by valleys07 » Tue May 26, 2015 12:41 am
Round 8 Review vs. Richmond- Farewell, Champion.
PAFC 5.13.43
RFC 11.10.76
Goals: Monfries, Wingard 2, Gray 1
Cornes. A name that for many years was tortured by the very presence of the Port Adelaide Football Club. Last night it became a hall mark of the clubs very history, and the competition to which it is a part of. Our first 300 game player, and the 69th in VFL/AFL history- Kudos, Kane- what an absolute champion of the Port Adelaide Football Club, you have been.
It has been a long, illustrious, sometimes calamitous journey that has been filled with the games highest of highs, and lowest of lows. My first impressions of a fresh faced blonde Sacred Heart boy from Anti-Port Adelaide heartland on Brighton Rd couldn’t have been anything else other than unconvincing. Drafted with pick 20 in the 2000 National Draft- he had managed a spot in our 2001 Ansett Cup winning side, but couldn’t crack a spot in a side that was 7-2, before Mark Williams decided to bring him into the side for our Round 10 clash against the Hawks. Kane managed 9 touches in a 43 point victory at the MCG that day, on his way to 7 games for the season- hardly anything to write home about, is it? What I, and most Port fans at the time didn’t know, was Kane’s relentless desire to squeeze absolutely everything out of himself in fulfilling his childhood dream. The fans didn’t see the growing of Kane and Chad- pestering anybody within earshot at Glenelg Oval for a kick of the footy. The fans didn’t know of Kane in his early years, inside of Chocco’s office demanding why he wasn’t being picked. The fans didn’t know of Kane’s personal suffering, as a result of the unreasonable expectations he placed upon himself. The fans don’t know of Kane the leader, the practical joker, the obsessive competitor who would pound the pavement well into his off season break-determined to maintain his stranglehold on the teams opening 3km time trial, all with this endless pursuit for perfection at the forefront.
What transpired was 15 seasons, 4 John Cahill Medals, 2 x All Australians, the 2004 Premiership, and 300 wonderful AFL games for his beloved, and our beloved, Port Adelaide Football Club. Kane joins Russell Ebert, Greg Phillips, Darren Smith and Tim Ginever as one of 5 players to have played 300 games across Port Adelaide’s long and distinguished history- a truly magnificent achievement. Throughout the journey, he has taken on and beaten some of the competitions biggest names, additions to an already mighty resume. Robert Harvey, Simon Black, Andrew McLeod, Sam Mitchell, Brent Harvey, Chris Judd, Joel Selwood are just a few names that Kane has been assigned, and beaten, over the years. He was the inspiration through the early 2000’s, a young man among a team of men rising to be one of Port Adelaide’s best in a budding champion team, desperate to create history on the national stage.
I’ll miss you, Kane. The Port Adelaide family has said farewell to one of it’s finest last night- sadly in the worst possible fashion.
Onto yesterday’s game. Stats concerning any game involving Port Adelaide are now meaningless. There are hitouts and there are hitouts, there are clearances and there are clearances, there are inside 50’s and there are inside 50’s. Now here are yesterday’s numbers:
Hitouts: 61-31 in favour of Port Adelaide.
Clearances: 49-44 in favour of Port Adelaide (centre clearances 13-6).
Inside 50’s: 53-43 in favour of Port Adelaide.
Let’s start with clearances. Over the past 3 weeks we have won centre clearances 33-28. This shows that when we are opposed to our opposition 4 on 4, we are a very capable midfield outfit. Turning the attention to stoppages, where the past 3 weeks have seen us return 102-100, again fairly even, right? Heck no. Here is the tactical advantage that Paul Roos identified last year, and that opposition coaches have pounced upon this season, ultimately destroying our quality of clearance and our inside 50 movement- all of West Coast, Brisbane and Richmond appear to shift +2 to stoppages around the ground, forcing us into forced clearances. Opposition teams have worked out that clearances where a Robbie Gray, a Jared Polec (when playing), or a Travis Boak can waltz clear unpressured spells all kinds of danger. The tactical move to force our midfielders into rushed possession will at worst force another stoppage, if not, force a turnover with extra numbers floating from the contest. Don’t ask me for a fix, but it’s a glaring issue.
