade had handled the whole situation admirably.
“Ladey took it as well as anyone could. Anyone who knows Ladey knows he’s such a great club man and always puts the team first. He never once sooked. He just went about his thing, got himself right and then came back in looking like he hadn’t missed a beat,” Cassisi said.
“It’s a credit to him. He’s just so vital to the way we play and our midfield set up.
“His leadership is brilliant and, obviously, it helped Shaun’s game. Shaun had 18 clearances, which has to be some sort of record. They had their combo going, so that was a big positive of the night.”
Cassisi said the form of young duo Matthew Westhoff and Robbie Gray was also encouraging. Gray, who was a late replacement for Daniel Motlop, helped orchestrate Port Adelaide’s, largely unrewarded, third-quarter surge with 1.1 and two clever scoring assists, while the younger Westhoff had three shots on goal on debut.
“Matty Westhoff looked lively up forward and he’s been training really well, so he really deserved his spot,” he said.
“Robbie Gray is so clean with his hands and skills, so those two guys with another full pre-season under their belts will be great for us next year.”
Friday night’s game also served as Michael Wilson’s farewell and Cassisi revealed the group had been touched by a pre-game DVD presentation from the retired champion.
“We watched a bit of footage of some of the tough stuff Wilbur has done over the years and it was pretty inspiring. We all thought that if we could each take a bit of that spirit out there, it would go a long way towards us winning the game,” he said.
“We focussed all week on our effort and really wanted to have a crack because it was obviously a big game being Wilbur’s farewell. Our effort was a lot better, but it was sort of the story of our season. Our skills really hurt us and we kicked 2.10 in the second half, so we had out opportunities, but didn’t take them.
“It was massive for us to respond to last week. We’re a pretty proud club and we knew what we served up last week wasn’t good enough.
“We at least wanted to go out and play tough footy. All our indicators like contested ball, clearances and that suggested we beat them, but our skills really let us down.”
