PORT ADELAIDE’S non-selected players enjoyed a come-from-behind win over Adelaide in their match simulation at Alberton Oval on Friday afternoon.
Port gave the Crows a four-goal head start in cool and clear conditions, but was able to peg the score back across three 20-minute periods of 16-a-side competitive play.
Justin Westhoff was the focal point in attack booting four goals, while Sam Mayes and Riley Bonner won plenty of the football and Jarrod Lienert was a composed presence in the backline.
Development coach Matthew Lokan again guided the group from the sidelines and was pleased his charges were able to face competitive action against outside opposition for the third week in a row.
“It probably didn’t look like it was going to happen as we moved through the week this week, but it was great to be able to get Adelaide here to play 16 v 16,” he told portadelaidefc.com.au after the game.
“It beats training. It has been hard for our guys that haven’t been playing in the AFL side, but it’s great to be able to get some continuity with some games over the past few weeks.”
Lokan was impressed with the performances of those recently sent back from the AFL side, with their greater match hardness shining through, but was also pleased with the development of several youngsters over the recent stretch of scrimmages.
“That has been the hard thing for our younger players, to develop and then go out and practice what they’ve been learning during the week has been really difficult,” he explained.
“Those guys are starting to get some continuity. Those three (Jackson Mead, Trent Burgoyne and Miles Bergman) showed some really good signs and I thought Marty Frederick and Boyd Woodcock showed some glimpses as well.
“It is just about playing and getting that consistency for those guys and then being able to actually do that on the weekend has been good for them.”
The Crows started the better of the two sides, slotting the first two goals of the game within five minutes of the first bounce and had put four unanswered goals on the board by the first break in play midway through the first period.
However, Westhoff and Mayes soon began to work their way into the game and combined for Port’s first just after the restart.
Ruckman Sam Hayes began to get on top of the stoppages with Joe Atley consistently winning first possession clearances and the remainder of the first term was much more of an arm wrestle.
Former Port Adelaide forward Billy Frampton’s second goal was the only further score of the period.
The second period belonged to the hosts and father-son talents Mead and Burgoyne got Port off to a flier, as the former attacked a crumb and fed out a handball for the latter to goal.
Bonner started to get his hands on the ball prancing off halfback and played a hand in all of Port’s further goals to Ladhams, Westhoff and Ebert.
Several cheers of approval echoed across the grounds from their onlooking AFL selected teammates as Bergman and Mead impressed with their attack on the ball and clean hands in the contest.
Ben Crocker pulled one back for the Crows, but was also on the end of a crunching goal-saving tackle by Lienert at the end of the term and Port would enter the final stanza trailing by just three points.
Westhoff gave Port its first lead of the game within two minutes of the restart with his third goal and would later add a fourth off a neat Jake Pasini pass.
Frampton added a third to make things interesting, but a brilliant tackle and resulting goal from Lienert and classy snap from first-year forward Dylan Williams put the result beyond doubt.
Goals: Westhoff 4, Ebert, Burgoyne, Williams, Ladhams, Lienert
Best: Mayes, Bonner, Westhoff, Lienert, Ebert, Ladhams
