R1 - North v Adelaide & Port v St Kilda

It's finally here! The time for talk is over and Round 1 is now upon us.

For the local sides Adelaide are away to North Melbourne on Saturday night @ Etihad, and Port Adelaide host St Kilda on Easter Sunday at the Adelaide Oval.

Post away folks!

Well, at least Adelaide has a full squad, bar only one or two, to select from.

North Melbourne is a 'must-win' game, even so early in the season, given the draw.

They'll presumably be one of the teams we'll be battling with for a finals spot.

Por would have to beat St Kilda fairly comfortably, otherwise the alarm bells might ring prematurely.

I agree with you Lee about Adelaide's game being a 'must win'. With the draw they have, every loss will just build pressure. Need to get over North and head into the Showdown next week with some momentum.

I'm pretty confident Adelaide can get the chocolates personally. I'm not a fan of North's though, I think they're one of the most overrated teams in the comp personally. An ageing list and no depth, they're on my list to drop out of the 8 this year.

Port Adelaide will want a big win this weekend to put to bed any lingering doubts stemming from their disappointing 2015.

Previews getting put together over the next day or so, at this point :

Kangas by 19
Port by 40+

draw
Port by 37 points

Booney wrote:Previews getting put together over the next day or so, at this point :

Kangas by 19
Port by 40+

I just don't get this fascination with the Kangaroos.

Personally I think Adelaide will win this game and win well. How?

One man does not maketh a team and Adelaide still have plenty of talent across all lines despite the obvious off season departure. How quickly 2015 disappears from peoples memories. Last year this team consistently played competitive football, including flashes of brilliance at various points in trying conditions like nothing any team has ever experienced, and against quality opposition (Elimination Final? Second Showdown? First quarter of the West Coast game?).

Apparently that was all Dangerfield though, no one else was out there.

Yes Adelaide have what appears to be a tough draw, and yes they lost a significant top end talent - but compared to what they had to overcome last year to perform the way they did in the second half of the year, I am backing them in to tackle these challenges with absolute relish. This team has some serious ticker, and more importantly I think they have a collective team dynamic, forged in tragedy last year, that will hold them in very good stead in 2016.

The obvious question mark for this game, and the season, is the midfield. Personally I think the Crouch brothers and Rory Atkins have the capacity to improve significantly this season. Brad Crouch is the obvious one clearly after not participating at all in 2015, but the preseason form of Matt Crouch and Rory Atkins has been excellent, and the improvement of all three I think will still make our midfield very competitive this year.

Another area which I will be watching with interest is the goals Adelaide concede from turnovers. The percentage was huge last year, huge. If Don Pyke has managed to work on this in the off season and improve the disposal efficiency (and preseason indications are that he has) then Adelaide can improve their 'points conceded' column by a good 20%. If they can move the footy cleaner, transition it quicker, and deliver it more efficiently to that forward line, then watch out.

No doubt there is a bit of passion in this post, and perhaps I've let my bias take over a bit and provided some cannon fodder for my mate Booney in the weeks to come - but I believe in this group of players. I'm super pumped about this season and I really hope they deliver on their potential and prove the experts wrong.

Adelaide by 35 points, and finals again in 2016.

Adelaide in a close one
Port by lots and lots

Gingernuts wrote:

Booney wrote:Previews getting put together over the next day or so, at this point :

Kangas by 19
Port by 40+

I just don't get this fascination with the Kangaroos.

Personally I think Adelaide will win this game and win well. How?

One man does not maketh a team and Adelaide still have plenty of talent across all lines despite the obvious off season departure. How quickly 2015 disappears from peoples memories. Last year this team consistently played competitive football, including flashes of brilliance at various points in trying conditions like nothing any team has ever experienced, and against quality opposition (Elimination Final? Second Showdown? First quarter of the West Coast game?).

Apparently that was all Dangerfield though, no one else was out there.

Yes Adelaide have what appears to be a tough draw, and yes they lost a significant top end talent - but compared to what they had to overcome last year to perform the way they did in the second half of the year, I am backing them in to tackle these challenges with absolute relish. This team has some serious ticker, and more importantly I think they have a collective team dynamic, forged in tragedy last year, that will hold them in very good stead in 2016.

The obvious question mark for this game, and the season, is the midfield. Personally I think the Crouch brothers and Rory Atkins have the capacity to improve significantly this season. Brad Crouch is the obvious one clearly after not participating at all in 2015, but the preseason form of Matt Crouch and Rory Atkins has been excellent, and the improvement of all three I think will still make our midfield very competitive this year.

Another area which I will be watching with interest is the goals Adelaide concede from turnovers. The percentage was huge last year, huge. If Don Pyke has managed to work on this in the off season and improve the disposal efficiency (and preseason indications are that he has) then Adelaide can improve their 'points conceded' column by a good 20%. If they can move the footy cleaner, transition it quicker, and deliver it more efficiently to that forward line, then watch out.