Inside 50’s. Dear oh dear. Yesterday we won this stat, 53-43- however; lets delve deeper into the quality of inside 50’s, marks inside 50. We were beaten 6-14. That works out to a paltry 11% of our entries for the day resulting in marks and, hopefully a shot on goal. In fairness to Richmond, 5 of their 14 I50 marks went to Riewoldt- a shocking match-up from a PA perspective (more on that later), but 11%, you have to be kidding me. Against Brisbane we went at 26%, and West Coast 24%, compared to North Melbourne (23%), Hawthorn (23%) and Adelaide (28%) and there was a noticeable difference yesterday, and over the past 3 weeks. Unlike our 3 wins where our opposition were either playing to beat us in a shootout or were simply poor in defensive structure, West Coast, Brisbane and Richmond have all committed to +1 or +2 in defence. How is this so? Workrate. Unlike traditional zone set ups across the 50m arc, Port are traditionally dangerous with the slingshot release so opposition teams set up their zone 20m back so they can beat us back into forward 50 and clog space.
Now here is the bug bear: With the extra numbers around stoppages, and better executed defensive zones- our forward 50 entries have become 2 things; hacked kicks forward leaving us no hope to out mark 2, sometimes 3 opponents, or if we do happen to get clean entry into the forward line- we are still stuck in 2014 where we have outworked our opponents and bomb it in expecting numbers everywhere. We simply CANNOT do this anymore!! There were 2 clear examples yesterday where we had clean clearance (Ollie in the 3rd was one, but I can’t think of the other one), and rather than carry the footy and spot up a leading target, we chose to bomb it in long to 2-3 man contests!!! I mean seriously- midfielders, lower your ****ing eyes and hit a target and forwards, ****ing LEAD!! Can you imagine a Fyfe, Barlow, Mundy, Jack, Hannebery, McVeigh or Mitchell streaming forward without pressure, and just popping it on Pavlich or Tippett’s head? Not a chance in hell. Walters, Ballantyne, Mayne, Franklin, McGlynn would all be spreading far and wide, ensuring at they worked together to exploit the mistake of 1 defender, opening up an avenue to goal. Why we cannot do this with Wingard, Monfries, Ryder and Schulz leaves me scratching my head for answers.
Anyway, onto player reviews:
TOP 5:
Jack Hombsch- Best on for Port Adelaide in every sense of the word. Possessions (22), rebound 50’s (6), marks (12), 1% acts (12), inside 50’s (4), tackles (4)- there was nothing that this bloke didn’t do yesterday. By far his best game of the year, and would go extremely close to his best game for the Port Adelaide Football Club. Sensational.
Robbie Gray- Gave it everything yesterday, but is getting absolutely no protection inside to cause optimum damage. 28 touches, 12 clearances, 8 tackles, 3 I50s and 1 goal. Just so elusive around the stoppage, his hard work just doesn’t get finished off by his team mates.
Kane Cornes- Did a magnificent job on Cotchin to round out a magnificent career. Collected 28 touches whilst keeping Cotchin to 17 (6 at half time). What a void to fill. Thanks for the memories, Kane.
Angus Monfries- Another solid performance from Gus last night, kicking 2 crucial goals in the 2nd and 3rd to give us a bit of spark, but the team just couldn’t follow on from that momentum. 16 touches, 3 tackles and 2 goals- has arguably been our most consistent over the past 3 weeks.
Chad Wingard- Relishing more midfield time this season, and is ever dangerous when up forward. Missed that sitter in the 3rd term but still finished with 20 touches, 5 clearances and 2 goals. My only criticism of him, along with every small last night, was once again the lack of presence once the ball hit the deck.
The Rest:
Travis Boak- Worked his backside off all night, finishing with 32 touches, 4 clearances and 7 I50’s. Just cannot find space out of a stoppage to be super damaging with the footy.
Brad Ebert- Has gone missing I feel since Polec has been out of that side, especially on the outside. Whilst his numbers are looking solid, he is short on what we saw of him over the first 6 rounds. Finished with 25 touches, 5 clearances, 5 tackles and 4 I50’s.
