Port Adelaide 2018

[carey]

He needs 1-2 Weeks for rest/recovery. He'll be back for finals.

If you make it

Lose today, they won’t.

You mean like North and Adelaide?

[MW]

We werent 8 weeks ago!

[LMA]

Some quality reading on the various Port facebook pages, do yourselves a favour and treat yourselves. Spelling is one of the many highlights.

How are the big 3 tracking over the last month. Its unfair to single out just one game like last night, how has their body of work been over the last 4 or 5 games when top 4 and finals have been up for grabs?
Are they still talking about that premiership they won in the trade period down at Alberton?

Facebook

[Booney]

Football is fun, isn't it?

For the 5th consecutive time and the second in a row after the siren the West Coast Eagles come to Adelaide Oval as we snap defeat from the jaws of victory. ****. For several weeks our finals chances have sat firmly in our own hands, for several weeks we've turned around and wiped our hands....well, in you know what. Whilst a small chance of finals football remains there's no doubt we'd be making up the numbers ( so too the other 2 sides chasing 8th ) in the finals series ahead. Simply, we don't deserve to be there.

The last two gut wrenching weeks aside we've been on the slide since the round 14 win over Melbourne at Adelaide Oval. Less than convincing wins over Carlton and St Kilda still had us hopeful of a top 4 berth but other than a win in wet and windy Ballarat over the hapless Bulldogs we've been dead set ordinary. Not shit, just ordinary since that Melbourne win. The 22 point loss to GWS aside, the three losses to Fremantle (9), Adelaide (3) and the Eagles (4) added into the Hawthorn (3) loss earlier in the year has us giving up 4 very, very winnable games by a total 19 ******* points. 4 games under 10 points, we've lost them all. Two of them, Adelaide and West Coast we can sit back knowing we have nobody to blame but ourselves, well, our coaching staff, anyway.

Circumstances aside from the weekend where Ryder played no part in the 2nd half and Dixon and Houston none in the last quarter our coaching staff's want to play ultra defensive shut down football and try and hold onto a slim lead instead of trying to score and win the game has many of us seeing red. Bloody red.

The last play Saturday night, Howard is manning up on a potato, he's called Vardy in the football world, why wasn't he on McGovern? Robbie Gray, all 5 foot 11 of him, he's the loose man in defense, why wasn't Jonas or Clurey there guarding space? There's no doubt personnel, or lack thereof played a part in that, no Ryder meant Westhoff was in the ruck, no Dixon meant no big body to throw deep in defense, but how did Ebert end up on McGovern and Gray the loose man? Simply, not good enough from the back half.

Other notable cock ups were Tom Clurey with a bit over 2 minutes to play bombing the ball deep to a 3 on 1 with Gray under the ball, or Motlop on the outer wing playing on when around 2 minutes were on the clock and everything in the football world is telling you to slow the game down. Dumb. All our own fault.

Boon's best : Jonas, Wines, Polec, Westhoff, Johnson

Where to then? One week at a time.

With Ryder unlikely to front up against one of the competitions best ruckman we can't throw Westhoff in the middle as he'll be needed forward and we can't send Howard there as his height will be needed on Cox in the back half. Frampton must come in, he's at least got some size about him, but mark Grundy down for a shit load of hitouts and a shitload of touches this weekend. Ladhams may also be brought into the line up to give us a target behind Westhoff in Dixon's place. Two untried talls in a must win. Great. Powell-Pepper must also come back in after a weekend off, he'll be needed at Grundy's feet to try and create some more midfield numbers for Port.

In - Frampton*/Ladhams*, Powell-Pepper
Out - Dixon, Ryder*, Houston*, S.Gray

Frampton in if Ryder doesn't come up, Ladhams in if he does, Powell-Pepper in if Houston doesn't come up, S.Gray out if Houston is fit.

[Lightning McQueen]

Hinkley OUT

Starting to agree.

Starting? He's the main root cause.

[mots02]

Football is fun, isn't it?

For the 5th consecutive time and the second in a row after the siren the West Coast Eagles come to Adelaide Oval as we snap defeat from the jaws of victory. ****. For several weeks our finals chances have sat firmly in our own hands, for several weeks we've turned around and wiped our hands....well, in you know what. Whilst a small chance of finals football remains there's no doubt we'd be making up the numbers ( so too the other 2 sides chasing 8th ) in the finals series ahead. Simply, we don't deserve to be there.

