Port Adelaide vs Geelong

Flying high on top of the ladder Geelong face another test in the form of a desperate Port Adelaide outfit on their home deck.…

How many more rolls of the dice does Port Adelaide have in the race to September's AFL finals? The answer hinges on Saturday's home clash with Geelong.

"Geelong is a bloody good team - and it is a bigger challenge coaching against Chris and Geelong," Hinkley said. We just know the Geelong challenge is significant." "That is by atmosphere and support for the teams .People can say there is no home-ground advantage in AFL football, but there actually is. The head-to-head record is 10 wins for Scott and four for Hinkley, although Hinkley carries a 2-1 advantage in finals. So many of the Champion Data numbers on Port Adelaide and Geelong are only marginally different. Adelaide Oval is a bigger, wider oval which is different for us. He has kicked 30-odd goals, so we put him in the bracket of 'must be watched' ... along with Tom Hawkins, Jeremy Cameron, Gary Rohan ..." Port Adelaide at 73.9 per cent compared with Geelong at 73.4. Last roll of the dice ... Eventually, the question - Will Port Adelaide live up to pre-season expectation by being a post-season competitor? It also would make quite a statement about Port Adelaide's ability to create havoc in September rather than just complete the numbers when 18 become eight at the start of the post-season. Too often, Port Adelaide has suffered across 20 or so minutes - a theme that cannot repeat against Geelong when so much is on the line from 4.05pm on Saturday at Adelaide Oval. But the record also is loaded with a common frustration.

And breathe. In one of the best and most unpredictable AFL games of the year yet, Geelong held off a brave Port Adelaide to claim its ninth straight win ...

The turnaround was courtesy of a big lift in clearances as Jeremy Finlayson and Charlie Dixon took over at centre bounces. Then the Cats again showed great composure, with Close finding Hawkins close to goal. Nathan Buckley agreed, adding: “He finds the ball, but it‘s not about that, it’s about impact. There were several crucial moments in a frenetic final term. With Stanley off in that third quarter, Port Adelaide flipped the script on the Cats and it was Jeremy Finlayson at the centre of it. It‘s a ninth straight win for the Cats and one they needed far less that Port Adelaide and yet they put in one of their most hard-nosed efforts of the season. “You give up eight goals to one in the third quarter at Adelaide Oval where it‘s absolutely heaving against a team who are playing for their footy life, you gather yourself and you come out and kick four goals to one in the last quarter. There were no late changes for either side. Some good work in the contest helped Port Adelaide work the ball out of congestion in its forward 50 and it was Todd Marshall who found space as a result and kicked a goal. And breathe. Port Adelaide got off to the perfect start, with clean clearance work out of the middle leading to a mark in the goalsquare by Mitch Georgiades, which he converted for the side’s first goal of the game. Down by 34 points at half-time and with its season on the line, Port booted eight goals to one in the third term — thanks to inspiring efforts from Charlie Dixon and Jeremy Finlayson — to take a seven-point lead into the final change.