by Booney » Mon Apr 04, 2022 11:45 am
There’s no doubt Friday night hurts, losing after the final siren to your arch enemy will always hurt but the hurt in seeing the season slip away by round 3 hurts even more.
If you’d given me 13 goals with Marshall kicking 5 on Friday I’d have said we lock in the 4 points and move onto Melbourne but once again our team defence let us down. This comes down to applying ourselves to the task and being willing to commit to the plan, we aren’t and we are being left wanting. For the second straight week we give the opposition good looks at goal and they make us pay. Hawthorn with 15.6 and Adelaide with 14.6 tells a worrying tale. Sides we would expect to beat have opened up our zone and we haven’t been able to push them wide entering their forward 50 resulting in easy shots on goal. At the other end we’ve pilfered one shot after another ( 7.14 and 13.14 ) leaving the hard work unrewarded when we’ve been willing to do that hard work.
The first quarter was all Port, 5 goals to 2 and all across the ground Port had the better of the going, where we’d been lacking, in forward 50 efficiency, we started well, Motlop, make shift forward Mayes, young keys Georgiades and Marshall are on the board and the midfield is pushing up with Drew making it 5 for the term. Defensively the midfield is keeping Adelaide to their stop / start attacking style and we’ve got time to set up behind the ball.
3 goals up at ¼ time and that soon stretched out to 4 as Marshall, Georgiades and Lycett added majors but it’s here the first signs of the back half being vulnerable come into play. Himmelberg has 2 in quick time and when Gollant makes it 2 for the term all from set shots right in front it’s clear we’ve got some issues, again. Adelaide are moving the ball with more intent and they’re getting good looks because of it. Dawson and Laird in particular are getting their skates on.
After half time it’s Mayes who gets us back out over 20 points and the blows come from both sides. Gollant with his third, Marshall answers with his third and Gollant soon has 4 in 20 minutes of play and the chess pieces are being shuffled behind the ball. Skinner was getting done 1 on 1, Jonas couldn’t cover both Gollant and Himmelberg ( more on Jonas later ) and the two pronged Adelaide talls are looking dangerous. McKenzie is forced into a minders role instead of the third man up and things are getting shaky. It’s here I told some mates Adelaide win.
Marshall added his 5th early in the last and every time Adelaide got back to within 2 goals Port would counter punch to keep them at arms length, at least until Himmelberg kicked his 3rd and 4th in a matter of minutes and the run had stopped for Port Adelaide. Adelaide had the momentum but that all looked to be in vain as the game ticked into the 29th minute and Travis Boak was lining up from 45m out in front, the shot missed and Adelaide had 90 seconds to take the game away.
Enough of that.
What’s the fix? There’s plenty of things going wrong for Port Adelaide at the moment on the field and a fair bit going wrong off of it.
On field there’s some serious disconnect in the team defence, there’s no doubt we’re missing Aliir and Clurey behind the ball but back there we’ve got the skipper in Tom Jonas, 2020 All Australian and BnF Byrne-Jones, McKenzie who gives his all every week and the cool head of Ryan Burton we surely have enough experience back there to set up defensively in the zone that has made us so hard to score against for 3 years. Something isn’t right.
Tom Jonas is under some pressure, if not for injury I think his spot in the side could be in jeopardy, he’s not impacting aerial contests as he once did and perhaps that’s on the back of Clurey being out of the side, Clurey keeps key forwards grounded with good body work and Jonas does the third man up role. McKenzie does similar but with Aliir missing we’ve got two under sized key defenders playing the big key defender roles and Jonas is struggling because of it.
Right now the loss of Ladhams and Lienert in the off season looks poor, but that’s a short sighted view as we need to see more of Josh Sinn before we see how that trade worked out and Skinner for Lienert is a longer term decision. At 27 Lienert hadn’t really ever taken his chances ( mind you, never did a lot wrong ) and Skinner at 24 offers some size Lienert didn’t. Finlayson can be given some time as he’s one off season and a handful of games into a new system but the pressure will come if there’s no form shown at SANFL level before Dixon returns. List management has got a lot right in recent years but at the moment this off season looks questionable. Time will tell here.
Off field the drums are beating, I have little doubt the 0-3 start spells the end of Hinkley’s reign at Alberton but I see no point in doing so now. Mid season coach sackings are a bad look and I hope we don’t go down that path, there’s nothing to gain when the season is shot but I’ve got a feeling a 0-4 this week after Melbourne and 0-5 after Carlton might be the end. Time will tell here, too.
Boon’s best : Boak, Marshall, Wines, Mayes honorable mention to Lycett who had his best game for the year.
Changes - I don't forsee many with the injury list still long, Bergman has one run udner his belt so he'll present himself as an option but other than that I don't see many making a case from below.
PAFC. Forever.
LOOK OUT, WE'RE COMING!