The last two gut wrenching weeks aside we've been on the slide since the round 14 win over Melbourne at Adelaide Oval. Less than convincing wins over Carlton and St Kilda still had us hopeful of a top 4 berth but other than a win in wet and windy Ballarat over the hapless Bulldogs we've been dead set ordinary. Not shit, just ordinary since that Melbourne win. The 22 point loss to GWS aside, the three losses to Fremantle (9), Adelaide (3) and the Eagles (4) added into the Hawthorn (3) loss earlier in the year has us giving up 4 very, very winnable games by a total 19 ******* points. 4 games under 10 points, we've lost them all. Two of them, Adelaide and West Coast we can sit back knowing we have nobody to blame but ourselves, well, our coaching staff, anyway.

Circumstances aside from the weekend where Ryder played no part in the 2nd half and Dixon and Houston none in the last quarter our coaching staff's want to play ultra defensive shut down football and try and hold onto a slim lead instead of trying to score and win the game has many of us seeing red. Bloody red.

The last play Saturday night, Howard is manning up on a potato, he's called Vardy in the football world, why wasn't he on McGovern? Robbie Gray, all 5 foot 11 of him, he's the loose man in defense, why wasn't Jonas or Clurey there guarding space? There's no doubt personnel, or lack thereof played a part in that, no Ryder meant Westhoff was in the ruck, no Dixon meant no big body to throw deep in defense, but how did Ebert end up on McGovern and Gray the loose man? Simply, not good enough from the back half.

Other notable cock ups were Tom Clurey with a bit over 2 minutes to play bombing the ball deep to a 3 on 1 with Gray under the ball, or Motlop on the outer wing playing on when around 2 minutes were on the clock and everything in the football world is telling you to slow the game down. Dumb. All our own fault.

Boon's best : Jonas, Wines, Polec, Westhoff, Johnson

Where to then? One week at a time.

With Ryder unlikely to front up against one of the competitions best ruckman we can't throw Westhoff in the middle as he'll be needed forward and we can't send Howard there as his height will be needed on Cox in the back half. Frampton must come in, he's at least got some size about him, but mark Grundy down for a shit load of hitouts and a shitload of touches this weekend. Ladhams may also be brought into the line up to give us a target behind Westhoff in Dixon's place. Two untried talls in a must win. Great. Powell-Pepper must also come back in after a weekend off, he'll be needed at Grundy's feet to try and create some more midfield numbers for Port.

In - Frampton*/Ladhams*, Powell-Pepper
Out - Dixon, Ryder*, Houston*, S.Gray

Frampton in if Ryder doesn't come up, Ladhams in if he does, Powell-Pepper in if Houston doesn't come up, S.Gray out if Houston is fit.

Might have been useful now if Ken had tried and tested a couple of these earlier in the year when opportunity arose through injury

[Booney]

I see enough of the Magpies to know Frampton and Ladhams weren't ready in the early rounds that Ryder missed.

[mots02]

I see enough of the Magpies to know Frampton and Ladhams weren't ready in the early rounds that Ryder missed.

Are they ready now?

[Booney]

I see enough of the Magpies to know Frampton and Ladhams weren't ready in the early rounds that Ryder missed.

Are they ready now?

Nope, they haven't earned a call up by any means but we don't have Dixon available to send into the ruck so there's no option but to play at least one of them, maybe both.

[MW]

SANFL form counts for shit.
Give them a go and see how the handle it with better players around them. Some players excel in those conditions rather than playing with ring ins in front of 500 people and opposition fans who hate their existence.
Not ideal 2 games out from finals (if you make it) though. Would have been better off doing it earlier in the season.

[Bombers4EVA]

Port are mentally f&%ked. They will not play finals after seeing what they have produced over the last month. There needs to be a real awakening and some massive calls made before they start to be a finals contender.

[Lightning McQueen]

Port are mentally f&%ked. They will not play finals after seeing what they have produced over the last month. There needs to be a real awakening and some massive calls made before they start to be a finals contender.

How so? They were looking the goods even after Paddy went down, losing two more after that crippled them and they still had a pulse, Robbie Gray should've put them two shots through and it would've been curtains.

I'm not sure they are mentally screwed, they do need to play to their strengths and develop a more apt game plan.

Great win by the Eagles though, after the focus on Adolf Gaff during the week and no Kennedy, Imagine if there was room up[ forward for McGovern full time, what a set of mittens.

[mots02]

I see enough of the Magpies to know Frampton and Ladhams weren't ready in the early rounds that Ryder missed.

Are they ready now?

Nope, they haven't earned a call up by any means but we don't have Dixon available to send into the ruck so there's no option but to play at least one of them, maybe both.

and that's my point - earlier in the year there was an opportunity to expose one or even both of them in games that were less critical and perhaps against some softer opposition.

