Round 5 – Port Adelaide v Carlton: Well Used
Well Used
Port Adelaide versus Carlton
7.20pm, Friday 22 April
Adelaide Oval
Aidan Hammond Aged 11
Today I knew who was going to win, but I didn’t know by how much. This game was important for Port because this game was the opportunity to be taken seriously. If they win by about 20 points, Port will likely stop being taken seriously. They’re 2-2 but they have played well. On the other point of view, the Power have beaten Sydney who are 0-4 and Fremantle who are 2-2 so they might have just beaten not very good opposition. The teams that they lost to are arguably the 2 best teams in the AFL; the Crows and GWS.
The match starts off with Port Adelaide firing. They are thrashing Carlton and it looks like Carlton are going to get beaten by a lot. They get it out of the centre immediately and Robbie Gray marks it. He is thinking about trying to score. I think that if he tries, it will go to the top of the square. He passes it off to Jaspar Pittard who I think tries to get the goal but miskicks it. Luckily it isn’t a long miskick and it goes to a pack.
After a series of taps and handballs, Jared Polec ends up with the ball but scores a behind. Aidyn Johnson has some speed and kicks his first AFL goal with his first AFL kick. He kicks that goal after a Charlie Dixon Major and a Brad Ebert Minor. Robbie Gray, the brilliant player that he is, and a huge asset to the Power scores a goal and tells Carlton to get their Blue skies out the door because some lightning Power clouds are coming. At this point Carlton get a rushed behind and I feel the need to congratulate them because that was an amazing effort at this point of the match.
Jarman Impey was silly and steps over the mark, Marc Murphy gets a 50 metre penalty and gets into a scoring position. Marc Murphy is a good player so he should kick it. He misses it, he pushes it right. Carlton really needed that, but he let them down. I heard one of the commentators say that Jack Silvagni was playing against one of his best friends. Westhoff who shouldn’t be in Port’s number 1 side is in there and kicks a behind. Port have a player of better quality, Chad Wingard and he kicks the goal for the power.
At this point, the contest is evening out but Carlton are just bombing it into their forward line and they look less dangerous rather than Port who are dangerously lowering their eyes and finding a short target. The other thing for Carlton is that they don’t have a big successful target who will mark the ball and kick straight. They are trying to make Casboult that target but he still is not very reliable with his kicking which is a worry for the Blues.
Right after I was talking about Levi Casboult’s kicking troubles he scores a goal, with a very ugly kick that did not have backspin but waved its way through the air and bounced 15 metres in front of the goals and somehow is not touched and is a goal. That is Carlton’s first goal. At quarter time the match is pretty even but it isn’t showing on the scoreboard for the Blues.
Credit to them for keeping up with Power in most of the game but when it comes down to it, the result of the match is determined by how many points you have on the scoreboard, not how many inside fifties you have or how many contested possessions you have. The second quarter would be an opportunity for Carlton to even out the scores a bit then take the lead in the 3rd and finally finish Port off in the last quarter. It looks like Port are not giving up the lead that they have, they want to tell you that as quick as they can, very quick.
Actually 24 seconds to be exact. Justin Westhoff scores the goal. Brendon Bolton made the kicking length tactical adjustment of getting them to kick shorter. They’ve kicked 12 short kicks to 3 long kicks, that’s quite a tactics change. The Blues get a goal through Levi Casboult. I think everybody who is watching this game will know that the goal that Levi Casboult just scored will improve his confidence by a lot.
The rest of this quarter is kind of like the first, Carlton does really poorly with their kicking. Carlton is still hanging in there. Port win the quarter but Port would have liked to have made the margin in the quarter more like 50 points. I thought Port would blow it out by a real lot. Friday night half-times are really good. Right after the play finishes you have the Cbus 7 days 7 plays because they are really cool and funny.
After that you have the ad break and then they talk about the match. Then they have the Auskick interview and they are so cute. I love watching them. After that they showed a video of Jack Silvagni when he was young. They were so cute, they were videos of him singing the Carlton song. I think he sang it more then than he does now because they don’t win a lot. Sam Gray, the Gray who everyone forgets about scores a goal. Not forgotten anymore! The rest of the game for Carlton is history. The history of losing. Because they lose, they lose by a lot. By 90 points. Port only have 1 Friday night game, and a Friday night game well used.
Port Adelaide 5.3 8.6 14.16 20.17 (137)
Carlton 1.4 2.9 2.9 6.11 (47)
Goals
Port Adelaide: R.Gray 5, Trengove 3, Johnson 2, Dixon 2, Polec 2, Young 2, Wingard, S.Gray, Broadbent, Westhoff,
Carlton: Casboult 4, Silvagni, Gibbs
Best
Port Adelaide: R.Gray, Ebert, Trengove, Broadbent, Wingard, Pittard, Wines
Carlton: Casboult, Cripps, Simpson
Umpires: Rosebury, Stephens, Hoskin Crowd: 43,120
Hopefully Carlton don’t have too many more Friday night games, Aidan, they were awful. That third quarter is some of the most uncompetitive football put on the field in a good few years. That said Port are good. Despite his kicking on goal would happily slot Robbie Gray in the Crows’ lineup.
Harsh but fair Dave. The Blues were awful. I estimate that of the twenty quarters of the season so far,we have played about three good quarters, perhaps six tolerably competitive ones, with the rest (the majority) very poor. As confidence drops, there seems no system, clangers mount, disposals are merely for the purpose of being rid of the ball rather than having any creative ideas; there is little evidence of running with intent, whether to assist at the contest or to create options, and tackling is unconvincing.
Thanks Aidan for a very accurate account of a forgettable night. I think you have your answer about Port’s quality. I agree with Dave, provided they maintain their form their consistency suggests that they are likely to be significant players in September.