Port Adelaide superstar Erin Phillips celebrated her 50th match in fine style, with the Power romping to the club’s first-ever AFLW win on a ‘herstoric’ day for the fledgling team.
The weather didn’t come to the party, with wind and rain lashing Alberton Oval on Saturday, but while the conditions made it tough for players, they didn’t dampen the celebrations on and off the field as the siren sounded on a 66-point smashing of the Sydney Swans.
It was a battle of expansion teams, and two of the four winless sides heading into Round 4, although Port had claimed the club’s first-ever premiership points in a draw with Carlton.
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But the Power were a class above the Swans, who didn’t manage a goal, while the home side booted its highest score to date.
Phillips set the tone early and finished with 16 possessions, but couldn’t put the cherry on the cake with her first goal for Port.
Instead, she was the provider with five score assists in an eye-catching display.
Hannah Ewings and Abbey Dowrick starred for the home side with 19 and 24 disposals respectively, with Ewings booting three goals and Dowrick kicking a goal and laying 14 tackles.
BLAZING START
Port hadn’t kicked a goal in a first quarter or been in front at the first break in any of the opening three matches, but the home side flew out of the blocks against the Swans.
Phillips and Dowrick led the charge with eight possessions each as the Power slammed through three goals.
Jade De Melo converted from close range after Phillips found her with a pass, Jade Halfpenny booted her first AFLW goal and Brittany Perry made it a 21-point lead at quarter-time with her goal in the dying seconds.
Port went inside forward 50 14 times to Sydney’s one in the first quarter and on that solitary occasion the ball was easily intercepted by a waiting defender and came straight back out.
Alarm bells were ringing early for the visitors, who were on the wrong side of a lopsided 32-17 contested possession count.
The Swans had the leakiest defence in the league after three rounds, conceding 166 points in their three losses, but they were at least able to stem the bleeding in the second term.
A Ewings behind was the Power’s only score for the quarter, but Sydney was unable to muster a major either, with Aliesha Newman’s shot bouncing the wrong side of the post.
TEEN SPIRIT
Ewings and Dowrick have already earned Rising Star nominations and showed why the future is bright for the Power with their roles in a third-quarter blitz.
The hapless Swans conceded five goals, with Ewings bagging a couple and Dowrick banging through a superb long-range effort from outside 50 as the home side stormed to a 52-point at the last change.
Ewings’ first major probably took goal of the day honours, however, with the 18-year-old gathering a loose ball just outside 50 and launching a towering drop punt that split the middle on the bounce.
SORRY SWANS
Top draft pick Montana Ham battled hard for a team-high 20 touches for the Swans but there were few other positives on a bleak day for the fledgling team.
Scott Gowans’ side conceded its highest-ever score in the heaviest loss of its four-game existence and was held goalless for the first time.
Ham booted accounted for half of her side’s score with her third-quarter behind, but it would be unfair to lay the blame for the toothless display entirely on the forwards with the visitors going inside attacking 50 only 12 times to Port’s 41.
The Power had 51 more disposals, 15 more marks and 26 more tackles in the dominant display.
POWER 3.3 3.4 8.6 10.8 (68)
SWANS 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.2 (2)
PHELAN’S BEST
POWER: Ewings, Dowrick, Phillips, Foley, Yorston, Perry, Surman.
SWANS: Ham, Dargan, Heads, Eastman, Lochland.
GOALS
POWER: Ewings 3, Perry 2, de Melo, Halfpenny, Teakle, Dowrick, Surman.
SWANS: Nil.
INJURIES
POWER: Nil.
SWANS: Nil.
VENUE: Alberton Oval
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
JASON PHELAN’S VOTES
3 Ewings (Port)
2 Dowrick (Port)
1 Phillips (Port)
SUNS MAKE THE MOST OF MACKAY’S HOWLING WIND
Strong winds in football can either be your best friend or your worst enemy.
Saturday afternoon’s contest between Gold Coast and St Kilda epitomised exactly that, with howling gusts in Mackay creating all sorts of havoc as both sides looked to not only make the most of the difficult conditions but find ways to contend with it.
In the end, it was the Suns who did exactly that at both ends of the ground, turning around their disappointing Q-Clash drubbing of a week prior into a 14-point win over the Saints.
