Port Adelaide

Bomber frustration boils over; Power's most important player makes AFL return: 3-2-1.

Port Adelaide in the last nine games have only kicked one goal from kick ins, tonight they‘ve kicked two in a half. “It’s a bit surprising for Ben Rutten being an All-Australian defender. “Minimal pressure, a lot of holes in their defence. Defence remains the biggest concern for Essendon heading into the bye and surely Rutten tweaks some aspects of the game plan in order to turn the tide in the backhalf of the year. They tightened up in the second half of that second quarter and got back into it a little bit.” The third quarter saw Essendon kick 4.3 to Port Adelaide’s 1.4 and was thrilling to watch, with the Bombers playing better footy in the wet than they had in the dry weather of the first half. “Poor defensive effort by Essendon especially in that opening quarter and a half, Port Adelaide just went coast to coast a couple of times and you can only do that if the opposition let you,” Mark Ricciuto said at half-time. “They played a simple game and had 21 groundball gets in their front half in that third quarter - they only had 21 in the entire first half.” There were no late changes for either side. The Power had chances to put Essendon away early in the fourth term but it was their turn to miss in front of goal, with both sides trading behinds in the first half of the final quarter. Ultimately, Essendon looked out of gas after reeling in the margin in the third quarter, allowing Port Adelaide to hold on for the win. Todd Marshall got Port Adelaide off to a strong start in the second term with the sixth goal of the match while Essendon continued to miss in front of goal - a rushed score made it eight straight behinds.