Severe doubt hangs over Port Adelaide’s season after it was categorically “dismembered” by Geelong in Thursday night’s qualifying final.
The Power’s world came crashing down on Thursday night, as they conceded their second-largest finals loss in their club’s AFL history.
And as the Cats kicked a monster 17 goals after quarter time, Ken Hinkley’s side had absolutely no answers – now facing a do-or-die semi final against one of Hawthorn or the Western Bulldogs next weekend.
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Reacting to the shock smashing post-game at the Adelaide Oval, Fox Footy’s talent dissected the “fragility” that now lies within Port Adelaide’s premiership tilt.
“They just dismembered them,” King said of the damage Geelong did to the hosts.
“It was brutal all night — 120 minutes. The (Port Adelaide) coaches’ box (was) lost for answers.
“What did they really do to shift the course of this game? What did they really do when it was on the line early?”
St Kilda great Leigh Montagna responded, criticising Port’s approach and lack of response.
“Port Adelaide just didn’t have any answers, they’ve got no plan B,” he said.
“They try the same thing every single week, and when it works it looks great, when it doesn’t, it’s been exposed.”
Thursday night’s Cat-astrophe represented the Power’s fourth consecutive finals loss — and some of them haven’t been particularly close.
“(They’ve had) some bad pummelings in finals,” Montagna continued.
“They’ve already had a 70-point loss last year … and now an 80-point loss, so when they get beaten in finals, it is bad, because they don’t have anything else to go to.
“Their body language looked poor at half-time, and then they played like it in the second half.”
Half-time vision on Fox Footy showed Power players in the rooms spread out, with many sitting isolated from others.
Hawthorn legend Jason Dunstall said the picture “didn’t look great”, adding that it lacked “solidarity and closeness”.
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King pointed to the shortcomings of Port’s defence, noting they were issues flagged earlier in the season that reared their ugly head.
“I think all your fragility, all your areas of concern are exposed in finals like this, aren’t they?” he said.
“Defensively, I know their numbers read well, but are they absolutely at the pointy end of the competition, Port?
“We’ve had our doubts for weeks, and when the game is allowed to be played at speed like that against them, it’s so difficult to defend.
“I just wonder whether they have enough defensively-geared midfielders when the tide’s going the other way.”
Montagna concurred, questioning the two-way work rate of the Power playing group.
“That has always been the scouting report against Port Adelaide,” he responded.
“If you turn them around and go the other way, do they run as hard as they do when they’ve got the game on their terms?
“As you said, your vulnerabilities get exposed in finals, and we saw that tonight from Port Adelaide.”
Adelaide Crows great Mark Ricciuto gave his thoughts, noting the state’s bubbly vibe about Port heading into the finals series.
“They’ve lost their past four finals now, and this is the best preparation they’ve had coming into a game,” he told Fox Footy.
“They’d actually been playing the best footy I’ve seen Port Adelaide play for a long time, so I was like many people in South Australia — I thought they were going to be very, very hard to beat tonight.
“This is really going to rock them. The Cats have really put one on their chin.”
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Montagna spoke of the uphill battle now faced by Port Adelaide’s coaching staff as the side faces an elimination bout back at Adelaide Oval next week against one of Hawthorn or the Western Bulldogs.
“It’s going to take an amazing coaching effort, now, from Ken Hinkley to get this group up again,” he explained.
“You can see the body language (post-game) there, this will dent them, no doubt. Their ego will take a hit, because when you get beaten like that, you start to have little doubts.
“You start to wonder ‘are we good enough? How good are we, really? What was this performance tonight?’
“And they’ll be looking at their teammates and looking at where it went wrong, so they’ve only got six or seven days to butter up and have to go again.
They’ve still got a chance in this season — their season is not dead — but they’re going to have to play much better footy than they did tonight.”
King wasn’t anywhere near as optimistic about the Power’s situation as Montagna, already hammering a nail in their 2024 coffin.
“I just think they’ve either had a really poor preparation with their planning, or this group of back six, seven, eight players haven’t been disciplined enough to perform what Ken’s asked,” he told Fox Footy, concluding.
“Either way, I don’t think they (will) recover from this. I think their season’s come to an unfortunate and really disastrous finish.”
A loss next weekend would make it four of the past five seasons that Port Adelaide has fallen short of Grand Final day — either after a semi or preliminary final exit — after going into the finals series with a double-chance.
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