The thing is that Port Adelaide in the final series, succeeded twice in winning the battle in their forward-lines... for two losses. Firstly, kicking more than 10 goals against Norwood's defence ain't easy; and they managed that twice. But more particularly:Rik E Boy wrote:Sporting post mate. McGuiness will be a massive out that's for sure. He 'sounded' impassable in that last quarter. You are right about process though, I believe that Centrals and Port before us did the same thing. I believe Centrals and Port's was the 'Fos' model of hard down the guts, power at the body, power at the ball, the Norwood 'Bassett' model of course is all about making it bloody hard to score. Seems to work well in the SANFL but that system can be broken down by teams with exceptional talent (Geelong, Hawthorn) so it doesn't appear to be as effective in the AFL.
regards,
REB
• in the 2SF, they went inside 50 30 times for 19 scores; and
• in the GF, they went inside 50 30 times for 23 scores.
They are excellent inside 50: score ratios against any team, let alone one with a famously stingy defence. I'd guess that that grannie ratio of giving up a score 77% of the time that the opposition went inside 50, was well and truly Norwood's worst result all year. Once Port got the ball going through half-forward they were almost irresistible; but they managed that too rarely, getting smashed in the inside 50s in the grannie 51:30. So while Norwood's defence got beaten once Port were inside 50, Norwood's defenders still won them the game by pushing up and building the wall at wing and half-back so that Port couldn't get inside 50 enough.
When you look at the mature Pahhhhhr listed players who played yesterday who won't be there next year (Tom Logan is only the most obvious example of someone whose time is up; there will be a few others because AFL list management is a ruthless business) and that most of them are going to be replaced by 18 year old draftees who've never played at SANFL league standard before (unless Port are big participants in trade week and bring in a lot of mature talent), Port's 2nds side is unlikely to look so imposing next year.
So a team might well get around Norwood's structures next year. (For all we know, Norwood might regularly give up massive scores next year; remaking a defence without the best defender in the comp will be no easy task.) But it's not likely that that team will be Port.