Gold Coast’s attack, which has struggled for much of season seven, reaped the rewards of their solid midfield work and enormous workrate, piling on more scoring shots inside the opening term (1.5) than they had for the entirety of last week’s huge loss to Brisbane (1.3).
Ultimately, their biggest issue was conversion, which ultimately kept St Kilda in the contest despite creating a bucket load of extra chances in-front of the big sticks.
When the Saints had the advantage of a 21 km/h wind behind them, they were unable to turn a plethora of entries into points on the board – particularly in the second quarter when the game was still in the balance – but found it just as difficult to contend with the wind from a defensive standpoint.
It took until the third term, when the Suns had the wind in their sails again, for them to really put the game to rest – booting 3.2 to 0.0 – as their attack finally turned behinds into goals and put the Saints’ injury-depleted defence – who were missing Rebecca Ott, Clara Fitzpatrick and Jayde Van Dyk – under enormous strain.
ROWBOTTOM’S DAY OUT
If it wasn’t obvious enough already, Charlie Rowbottom is a star in the making.
The 2021 number one draft pick took her game to another level on Saturday afternoon, leading from the front and putting together a career best showing.
Rowbottom equaled her previous disposal record of 25 – which came in her third game of football last season against the Western Bulldogs – within three quarters and ended the afternoon with a game-high 30 possessions.
If that wasn’t impressive enough, the 19-year-old added seven score involvements and got it done in the trenches, accumulating nine tackles and 17 contested possessions to round out an incredible display which went a long way to the Suns’ all-important second victory of the season.
HOWARTH RETURNS WITH A BANG
After missing last weekend’s Q-Clash demolition at the Gabba, Kalinda Howarth returned to the Gold Coast side in style.
Howarth, who is one of the Suns’ inaugural players, played with a pep in her step from the onset and showed no signs of an ankle complaint which kept her out of the clash with the Lions, kicking Gold Coast’s first goal of the game with a lovely finish before ‘hitting the griddy’ to celebrate the goal.
From that moment on, Howarth looked like a player on a mission, getting involved in all facets of the game as she clocked up the kilometres and added 22 disposals, to go with her two majors – with the second coming in the Suns’ match-winning third-term effort.
The 23-year-old also helped design the Indigenous jersey that was worn by the Gold Coast players on Saturday afternoon.
SHIERLAW, SAINTS ATTACK QUELLED
For Gold Coast to record its second win of the season, nullifying the impact of AFLW leading goal-scorer Kate Shierlaw would go a long way to doing exactly that.
Shierlaw, who came into the game in career best form, was unable to impact the game up forward in the same manner that she has been able to in the opening three games of the season as a combination of a lack of service and solid defending kept her at bay.
When the Saints were up against it in the third term, the key forward was even thrown behind the ball to help stem the bleeding, before returning to attack in the final quarter and getting on the scoreboard in the dying minutes.
St Kilda’s attack, as a whole, struggled for the most of the game, kicking the first goal of the game through Caitlin Greiser – which was the 3000th league goal in AFLW history – and slotting the rest of their four majors in the final term.
GOLD COAST 1.5 2.8 5.10 5.12 (42)
ST KILDA 1.0 1.2 1.2 4.4 (28)
D’URBANO’S BEST
Suns: Rowbottom, Howarth, Jones, Hampson, Drennan, Watson
Saints: Priest, Jakobsson, A.Burke, Patrikios
GOALS
Suns: Howarth 2, Bohanna, Dupuy, Jones
Saints: Greiser 2, Matin, Shierlaw
INJURIES
Suns: nil
Saints: Friend
VENUE
Great Barrier Reef Arena
PLAYER OF THE YEAR VOTES
3. Charlie Rowbottom (GCS)
2. Kalinda Howarth (GCS)
1. Alison Drennan (GCS)
A WEEK IS A LONG TIME…
West Coast quickly shrugged off having the biggest ever half-time score kicked against them, to upset Greater Western Sydney by seven points in a low-scoring game, on the road at Giants Stadium on Saturday.
Just a week after giving up 9.4 in the first two quarters against Essendon, the Eagles kept the dangerous Giants to just one goal in a 2.4 (16) to 1.3 (9) win.
This was a GWS side that booted its biggest score ever in Round 3, recording 9.11 from 34 inside 50 entries in a 65-point win against Sydney.
