PORT Adelaide’s 2011 season begun with seemingly the toughest match possible, taking on reigning premiers Collingwood in the only game on Saturday afternoon.
The Etihad Stadium roof was open for the occasion, but deep in the bowels of the stadium past legends handed over jumpers to the future, with Josh Carr, Michael Wilson, and Brendan Lade passing on Power guernseys to Jarrad Irons, Cameron O’Shea, and Jasper Pittard.
PTV: Watch the Jumper Presentation
The team took to the field with Cameron Hitchcock being the inaugural ‘substitute’ player for the Power, alongside fellow interchange players Steven Salopek, Matthew Broadbent, and David Rodan.
Port Adelaide started with a furious intensity, winning the first centre clearance through reigning best and fairest winner Kane Cornes. The defensive pressure was excellent, holding the ball inside the forward half of the ground - Collingwood literally could not get their hands on the ball with the Power’s intensity superb.
Collingwood took three minutes to get the ball inside their forward 50 and scored the beginning goal of the game with their first clean passage of play. Port attacked forward again but the Pies cut off Kane Cornes’ kick at goal. By this time Power had 6 entries inside 50 the Pies had 2 for 2 goals on the board - it was seventh time lucky, with Justin Westhoff earning a free for holding on by O’Brien. He duly nailed the goal for the Power’s first goal in season 2011.
Westhoff undid his good work as the Power streamed forward, with Didak nailing him in a tackle. Irons was then unlucky on debut to cop the cruellest of bouncers as Gray kicked the ball forward but it bounced completely over his head. With the full defensive press on, the Power was able to absorb the pressure to level the scores with skipper Dom Cassisi nailing one from a contest. The game was very much a tough tussle early on, with scores level after the first 15 minutes.
Jackson Trengove’s defensive work was superb, but a holding free kick went against him, and Chris Dawes made no mistake from just on the 50 to stretch the lead out to a goal. The game continued to flow, with Pittard and O’Shea showing plenty down back - O’Shea stood his ground to take a gutsy mark. The ball was moved forward before Broadbent bombed long, where Schulz out-wrestled Reid to take the mark and give the Power the lead. Dane Swan responded within minutes to wrest it back in time-on.
A terrible defensive error by Chaplin saw him dribble the ball forward to the 50 where O’Brien was able to drill the goal to stretch the lead further. Amazing effort by Tom Logan saw Didak quiet and unable to exert scoreboard pressure, and Swan seemingly kicked the ball post-siren to kick Collingwood’s 6th for the term.
QUARTER TIME: 6.1 to 3.1. Goals to Westhoff, Schulz and Cassisi. Thomas leads with 11 possessions.
The Power’s pressure at the start of the second quarter was excellent again, but scoreboard pressure again eluded them, with Gray unable to kick a score from just on the 50. Salopek then gave away a 50 to guarantee a certain goal for Dawes. Another free kick assured him an opportunity deep in the pocket, which he duly nailed. Cloke then got another after a strong mark and the floodgates began to open - the amount of strength in the bodies was beginning to tell and Port simply couldn’t get hands on the ball, as Swan kicked his third 10 minutes into the second term.
The Power simply couldn’t get their hands on the ball - they had over double the amount of possessions, triple the scoring shots, and made better decisions all the way around and were able to secure front position time and time again.
In a terrible blow, Jay Schulz was struck down on the wing as as Ball rolled him in a tackle, bringing a stop to play at around the 16 minute mark of the quarter. Further details regarding this injury will be available during the week.
The Power had several opportunities to kick a goal in the term - Westhoff from the 50, Stewart from within 20 metres, and then Hitchcock from a snap - but misses cost them as Collingwood continued to score seemingly at will.After 10 unanswered goal, Travis Boak finally kicked a goal for the Power at around the 30 minute mark in what was a terribly disappointing second quarter. Matt Thomas followed it up by dribbling one through from the square. Robbie Gray limped off late in the term, but was able to return before the second quarter siren.
HALF TIME: 13.3.81 to 5.6.36 Goals to Westhoff, Schulz, Cassisi, Boak and Thomas, with Cornes leading the way with 17 disposals, ahead of Thomas with 16 and Gray 14.
In the second half the Power once more began brightly, with Jarrad Irons slotting his first goal on debut, meaning that the Power had kicked the last 3 goals to reduce to margin to 39 points.
Westhoff then continued the improvement by bagging his second goal for the game and showing that the Power were determined to fight the game out - Irons continued to put his head over the ball and was rewarded with his second goal for the game. A super clever kick by O’Shea on the outside of his boot at the 8 min mark went unrewarded as Pearce failed to hit the next target - it's an affliction that dogged the Power on a regular basis.
A five goal to none run came to an end when Didak got a goal after Trengove failed to lay a tackle rather than bump, and the ball continued to move up and down the ground; Westhoff missed a set shot at goal, and the ball was whipped up to Collingwood’s end where Cloke similarly failed to impact upon the scoreboard. Poor errors in defensive 50 continued to haunt the Power, but Collingwood’s accurate day abandoned them. Hitchcock was twice run down entering when the goal mouth beckoned, and finally Westhoff was able to goal with a beautiful long goal at the 17 minute mark of the third term.
Jasper Pittard did some terrific work alongside Robbie Gray before hitting Westhoff inside 50 on a tight angle, who nailed his third for the quarter. The Power continued to gain all the momentum with Thomas reducing the margin to 16 points at around the 22 minute mark - the desperation and determination by the Power had gone up tenfold in the third term.
The confidence was clear when Jasper dodged around Krakouer to clear the defensive 50 at the 24 minute mark, but the ball came straight back in and Dawes pulled down a big mark but failed to halt the Power’s run by hitting the post. Eventually Krakouer was able to dodge around several Port players before kicking a freakish goal, then missing another. The Pies continued to gain momentum as they dominated the closing moments of the term, piling on goals to stretch the margin back out to 7 goals at the end of the third term.
THREE-QUARTER TIME: 18.6.114 to 11.6.72 Goals: Westhoff 4, Thomas 2, Irons 2, Cassisi, Schulz and Boak. Cornes and Thomas tied on 24 possessions apiece, ahead of Salopek with 17, Gray 16, and Boak 14.
The Pies continued their run at the opening of the final quarter, kicking goals with seemingly each forward thrust.
An absolute speccy by Matt Thomas at the 8 minute mark of the term saw him boot his third goal for the game in his milestone match to bring the margin back to an even 50 points. It was a real highlight in what ultimately was a game devoid of special moments for the Power in the opening game of the season.
Many Power players were down on their usual output, but that had as much to do with the pressure that Collingwood imposed, along with their exquisite skills and hard-nosed Premiership-winning attitude to attacking the ball and the contest.
FINAL SCORE
Collingwood 6.1 13.3 18.6 24.11 (155)
Port Adelaide 3.1 5.6 11.6 12.8 (80)
Best: Thomas, Logan, Westhoff, Cornes, Gray, Irons
Goals: Westhoff 4, Thomas 3, Irons 2, Boak, Cassisi, Schulz
Crowd: 35,773
