Round 11 – Port Adelaide v Carlton: Tell them the Blues are coming!

Round 11 (Sir Doug Nicholls Round)

Port Adelaide v Carlton

7.35pm, Saturday 23rd May 2026

Adelaide Oval

By Dan Lonergan

My impression of a large group of Carlton supporters is that they are all duck or no dinner. When they are struggling, as they did in the first nine rounds, it is no dinner.

They were competitive in the other games leading most at certain times, but were overhauled in the second half or started badly like Brisbane in Michael Voss’ last game and then motored home, but were too far behind to win.

These fans, of which several have their own podcast, and one of them the Jumper Punch, had one of their leaders have his membership suspended for some derogatory comments about women, can change their views about their beloved club if the Blues win or lose a game. It’s black or white as Alannis Morisette sung; That’s ironic and no grey!

They are very outspoken and were especially about Voss wanting him sacked. And as Gerard Whateley said on his SEN Morning Show, Whateley, he was loosely targeting these fans regarding Voss leaving, that they got their wish.

Now! The Blues have won two in a row under Josh Fraser and have a 3-8 record and these supporters and their podcasts have changed their tune and are starting to talk top ten and that Josh Fraser is the messiah. All duck, now.

They are also putting their opinion forward that the club with their recruiting this year has adopted a moneyball attitude with Ainsworth from the Gold Coast, and Sydney pair, Ollie Florent and Will Hayward.

These podcasts were critical of their recruitment in the previous nine weeks, but don’t they change quickly? All clubs have forums that get stuck into players, the team, game plan, especially the coach and the game plan, but this Jumper Punch show is generally on every night and they usually called it an emergency meeting about how much the team was struggling and how bad Voss was as a coach.

They are very passionate, more than most clubs’ supporters, Carlton and very vocal when the club has been in the doldrums, which has been most of this century as they expect success. However, if they get on a roll, again more than the followers of other AFL entities, my belief is they get so excited and almost carried away only to change their views and disposition when there is a loss.

I know Port have battled so far this season, but the Adelaide Oval has been a graveyard for the Blues since it became an AFL venue and Port were favourites due to the home ground advantage.

However, the Darwin weather, being steamy and humid did not just adversely affect Gold Coast, who faded badly in the last quarter against North Melbourne and were over run after being 43 points in front and lost with a goal after the siren. But the Power were in the same boat, looking as flat as a tack after kicking the first goal with the Blues kicking five of the next six and remained on top for the rest of the game in undoubtably their best 4 and in fact only 4 quarter performance of the season.

They were pretty good against the disappointing Bulldogs in snapping their seven game losing streak the previous week, but wasteful in front of goal and took until the last term to put scoreboard pressure on and win the game.

The Blues, I have thought, have always had plenty of top end talent. But many were out of form at the start of the 2026 campaign under Voss and why is the million dollar question? They have 19 players from other clubs and that really is way too many. There are some though who can play and are beginning under Fraser to show that talent again like Adam Cerra, an underwhelming disappointment after leaving Fremantle where he was a top ten draft pick.

George Hewitt had been a good player for the Blues, but this season had fallen out of favour. He has the ability to play a defensive or attacking role as an inside mid and is again beginning to become effective in this role. Nic Newman, returning from injury, continues to be solid down back along with veteran former Giant, Nick Haynes in assisting Jacob Weitering, who has been struggling at times in 2026.

The backline in the past fortnight has been pretty tight conceding a total of 120 points during those two matches. It’s a figure, which helps you stay in matches and win more often than not if the forward line connects and that’s getting there for Carlton as well.

It helps too that interim coach Fraser is playing the youngsters, with the fans getting excited about Jack Ison, who made his debut and was more than handy against the Bulldogs, and composed, kicking the winner. He also played against the Power, with the injury hit, but talented Billy Wilson recruited from Sorrento a famous beach town on the Mornington Peninsula, whose blond surfy hair style would certainly blend in there, performing well too. Harry Dean also looks the goods as a key defender in the mould of his dual premiership player, father, Peter.

Top three selection from the 2024 draft, Jagga Smith, whose debut year last season ended before it started with a ruptured ACL and a subsequent knee reconstruction, has hit the ground running this year and again in the past fortnight has really shown why he was chosen near the top at that draft. He joins Patrick Cripps and Sam Walsh as the leading trio in a pretty solid midfield, which was too much for Port despite having one of the best players in the comp, Zak Butters and Jason Horne-Francis, who was Port’s best player on the weekend.

You could argue that the Power have one of the worst lists with the top end talent, as well as Butters and Horne-Francis, in my view containing only Mitch Georgiades, who like Butters may be on the move at the end of the season and the injured Connor Rozee.

