North Melbourne’s horror season has gone from dangerous to worse, with a litany of accidents topping off a 70-point loss to Port Adelaide at Blundstone Arena in Hobart.
Star midfielder Luke Davies-Uniacke (29 disposals, eight clearances) was a shining mild within the Kangaroos’ 20.15 (135) to 10.5 (65) defeat, however is “very unlikely” to function subsequent week after struggling a hamstring harm.
“We’ve got four or five guys that are very sore out of the game,” North coach Alastair Clarkson mentioned post-match.
Darcy Tucker (hamstring), Flynn Perez (concussion) and Jack Mahony (shoulder) might all be a part of Davies-Uniacke on the sidelines, and with North Melbourne slumping to a seventh consecutive loss, the positivity that accompanied their 2-0 begin to the season has all however dissipated.
While Port Adelaide have some harm considerations of their very own, with Todd Marshall struggling a concussion early within the match and Charlie Dixon straining a quad at coaching this week, the general image is shiny for the Power.
With dynamic younger midfield duo Zak Butters (32 disposals, 12 rating involvements) and Connor Rozee (25 possessions, six clearances) main the way in which, the Power have received six video games in a row.
While the sport went largely to script, the Jason Horne-Francis v Kangaroos sideshow wasn’t almost as fiery as many have been anticipating.
The 2021 No.1 draft decide wasn’t confronted bodily or verbally in his first conflict towards his outdated membership, and warmed into the sport to complete with 15 disposals, 5 tackles and a aim after managing only one handball within the first time period.
“It was a good day for Jason to get out of the way in some ways,” Port coach Ken Hinkley mentioned post-match.
“The first time you play against your previous side, I think that’s where you get your chance to really move on. Hopefully for Jase now he moves on to a career that’s going to be long and strong for Port Adelaide.”
While Horne-Francis had one in every of his quieter matches his lookalike Miles Bergman starred, taking six intercept marks and kicking the ball fantastically from the again half to arrange a bunch of photographs at aim.
He was amongst his aspect’s finest within the second time period because the Power piled on eight objectives to 1 to place any likelihood of an upset to mattress after a fair opening quarter.
With their star forwards on the sidelines, Port shared the load brilliantly, discovering 14 particular person goalkickers.
Jeremy Finlayson slotted three majors from eight photographs, whereas former Cat Francis Evans kicked his first two objectives in Port Adelaide colors and Brynn Teakle kicked the primary of his profession.
Even key defender Tom Jonas bought in on the motion, booting a uncommon aim – the second of his 210-game profession.
While Todd Goldstein (55 hitouts, 24 disposals and 11 clearances) and Nick Larkey (4 objectives) fought valiantly, North have been sloppy when delivering the ball inside 50 and supplied little resistance the opposite method, with Port Adelaide regularly taking the ball from finish to finish with ease.
“The gap between us and Port Adelaide was stark, in terms of our ball use,” Clarkson admitted.
To add additional insult to harm, Aidan Corr will face MRO scrutiny after being reported for placing Ollie Lord on the jaw in an off-the-ball scuffle.
Port Adelaide have a possibility to agency up their top-four credentials with a win over Melbourne at Adelaide Oval subsequent Friday night time.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
