by Booney » Mon Jul 06, 2020 12:51 pm
It shaped up as the first genuine test Port Adelaide would face in 2020 and no, it’s not the hub, it’s the Brisbane Lions who are shaping up as one of the teams to beat this year. Given they’ll play most of their games in Queensland and the rest in Sydney they look cheery ripe to be a contender. I can’t say Port Adelaide were particularly disappointing on Saturday night, we barely had the ball enough to make a mess of it such was the pressure Brisbane applied when we had it and how clean they were with options aplenty when they had it.
I spoke about pressure on the ball and the ball carrier last week and the tables were turned on us Saturday night as the Lions upped the pressure. We had enough of the ball in the first quarter, enough to have had 7 scoring shots to 3 yet still trail by a point at quarter time. That pressure was up to start with, 16 tackles to 9 while leading clearances by 7 ( 11-4 ) and contested ball ( 29-22 ).
With our first 5 scoring shots registering behinds we didn’t get any reward at all for our work and there were some worrying signs that the Brisbane forwards were finding space to work in as they made it look much easier to kick goals. That’s how it played out for the rest of the night.
Defensively we had one of the worst nights our back 6 has had for some time. Brisbane isolated Clurey away from the aid of Jonas in the aerial contests and he got found out a couple of times, McKenzie didn’t have much of an impact as he too was drawn out of the play and with the talls failing to bring the ball to ground the likes of Hartlett and DBJ were given very little opportunity to make the ball move out of defence quickly while Bonner mounted a case to have Burton take his place in the side. Brisbanes 3 talls were too mobile and simply too tall for our back line, particularly when the midfield for Brisbane didn’t have the pressure applied that we would normally want to see.
The second quarter had the game won at half time, 6.5 to 1.1 and if not for some smart work by Butters just before half time we would have gone goalless for the quarter. While we’ve added some pace to our midfield most Port fans would say playing both Wines and Rockliff at the same time makes us look slow, we certainly did look that on the weekend. And one dimensional, Brisbane have a few 190cm midfielders who can run, they’re a very damaging unit.
Clearances were in our favour ( 36-32 ) but they were 13-5 to Brisbane in the centre square and those we did win were often snuffed out by our poor execution of the next possession. Those who are normally fairly clean in Amon, Byrne-Jones, Rozee, Bonner, Houston and Farrell were all around or under 70% disposal efficiency. When we did have it we didn’t do anything with it.
Night mare of a night for the forwards and none of them, bar Butters and Ebert in patches could be satisfied with the ball delivery or the way they used it once they go it. We were simply outplayed by a better unit on the night who played some exciting football. I hope we get to face them again, it will mean we’re playing finals if we do because they sure as hell will be.
Boon’s best – Boak, Butters, Houston, Ebert, Wines
Changes – Given Burton is fit I expect he’ll replace Bonner who has been a little quiet, Lienert could be an option behind the ball as GWS play Himmelberg, Cameron and Finlayson forward. I’d like to see Rozee spend some more time in the midfield as he’s been down for a couple of weeks and that might mean a Rockliff or SPP make way, perhaps Sam Mayes could find himself on a wing with Farrell playing more forward.
PAFC. Forever.
LOOK OUT, WE'RE COMING!