No doubt there is a bit of passion in this post, and perhaps I've let my bias take over a bit and provided some cannon fodder for my mate Booney in the weeks to come - but I believe in this group of players. I'm super pumped about this season and I really hope they deliver on their potential and prove the experts wrong.

Adelaide by 35 points, and finals again in 2016.

The love for North? Not from me, but two prelims in a row show that they have the game plan, the personal and the depth to get through a season of football in good order.

I'll elaborate more but :


and provided some cannon fodder for my mate Booney in the weeks to come

What, me?

I try not to give you too much ammo, but after reading so many bullshit predictions of Adelaide's decline over the last couple of weeks I couldn't help myself.

Tough first 8 weeks for you blokes, I'll go easy, well, give you a sporting chance at least.

I'm also in the North Melbourne 'over-rated' club and I can see pressure building on Chris (?) Scott as the season progresses.

On the other hand, I never back Adelaide with confidence against the established sides in Melbourne.

They do have a strong nucleus of experienced and exciting talent, though, so I'll tip them to win narrowly.

As for Port, they're a great club (not that I'm influenced by receiving a lovely letter from them after my SANFL award last week ), full of terrific people (and Booney, of course). They really have to win this comfortably, otherwise the shudders will be felt across Adelaide. Unless the saints can stop Port's run and carry, they won't get within 8 goals of Port.

All over at quarter time, perhaps.

Brad

North and Port are certainties.

North Melbourne by 34
Port by 90

North haven’t won round 1 for 6 years, Adelaide giving it to them from all angles at Adelaide Oval last year in their only 2015 encounter. Work that out, they played once last year in round 1?

North were pretty quiet in the off season, no real big names in or out suggesting they are happy with what they’ve got which, in the ever evolving world of AFL football might be standing still and you can’t afford to do that, or can they? Again, they’ll look to Harvey, Petrie, Swallow, Waite and the rejuvenated Wells to set the example. They’ll stretch Adelaide a little with Brown, Petrie, Waite all forward of centre and Adelaide will need to play the third tall man back to cover that.

Adelaide had a couple of changes, they lost one handy player, Sam Kerridge to Carlton and a couple of others to retirements and the Geelong surf. Looks like Seedsman from Collingwood will slot straight in and Milera, drafted from local club Central Districts might play round 1 so some new faces are in among the old. Again they’ll rely heavily on big man Sam Jacobs, Walker, Betts and Jenkins forward and Talia in the back half.

Can Adelaide cover the loss of Kerridge around the ball, he was a contested ball beast. I think they’ll struggle and this one is hard to pick. I think Adelaide have hit the preseason hard knowing they need to bust out of the gates in the first month or so to be any chance of being in the positive come round 10. Adelaide by 14 points.


Port v St Kilda –

For SA based viewers there’s no much more to be written about Ports summer, Dixon in, Ryder and Monfries out. We’ve only read/heard/seen that about 458 times this off season and fair enough, it’s all pretty big news, especially Dixon, he’s as big as they come. At 6 ft 7 in and 110 kegs the big bloke gives Port a real target up front....more later. The Saints had a summer to forget. They went hard at Jake Carlisle and landed him then he went and span chatted himself doing a line to some mates, it got leaked, he got club imposed sanctions then a year to think about it with the Essendon saga. Youch.

Port kick of ’16 looking to quickly erase and make up for what most punters think was a wasted season in 2015. Losses to Carlton and Brisbane sullied a year that saw the Power finish 9th just a game from finals action, but in all reality we never deserved to be there. Throw in Dixon up front to help out Schulz who, all his career, has played the big man in the F50 when he isn’t that big and Westhoff who has never been the hulking key forward. Wingard, Gray (x2) and Neade will be looking forward to big Charlie making some noises down there and defenders will know where the big unit is.

Alan Richardson found a couple of players last year. Tom Hickey showed a bit, he and Billy Longer look like they could form a sound ruck partnership, while Membrey and Bruce look ready to take the key forward spots left over from Reiwoldt who’ll move up the ground in his twilight years, not that he’s a vampire or werewolf. With 6 wins in ’15 and some promising kids learning the Richardson play book Saints fans might finally see light at the end of the tunnel that isn’t a train.

Tough gig for the Saints coming to Adelaide Oval in round 1 to face a Port side looking to hit the season hard and fast. Can’t make much of a case for the Saints here, Port should win comfortably, by 40+

Good to see someone finally giving the Kerridge departure the air time it deserves.

Gingernuts wrote:Good to see someone finally giving the Kerridge departure the air time it deserves.

Well I was out in the scrub for the weekend, so didn't catch any of the game besides tuning it in on the radio a couple of times for a score update.

A disappointing result in the end by the sounds of it though and one that probably should have been a win - and with the early draw we've got they can't really afford to let close ones slip like that.

All that said, it's still one round 1 and from the reading I've done and the highlights I've watched I would say that there are plenty of positives to work on as well.

The forward line looked as dangerous as ever, although the kicking for goal needs improvement. The new blokes did okay, Seedsman, Milera and McGovern all doing some good things. I think Seedsman fits in well and having him in the side releases Smith to get up to the contest a bit more which is a real plus.