Ollie Wines- Great return from the raging bull, and room for improvement on last nights performance. 24 touches, 3 clearances, 6 tackles and 3 I50’s. Glad to see him get through a full game, his wrist appearing to give him no trouble at all.
Hamish Hartlett- Watching his game in comparison to Dustin Martin’s last night, I shook my head. Here is our enforcer, our silky smooth, tough inside midfielder a shadow of who he can be, up against a similar player handing out don’t argues like $1 bills at a vegas strip club, getting the footy and using his skills as an offensive weapon to see Riewoldt 1 on 1. 21 touches from Hamish (at 61% DE), 5 clearances and 5 tackles- looks solid on paper but turnovers, and the lack of physical enforcement leave me at the cross roads with Hartlett. Does he deserve to be dropped? Yes. Will Ken pull the trigger? Unlikely.
Justin Westhoff- His 1st quarter and a half was back to the Westhoff of old, with some great marks dropping back into defence. Then 29:30 in the 2nd quarter happened- one of the great saving marks, followed up with arguably the worst turnover of the season- sums up his year perfectly. 20 touches and 8 marks.
Jasper Pittard- 16 touches and 5 I50’s, at stages seemed the only player willing to take the contest on in an effort to find a one on one in our forward line. Without Pittard and Broadbent both firing simultaneously- we look a very average outfit.
Jay Schulz- The bloke had kicked 14.1 in our 3 wins and I thought ”Right, here is our 3 pronged forward line in sync and firing”. 3 weeks later and he has kicked 2 goals, some very un-Schulz like misses, some supposed contract disputes and our forward line in complete and utter disarray. 13 touches and 6 tackles were his numbers, but seemed to spend too much time trying to enter into grappling contests with Grimes and Batchelor, instead of applying superior workrate to find space and beat opponents on the lead. Our delivery certainly didn’t help this.
Tom Jonas- 13 touches and 4 R50’s, but is simply having no influence on the contest at present. Isn’t able to keep up with his opponent, is being out bodied with ease. Another who deserves a spell in the SANFL.
Matt White- Works hard to create space and overlap run, but it simply isn’t working at this point. Has hardly fired a shot offensively since Round 3, and needs a spell in the 2’s, finishing with 12 disposals.
Alipate Carlisle- THUD! Hear that sound? It’s the sound of Bobby come crashing back from his potential AA heights. Riewoldt gave him an absolute bath- forget the stats, there is nothing worth mentioning.
Sam Gray- Brought into the side to offer us forward spark and apply pressure. LOL. 12 touches, 2 tackles and bugger all score involvement. Sadly- I don’t think he will amount to anything other than a solid SANFL player.
Patrick Ryder- 11 touches and 20 hitouts. Was ok in the ruck but offered us nothing around the ground. 1 mark and shot at goal is simply nowhere near where we need him to be.
Nathan Krakouer- Up until he was subbed, I thought he offered us a little bit offensively, and defended well. 10 touches, but was hampered by what appears to be a foot injury.
Jarman Impey- 9 touches, 5 marks, 2 tackles and 2 I50’s. A very modest evening. Matched up on Deledio when he was resting forward, and gave him far too much space.
Matthew Lobbe- Given an almighty thumping by Maric. Won his fair share of hit-outs, but as I mentioned last week, offers us absolutely stuff all around the ground. 9 touches, 10 tackles and 2 marks.
Jackson Trengove- 7 touches, 4 marks and 6 1% acts before going off injured. Will be a huge loss, despite being a shadow of the player he has been for the past 2 seasons.
Karl Amon- 6 touches as the sub, needs a full game to show us what he has got.
Well, the premiership is gone, top 4 is gone, and I suspect top 8 will be gone in around about a months time. Over trained? Mentally weak? Game plan figured out? Whatever it is- it’s a real shame, as we should be at the other end of the ledger. This isn’t what I had in mind for this season, that’s for sure.
See you at the footy.
Valleys.
Last edited by
valleys07 on Tue May 26, 2015 3:38 am, edited 2 times in total.
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HOGG Shield 2015 Division I Premiers.
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