Now, there is no choice but to play a couple of guys who are still probably not ready, still haven't probably earned the right but could have at least experienced it once or twice before. It comes on the back of the perfect PAFC big man shit storm which is really unlucky and would have been difficult to plan for but it could have been made easier on the young fellas if they'd had a go when opportunity presented before.

[MW]

Didn't kick a goal for the last 50 minutes of the game.

[Booney]

Port are mentally f&%ked. They will not play finals after seeing what they have produced over the last month. There needs to be a real awakening and some massive calls made before they start to be a finals contender.

Not mentally ******, but there's no pressure for their spot in the team mate and it's showing.

Last year we had Lobbe, Young, Ah Chee, Impey, Austin and Trengove running around at Alberton while Monfries, White, Krakouer and Eddy were there as back up when not injured and they've been replaced with kids in the main, but also the likes of McKenzie, Thomas, Trengove, Barry, Neade etc. No upgrades there.

The top end of our list got better and the bottom remained the same as all lists do with your draftees but the middle of the list got considerably weaker and once tested it's been exposed. McKenzie, Thomas, Neade, Barry, Trengove and Amon have all had a shot and not been able to secure a spot.

This year we've got Hayes (young ruck), Hartlett, Broadbent, Drew, Garner and Irra all gone to season ending injuries and have had Ryder, Marshall, Rockliff, SPP, Howard and Jonas all miss games.

No pressure from below for their spots since about round 12.

[Bombers4EVA]

Port are mentally f&%ked. They will not play finals after seeing what they have produced over the last month. There needs to be a real awakening and some massive calls made before they start to be a finals contender.

How so? They were looking the goods even after Paddy went down, losing two more after that crippled them and they still had a pulse, Robbie Gray should've put them two shots through and it would've been curtains.

I'm not sure they are mentally screwed, they do need to play to their strengths and develop a more apt game plan.

Great win by the Eagles though, after the focus on Adolf Gaff during the week and no Kennedy, Imagine if there was room up[ forward for McGovern full time, what a set of mittens.

How so? Take a look at their last 3 - 5 results against the eagles? Take a look at their results against the better sides? When it comes down to a hard and close contest they go missing. They have a lot of blokes on their list that should be grateful of getting a game.

[MW]

Wingard is brilliant with ball in hand...and a liability without

[Booney]

I see enough of the Magpies to know Frampton and Ladhams weren't ready in the early rounds that Ryder missed.

Are they ready now?

Nope, they haven't earned a call up by any means but we don't have Dixon available to send into the ruck so there's no option but to play at least one of them, maybe both.

and that's my point - earlier in the year there was an opportunity to expose one or even both of them in games that were less critical and perhaps against some softer opposition.

Now, there is no choice but to play a couple of guys who are still probably not ready, still haven't probably earned the right but could have at least experienced it once or twice before. It comes on the back of the perfect PAFC big man shit storm which is really unlucky and would have been difficult to plan for but it could have been made easier on the young fellas if they'd had a go when opportunity presented before.

Games that were less critical? Seriously, look how even the competition is mate, if you think some games are more critical than others you're joking. Every game is critical.

Beat Sydney, Brisbane and North and lost to Essendon, Geelong and GWS without Ryder this year.

[Booney]

Port are mentally f&%ked. They will not play finals after seeing what they have produced over the last month. There needs to be a real awakening and some massive calls made before they start to be a finals contender.

How so? They were looking the goods even after Paddy went down, losing two more after that crippled them and they still had a pulse, Robbie Gray should've put them two shots through and it would've been curtains.

I'm not sure they are mentally screwed, they do need to play to their strengths and develop a more apt game plan.

Great win by the Eagles though, after the focus on Adolf Gaff during the week and no Kennedy, Imagine if there was room up[ forward for McGovern full time, what a set of mittens.

How so? Take a look at their last 3 - 5 results against the eagles? Take a look at their results against the better sides? When it comes down to a hard and close contest they go missing. They have a lot of blokes on their list that should be grateful of getting a game.

Beat Richmond, Melbourne, Sydney of sides in the 8, lost to Hawthorn by 3 points, West Coast by 40 in Perth and 3 in Adelaide, lost to GWS by 22 and yet to play Collingwood. 7 games against top 8 sides for 3 wins, two 3 point losses, a 22 and 40 pointer.

[Bombers4EVA]

Wingard is brilliant with ball in hand...and a liability without

He's way too hot and cold. Sooo much talent with the potential of being a superstar but just cannot become that consistent.