The Giants even put through the first and only goal of the opening quarter against the Eagles.
But that was it.
The miserly Eagles defence didn’t let Greater Western Sydney add to its first term score of 1.1 in the second or third terms. The Giants could only muster 0.2 in the final term.
The win improves West Coast’s record to 2-2, with its first ever win over the Giants; equal to the most wins they have had in one season. A first-ever win over Fremantle in the local Derby on Thursday afternoon at Optus Stadium, could see the Eagles push into the top eight.
The Giants tumble to a 1-3 record, with a trip to Adelaide to play the Crows nest Sunday ahead of them.
EAGLES FOCUS ON STARTS
Michael Prior challenged his side to work on their slow starts and they answered.
West Coast led Giants by eight points at half-time; first time this season in front at the main break.
First term looked same issue, get the ball forward, but no scores.
They produced their fifth goalless first-half quarter for the season and seventh overall for the season.
But they only trailed the Giants by five points.
A week earlier, the Eagles trailed Essendon by 30 points at the first break and then gave up the first nine goals of the game.
So, when Mikayla Western finally kicked a goal midway through the second term against the Giants, West Coast found themselves in the lead.
Western had looked dangerous earlier, but had failed to finish off her good work, before she got boot to ball in a lot of traffic and kicked a goal from the goal square.
Eagles captain Emma Swanson, playing against her former side, followed up a few minutes later kicking just her fifth career goal.
It wasn’t perfect from West Coast who had been forward 19 times for the half, compared to the Giants 10, but you think coach Prior will take it.
PRACTICE WHAT THEY PREACH
There is no secret that the Giants want to play a game style around quick ball movement, mainly through the middle of the ground.
Madison Brazendale threatened to take the game away from the Eagles in the opening quarter when she picked up most of her 11 possessions and put the Giants into dangerous positions.
But the Eagles were able to respond. They strangled the GWS midfield and the game became scrappy; which didn’t suit the Giants.
GWS coach Cam Bernasconi said his side needs to get batter at responded when teams shut them down.
“You have a game plan that everyone knows and there is going to be a recipe to try and stop the run and carry game,” he said.
“They threw numbers behind the ball and halted our ball movement.
“It’s going to comes down to training with higher pressure.
“The challenge is when we get challenged, we take a while to respond.
“We need to find ways where we can come back and be present.
“It’s disappointing how long it took for us to get the game back on our terms today.
“We need to find ways of getting back to playing our way faster.
“We have the talent to play the way we want.”
WORN LIKE A GLOVE
West Coast’s Sophie McDonald is quickly making a name for herself for her ability to shut down dangerous opposition forwards.
In the Eagles win over Greater Western Sydney on Saturday, she was able to keep Cora Staunton scoreless.
Staunton started the day with her nose bandaged after a mid-week surgery and then appeared to have injured her thumb in the first half.
But her biggest concern was McDonald. Wherever Staunton went, McDonald was not far behind, including when she went to the bench.
Staunton had booted 52.40 in 43 AFLW games before Sunday, including five goals this season and 4.2 against West Coast when they last met in 2021.
She finished with eight possessions on Sunday and a couple of those were earned when helping out in defence.
McDonald only had six disposals of her own, but her five tackles in the first quarter set the tone for her side for the game.
Coach Michael Prior applauded McDonald for her impressive start to the season.
“Cora is dangerous when they get the ball inside their forward 50,” Prior said.
“We need to be able to stop dangerous players and Cora is one of those we needed to stop today.
“Sophie Mc has delivered for us for four weeks in a row now. She was outstanding. She did her homework and watched tape.
“To her credit, she was able to get the job done.”
GIANTS 1.1 1.1 1.1 1.3 (9)
EAGLES 0.2 2.3 2.3 2.4 (16)
ELBOROUGH’S BEST
Giants: Hicks, Parker, Dellaway, Eva, Goldsworthy, Brazendale.
Eagles: Swanson, McDonald, Lewis, Lakay, Thomas, Western.
GOALS Giants: Garnett. Eagles: Western. Swanson.
INJURIES Giants: Staunton (hand). Eagles: Sedunary (calf).
UMPIRES Nippress, Howard, Wallace
VENUE Giants Stadium.
VOTES
3 Swanson (EAGLES)
2 McDonald (EAGLES)
1 Lewis (EAGLES)