Allir Allir when on is an excellent intercept defender, but not ideal in a one on one role. Brownlow Medallist Ollie Wines has been a sensational warrior but seems to be near the end as his body being an inside bull has taken a battering, while Darcy Byrne-Jones has been a fine servant having flown under the radar except inside the four walls at Alberton in playing well over 200 solid games.

Jordan Sweet, after being denied of opportunities in the ruck at the Bulldogs, who ironically desperately needs him now, is developing nicely and Jase Burgoyne is becoming a good player. However, the talent pool in my opinion falls away after that. Second year players Joe Berry, and Jack Whitlock, who is fast becoming an imposing presence as a key forward, and Christian Moraes are starting to emerge at senior level.

There is always pressure on Port Adelaide, because their mantra is we exist to win premierships. That is probably more a Port Magpies’ theme in the SANFL where for many years they won flags for fun, especially a long run of consecutive premierships in the 1970s, late 80s and the 90s, although it has leaked into the Power’s psyche at times especially from long term President, David Koch.

The AFL version have made finals regularly, but one flag in 2004 despite in the early stages of this century, winning finals until the premiership wasn’t easy. They dominated the 2002 and 2003 home and away seasons and finished on top, but lost that advantage in dropping their first finals against Collingwood and Sydney respectively, which meant they were put on the other side of the draw and had to travel to Brisbane in 2002 and the MCG to meet Collingwood in preliminary finals and fell short.

Maybe they were not ready then and it was a case of third time lucky as they won the Qualifying in 2004 over Geelong, the preliminary final against St Kilda, but only narrowly, and then beat a banged up Brisbane to win the flag. With a team like that, I reckon they left at least one more flag on the table. There was another grand final appearance but they were blown away by Geelong in 2007 and then under Ken Hinkley several finals and plenty of chances to make a grand final and win one particularly in the Covid years.

In 2020, with South Australia not affected as much as Victoria by the virus, Port won their first final, and then Richmond on the way to three flags in four years, beat them in a close one at Adelaide oval, which they should not have lost.

In 2021, the overly cautious in my opinion, controversial Andrews state Government had closed down Victoria and the grand final was played in Perth, so all finals participants had to travel around the country except Port Adelaide until the grand final if they qualified. They also did not need to spend time in quarantine unlike clubs, players, officials and the hordes of media coming from Melbourne, so it was set up for them to finally give Ken Hinkley a chance to coach his team in the big dance.

Port beat Geelong easily at home and were unbackable favourites to beat the Bulldogs, who had started their campaign in Tasmania, beat Brisbane by a point at the Gabba, went to Perth to have a week in quarantine in case they qualified for the grand final and then to Adelaide to play Port. In a very bad day for Port, the Dogs played arguably their best half of footy in my lifetime to put the game beyond doubt in the first half.

The Power lost both finals in 2023 and again after finishing second lost the qualifying final in 2024, just beat the Hawks in the first semi and went down in the prelim in Sydney to the Swans. Three wasted seasons in four years for Port, when they were in a prime position to at least make one grand final and even win it. They might exist to win premierships, but not so much in the AFL. This season, even though they have had 4 losses by 3 points or less, that elusive second flag seems miles away.

For the Blues, a flag to break a long drought, which has the natives restless, still seems a few years away. However, that catch cry first used a few years ago as a marketing tool, “tell them the Blues are coming”, if they win against Geelong, who they have a good recent record against, and then arch rivals Essendon on King’s Birthday eve and as we know the Bombers can’t beat time, might become very loud.

Josh Fraser their interim coach, who does not want the job permanently at this stage, will certainly be seen as a hero. Both Port and Carlton fans are impatient but they need to put things in perspective and think about success starved, Bulldogs, St Kilda, Melbourne and Fremantle supporters. That’s Footy!

As the theme song in the early 1990s raunchy Australian TV soap said, you win some and lose some, and Carlton and Port have lost much more this season. But with still the second half to come, hope springs eternal.

PORT ADELAIDE 2.0 3.5 5.7 8.10 (58)

CARLTON 5.0 9.4 10.8 13.14 (92)

GOALS
Port Adelaide: Horne-Francis 3, Whitlock 2, Marshall, Georgiades, Durdin
Carlton: McGovern 2, Kemp 2, Hayward 2, Walsh, McKay, Ison, Hewett, Evans, Cripps, Byrne

BEST (Dan’s best)
Port Adelaide: Horne-Francis, Butters, Whitlock, Burgoyne
Carlton: Cripps, Smith, Walsh, Dean, Hewett

INJURIES
Port Adelaide: Nil
Carlton: Carroll (knee)

Crowd: 40,597 at Adelaide Oval

Read more Round 11 match reports HERE.