by Booney » Wed Jul 22, 2020 9:34 am
What a finish! Let’s talk about the 4 quarters played before that though.
Without doubt one of the most entertaining opening halves of footy for the year as Port and Carlton threw the ball around and some express movement from the middle for Port and from defence for Carlton saw the two sides kick 11 goals for the first half between them.
Port’s early start was, again, on the back of some inspired work from Travis Boak, early clearances and a ripping snap from 40m out to get the scoreboard ticking over, a sensational start. 2 minutes later Dixon has one on the board and before you could open another beer Butters hands over to Motlop who kicks truly and Port have 3 on the board in the blink. It was one way traffic, clearances, possessions and I50 all pointed to Port being well on top. However, this Blues line up has some more dare about and some more belief about it and at ¼ time they go in with the narrowest of leads after kicking 4 unanswered goals on the back of some scintillating ball movement. From half back they were willing to take Port’s zone on and they got out the back on a couple of occasions, mind you a big pack mark from Betts got them going and a very good one-on-one win to McKay over Jonas ( not an easy ask ) gave them reason to believe they could transition and score.
The 2nd quarter was a little more benign, Betts turned nothing into something before both sides wasted some opportunities. Napping on the mark Simpson hadn’t got the memo about Farrell’s left foot and when Dixon handed off to him he slotted truly from outside 50 for the second time in two weeks, throw in a major to the ever improving Zak Butters after being dished one up by Marshall and Port take a 1 goal lead into half time. About now I thought we had staved off their best efforts and we should not hold them at bay. Not so.
Something happened to both sides at half time though, they both slowed the play up behind the ball and the 3rd quarter was an arm wrestle, 1.2 a piece and it’s the big blokes at either end, McKay making the most of limited opportunities and Dixon making the most of plenty, the commentators were surprised a move wasn’t made on Dixon and despite kicking 3.4 on the day Dixon was the difference between the two sides. Port set up behind the ball, Carlton slowed down their run from the back half and the game started to resemble many in 2020, a bit hard to watch. Ports defence was led by McKenzie deep and while Carlton had plenty of play in the third on the back of Cripps getting his hands on it Jonas was controlling the airspace in the back half, he took over from here on.
The Blues got back in front as Walsh kicked a beauty ( Boak being held? ), then Newnes followed suit and I thought the fly in fly out Port boys looked cooked. Again it was Jonas who took an intercept mark, pumped the ball inside 50 and on the way out Houston gets a shot on goal. Point. Port’s zone holds the ball in the front half, Houston pumps it in long and Dixon again leads Jones to the ball to mark right in front, 20 out. Point. Uh oh.
Jacob Weitering, impressive all day just got some panic about him, fair enough, in a one-on-one with Gray and we’ll be right from here. Point. What the….? Inexplicably the next piece of play saw Butters hand to Gray who hands to Marshall and from the top of the square he squirts it wide and it looked game over. Enter Tom Jonas.
After some faffing about at half back with under 1 minute to play Carlton go long down the line to Casboult, McGovern and McKay all in a pack right on the boundary, surely they kill it. Nope. Jonas makes some early body contact ( mentioned in here in previous write ups ) and pushes the whole pack under the ball, he marks and hands off to the agile Ladhams who hits up Butters. The Mayes kick and Gray mark can’t be under stated, the last 30 seconds of play from the Jonas mark, the Ladhams kick, the Mayes kick, the Gray mark could only end in one way.
You can bet your house if Gray was 20m out right in front he misses, but 45m out on the boundary? Never. Freaking. Missing. I went nuts. My wife came out to the rumpus room to see if I was ok. Ok? You ****ing bet I am!
In retrospect the Dixon, Gray and Marshall misses probably meant we should have won by two or three goals but we’ll take the 4 points and head home.
Boons best – Dixon, Jonas, DBJ, Ladhams, Burton, Butters
Some changes ahead, Motlop with an ankle, Burton with a quad, Lycett perhaps not quite right yet.
Out – Motlop, Burton
In – Ebert, Bonner
PAFC. Forever.
LOOK OUT, WE'RE COMING!