Brad Crouch looks like he'll need a few weeks to get back up to the pace of AFL but he'll be better for the run, and his brother Matt is looking the goods.

Will be interesting times at the selection table as there are several players who put their hand up in the SANFL on Saturday afternoon.

Van Berlo is supremely disappointing. He's clearly picked for his experience, but his decision making under pressure is terrible. If he's going to burn the footy like that every week then you might as well get some games into a kid instead.

I was surprised by the non-selection of CEY as well and he carved up West Adelaide on the weekend. Surely he gets a get in the midfield for the Showdown this week to give us a bit more grunt.

Very odd selections for Adelaide.

Petrie, Waite and Brown all forward and Adelaide go with Talia, Cheney and Lever.

Now, Talia is as good as any, Lever is a capable player who looks to be developing into a serious player but Cheney is nothing more than a back up spud. Lever will be Adelaide's third man up for years to come, surely Hartigan and Talia have to do the muscle while Lever does the clever? Cheney isn't either and I think the selection table at West Lakes can take much responsibility for the loss on Saturday night.

Waite killed you after half time as the conduit to goal, Brown and Petrie didn't hold all their marks, luckily, or the margin would have been erased much earlier in the night.

Adelaide's forward line is as good as most, but not when Jenkins has to go to the middle, it looses it's shape and Lynch has to play as a tall and that's not his role. They need to work out who else can take a chop out for 5 minutes to give Jacobs a rest or they'll have the opposition big men all over them in the last half like they did on Saturday.

From my preview above :

They’ll stretch Adelaide a little with Brown, Petrie, Waite all forward of centre and Adelaide will need to play the third tall man back to cover that.

Yes I agree. Also it seems that the midfield ran out of steam in the last, which makes Mc Govern's selection puzzling (even though he did some good things). I would've though with the cap on interchange rotations that an extra midfielder on the bench would've been more important than having mid-sided forward in the team.

Either that, or if your a gambling man then roll the dice and play a second ruck so that Jenkins can stay forward and Jacobs can stay in the game a bit longer. O'Brien was best on for the 2's on Saturday, might be time to give him a crack.

What's your take on Port's performance Booney?

Again, I was in the scrub so didn't catch the game but from what I've seen and heard it wasn't the walkover many expected it to be. Still a bit to work on ahead of the Showdown?

I'll start by rating St Kilda's performance as one that, if sustained, will see it improve on the 7 wins it had in 2015. They were good, when we got the ball forward their pressure was good, when we turned it over into space they had blokes prepared to run and they scored 3-5 goals in the first half from turnovers. 3 in the first quarter alone as we went at 50% by foot, much of this their good work.

Worried by another sub-standard performance by Lobbe, Hickey smashed him and we got belted at clearances because of it. Jacobs owns Lobbe and this is a big week for our lead ruckman, we've got little back up for him on our list bar a couple of kids and he needs to stand up this week and make a statement.

On the positive note, we won't need as many F50 entries as many sides to kick a winning score if we can keep Wingard and R.Gray inside 50 with Schulz and Dixon. Dixon created plenty of chances by competing in the air, kicked 3, had a hand in 3 more (directly) and probably 3 more (indirectly).

Sam Gray, with 37 touches, took some heat off Boak and Wines while Brad Ebert, guilty of a couple of those turnovers, was excellent. 3 goals, 25 touches, 8 tackles, the sing of some real midfield depth when the likes of Boak, Wines, Polec and Harlett have slower days and we still manage 33 shots on goal.

Showdown will be interesting, Adelaide will need to add some speed to the middle I think. Port will need to work from Jacobs' hands. Both back lines will have sleepless nights this week.

Hartigan must come in, so too Ellis-Yoleman I'd say, perhaps Menzel and Henderson. Van Berlo and Mackay were rank when the heat was on Saturday night. I'd say Henderson for Van Berlo and Ellis-Yoleman if Matt Crouch gets a week, which I think he might.

White will miss for up to 12 weeks with torn pec, perhaps Young in for him or Toumpas might get thrown in the deep end and debut for us in a Showdown. Port looked good in the second half down back, Hombsch and Trengove led the big men well and Pittard and Broadbent created.

Big game for both sides. 0-2 for Adelaide and ouch, 2-0 for Port and yes, 1-1 for both and it's no disaster.

Matt Crouch has already been cleared by the MRP.

Right.

Might add, 44,000 on Easter Sunday vs St Kilda, very good crowd.

St Kilda got several goals early in the match because of Ports turnovers
When Port made less errors it dominated late in the game

With about 5-10 mins left in the 3rd quarter
Scores were about or were :
PA 11-6
SK 14-8
Port exploded and won
PA 20-13
SK 15-10
And Riewoldt got the last goal of the game

Charlie Dixon could be the BIG man answer up forward
Seemed to judge the ball well , just could not mark several times
If he grips em , beware

Fanatastic experience watching Port Power games
Love the pre match preparation
That INXS song is a great song