by Booney » Mon Jun 17, 2019 1:54 pm
I don’t recall being told we’d go ultra defensive when things didn’t go our way. I certainly don’t recall being told we’d load up the back half of the ground and leave a 10 game kid on his own up front to win the game. But that’s what happened in the last quarter of a “must win” game in Perth on the weekend.
In an uncharacteristic start to the game Port jumped the Dockers to have 2 goals, both to Paddy Ryder, on the board in the first 7 minutes. General play was on an even keel but in transition Port used the ball far better and faster than Fremantle and had time and space to move inside the forward half. Ryder kicked one from the square, one from 15m out, Westhoff kicked his 300th career goal with a ripper from the boundary and Farrell, with is lethal left foot, kicked truly from 45 twice to give Port an 11 point quarter time lead. Bar a snap ( some, including me, might say lucky ) from Matera Port should/could/would have been 3 important majors in front. Movement from defence to the front half through Hartlett in a super return to AFL football, along with Burton, Houston and Amon early had promise written all over it.
Momentum swung, quickly. 5 goals to two as Hogan got on his bike and left Clurey or Jonas behind him, Walters was doing as he pleased on the deepest defender ( often Jonas or DBJ ) and the midfield was struggling to temper the impact of Nat Fyfe. Fyfe and Boak went head to head for most of the game, from about midway through the second quarter and it was a pleasure to watch, well, not the purple part in this contest anyway.
In the second quarter Fremantle upped the tackle pressure, Port’s dropped off, especially in the middle where Fremantle had 4 clearances to 2 and had kicked 2 goals to nothing from those clearances. Young Fremantle ruckman Darcy was holding his own, Walters kicked 3 for the quarter and bar Boak and Burton Fremantle had us.
Swings/roundabouts. 5 goals to 4 in the third and Port have got some of that run and carry back. Boak was sensational again in the third, Lycett had the better of hitouts (5-1 early), Houston had 6 I50’s after getting on the end of some run generated by Duursma and within 10 minutes we’d laid more tackles than we did for the whole second quarter. This is better. This is the standard. On ¾ time Farrell kicks his 4th to hit the front again and its level pegging going into a very, very important last quarter.
I’d like to end my review here, if I could.
Smashed. Slaughtered. Belted. It was an awful 30 minutes that followed. As Darcy made a cooked Lycett look old and slow, Ryder looked old and slow, while forward of the ball Farrell is left one out against 3 as Port park the bus defensively going against everything we were told we’d be over summer. The midfield is getting smashed as Darcy gets first touch to a dominant midfield and the back half is under the pump. Meanwhile Howard is somewhere or other having zero touches for the quarter. Could he have gone into the ruck? Could he have gone back? Could. Should. Would. 9 touches in the forward half for the term, 3 goals 4 to nothing and our ball use was appalling. Appalling. Numbers behind the ball made it impossible to score and this scoreless quarter looked worse and hurt more than the scoreless first quarter in Tasmania. Why Lycett was left in the middle and why Jonas was left deep on Walters as we went ultra defensive has me beat. Just like the Dockers had us beat.
Boon's best : Boak, R.Gray, Burton, Farrell, Duursma, Hartlett
2019 is rinse and repeat. Too much left to too few and too many having no impact. With Wines and Dixon looking like certainties to come in this week and Rockliff and Ebert right behind them there’s several in the AFL side who are on the outer.
My changes at this stage :
Out – Motlop, Lienert ( Or S.Gray, Butters )
In – Wines, Dixon
PAFC. Forever.
LOOK OUT, WE'RE COMING!
