Round 3
	V
Port Adelaide 20.19 (139)		St.Kilda 8.8 (56)

Port Adelaide has rediscovered its pre-season form to outclass the Saints and post its first victory of season 2002 - an 83-point obliteration - at Colonial Stadium.

It took a four-goal barrage in just seven-and-a-half-minutes to take the Power to a 42-point lead midway through the second term. After a late whimper from the Saints, who managed two opportunistic goals before the major break, the remainder of the game was a routine annihilation and saw the Power run out laudable victors 20.19.(139) to 8.8.(56). The Saints, without captain Robert Harvey, key defender Fraser Gehrig, choice ruckman Peter Everitt and gritty midfielder Steven Lawrence, did not lead all day and Stephen Milne was their only multiple goal kicker, contributing four. At the other end, the combined effort of Brendon Lade and Peter Burgoyne, kicking seven majors between them, was outstanding. And St Kilda's defence, badly missing a supplementary tall, was unable to curb the marking, roving and crumbing supremacy of supporting forwards Josh Carr, Brent Guerra and Gavin Wanganeen, who booted three despite playing in the back pocket.

Significantly, Port's key spearheads Warren Tredrea and Chad Cornes had not contributed majors until the latter kicked truly at the 15-minute-mark of the last. Tredrea was held goaless, but had 15 possessions and took 10 marks.Port Adelaide coach Mark Williams believed his team had control of the game from the beginning but conceded the preseason premiership may have lulled his men into complacency."We thought that perhaps after winning the Wizard Cup things might just turn up and happen, but we feel like today we made a bit of a statement to ourselves that we actually have to come ready to play."He said confidence had been restored within the team, which demonstrated a more traditional style of play having been criticised for its flooding tactics in the opening rounds.

"I noticed before the game there were quite a few teams moving a fair way away from us and we needed to get a win on the board and it gave us a lot of confidence to get a win the way we did today," Willams said.In a match that was costly for the Saints not only on the scoreboard, veteran Nathan Burke, involved in a leg tangle with Damien Hardwick, hobbled from the field 28-minutes into the first term with an injured left knee. Koschitzke, who lined up on Lade, was also forced from the field ten minutes into the second quarter, but returned in the last.

The Saints struggled to penetrate their forward fifty and managed just three goals for the final half. Saints coach Grant Thomas said his players had been "tentative" and "reactive", and was disappointed by the turnovers of his team, which led to countless Port Adelaide goals.

"I don't know that we actually came to play. I thought that we weren't anywhere near as hard at the footy and hard at them as we have been in the last couple of weeks and I though that was pretty compelling," Thomas said."They seemed to get very, very easy goals and that's something that hasn't happened so far this year. Most of those goals came from our disposal and our execution, decision making, all of which were pretty ordinary."

Thomas was pleased by the success of his early match-ups, but said his players were guarding their men at the expense of attacking the ball.

"There were several occasions when a free ball got spilt and we actually didn't go at the football because we were still standing back on our man that we'd been chosen to play on. And that's not how you play football," he said. "What was quite obvious to me was that because we had guys set for certain players and they were doing a reasonable job early, we actually didn't have anyone getting the ball." The Saints began the third quarter with an increased momentum, but after Stephen Milne and Justin Peckett missed early and very gettable goals in the opening minutes, were crushed when Francou and Wanganeen kicked consecutive majors less than ten minutes in to rampage to a 50 point advantage. Max Hudghton was moved to full forward, Loewe replaced the underdone Matthew Capuano in the ruck, but could not prevent their team's third-quarter disintegration.

FOOTY REPORT ARCHIVE

Click here to read in depth, sometimes controversial, but always thought provoking previous round reports...