Australian Football

Match Report

Port Adelaide has outlasted Gold Coast to defeat the Suns by nine points in the rain at Carrara ob Saturday afternoon. Persistent steady rain kept each side to just seven goals with the Power sneaking home, 7.14 to 7.5. The win keeps Port's slim top four chances alive and makes Gold Coast's chances of an inaugural finals appearance unlikely.

With rain falling from the outset, the Suns started the better of the two sides, with Kade Kolodjashnij kicking the first major of the match to put the home side eight points ahead after four minutes. Harley Bennell added another four minutes later and then each side added one further the goal for the first term as the Suns took a nine-point lead into quarter-time. Goals were at a premium in the second quarter, with each side managing just one, with none being scored after the 11-minute mark of the term as the ball got heavier. The Suns held a slender seven-point lead at the long break.

They stretched that lead to 13 points when Jarrod Harbrow kicked the first goal of the second half but Port Adelaide began to take control of the match from that point on. Matt White reduced the lead back to seven with a major at the nine-minute mark and then Hamish Hartlett levelled the scores with a goal five minutes later. As was the case in the second term, no goals were scored in the second half of the quarter but several Port behinds allowed the Power to take a two-point lead into the last term.

Port again dominated the early stages of the last term, with goals to Jay Schulz and Andrew Moore taking the Power to a 14-point lead at the half-way stage of the quarter. But the Suns mounted one final challenge as Daniel Gorringe and Bennell added goals at the 22 and 26-minute mark to bring Gold Coast to within three points. Finally, at the 28-minute mark, a pinpoint pass from Ollie Wines to Chad Wingard saw Wingard convert and settle the result, the Power getting the job done by nine points.

Hamish Hartlett (24 possessions and a goal) was a standout for the Power, while Harley Bennell (27 disposals, seven tackles) and Trent McKenzie (22 possessions and seven marks) were fine players for the Suns. 

The Suns will need to defeat Essendon at Docklands and West Coast at home to have a chance of September action, while victories against Carlton at the Adelaide Oval and Fremantle at Subiaco could yet see the Power slip into the top four at the Dockers' expense.

GOALS
Gold Coast: Bennell 2; Kolodjashnij, Matera, Lynch, Harbrow, Gorringe
Port Adelaide: Westhoff, Gray, White, Hartlett, Schulz, Moore, Wingard

BEST – BRISBANETIMES.COM.AU
Gold Coast: McKenzie Bennell Lynch Prestia O’Meara Rischitelli
Port Adelaide: Hartlett Westhoff Lobbe Gray Jonas Broadbent

BEST - AFL.COM.AU
Gold Coast: Bennell, Lynch, Prestia, McKenzie, Rischitelli
Port Adelaide: Hartlett, Westhoff, Lobbe, Gray, Jonas

INJURIES
Gold Coast: Dixon (quad), Martin (leg), Stanley (shoulder)
Port Adelaide: Trengrove (ankle), Monfries (TBC), Hartlett (ankle)

SUBSTITUTES
Gold Coast: Louis Herbert on for Charlie Dixon in the second quarter.
Port Adelaide: Aaron Young on for Jared Polec in the third quarter.

UMPIRES: Fisher, Nicholls and Hay

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