Australian Football

Match Report

The final games takes us out into the countryside for the only Sunday afternoon game, into the first football home of Russell Ebert at the Loxton Oval in the Riverland as the Bloods took on the Magpies. Port Adelaide took all the points from their two games last season, with a 29-point win at Alberton in Round 8 followed by a 13-point win at Richmond in Round 15. It was probably the most competitive that the Bloods had been last year, keeping well within strike for the bulk of the game. The Magpies lost the Battle of the Birds last week, downed at home by the Eagles by 26 points while the Bloods were handed a nine-goal backhander by the Crows. This game was arranged not long after Ebert's death and after the disastrous showing by the Power in their tribute match, the Magpies had to respond on the stomping ground of his youth.

Travelling fans and interested locals took in the carnival atmosphere as the Magpies dominated the opening 13 minutes to kick 4.1 before the Bloods could get one themselves. In fact, they only kicked one goal. A further trio of wasted chances saw the Magpies up by 16 points at quarter-time. The Magpies had some accuracy issues in the second quarter, but it didn't stop them from building on their advantage. The Bloods kicked four goals without a miss, but Port's 6.6 would put them up to a 34-point lead going into the sheds at half-time. The Magpies took their foot off the pedal when play restarted in the third quarter and the "home" side would slash the deficit in half by the final change. Port were kept to a miserly 1.4, Westies scored 4.3 to bring the gap back to three straight kicks of the lead come three quarter-time. The Bloods would kick a goal within 40 seconds of the start of the final term, but that two-kick gap was as close as they would get. The 'Pies dictated the play in the bulk of a 15-minute period to kick clear of West, altogether scoring 4.4 to 3.3 to run out four-goal victors and taking the inagural tribute trophy. 

Sam Mayes was Port's best with 33 disposals, four tackles and six clearances. For the Bloods, it was Josh Gore with three goals, 18 disposals and eight marks.