Let's talk Ports! Part 3

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tribey said:
As far as such alleged goofs go, passing on the CEO’s cousin’s son in 1998 remains the undisputed king.
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Bucky Cunningham's sister's son, and it was our biggest drafting c**k up by plenty, particularly given that as an 18 yo he kicked 3 goals on none other than Brian Leys in an SA v VFL game played in Melbourne on what was a fairly damp track.
It's doubtful any other 18 yo in the country could have done any better, with the only saving grace being that somehow the tingles over looked him as well.

We drafted Adam Morgan who didn't give the stat's man much to do in his 3 AFL games for Port, and I don't think the bloke the crows took had a very long career either.
 

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1954 said:
Bucky Cunningham's sister's son, and it was our biggest drafting c**k up by plenty, particularly given that as an 18 yo he kicked 3 goals on none other than Brian Leys in an SA v VFL game played in Melbourne on what was a fairly damp track.
It's doubtful any other 18 yo in the country could have done any better, with the only saving grace being that somehow the tingles over looked him as well.

We drafted Adam Morgan who didn't give the stat's man much to do in his 3 AFL games for Port, and I don't think the bloke the crows took had a very long career either.
Click to expand...
He actually was 17 years old in that state game, as his date of birth is 31 December 1981 and every club could take one 17 year old in the 1998 draft, so he just scrapped in to qualify as a 17 year old in the 1998 draft as the cut off was 31st December.

We took Adam Morgan as our 17 year old at pick #38 ( dob 28/10/1981) and at #39 took Toby Thurstans (14/10/1980).

We took Michael Stevens at 5 - trade pick for Heuskes, Josh Carr at 7 and nobody took Pavlich in the 1998 draft as he had a back injury issues and it scarred every club away including Adelaide who a couple of injury prone players and had plenty of CHF types.

Jono Brown's old man talked to Port and said that if we guaranteed we took him with pick 5, guaranteeing a couple of of other clubs who were interested in him, couldn't draft him, he would nominate for the draft as a 17 year old ( dob 29/10/1981) and not take up the Brisbane Father-Son option the next year. Michael Stevens vs Jono Brown, Adam Morgan vs Matthew Pavlich. Real sliding door moments.

Brown stayed out of the draft and nominated in 1999 as an 18 year old and Brisbane had to give up pick 30 ie their Rd 2 pick for father sons that year.
 
RussellEbertHandball said:
He actually was 17 years old in that state game, as his date of birth is 31 December 1981 and every club could take one 17 year old in the 1998 draft, so he just scrapped in to qualify as a 17 year old in the 1998 draft as the cut off was 31st December.

We took Adam Morgan as our 17 year old at pick #38 ( dob 28/10/1981) and at #39 took Toby Thurstans (14/10/1980).

We took Michael Stevens at 5 - trade pick for Heuskes, Josh Carr at 7 and nobody took Pavlich in the 1998 draft as he had a back injury issues and it scarred every club away including Adelaide who a couple of injury prone players and had plenty of CHF types.

Jono Brown's old man talked to Port and said that if we guaranteed we took him with pick 5, guaranteeing a couple of of other clubs who were interested in him, couldn't draft him, he would nominate for the draft as a 17 year old ( dob 29/10/1981) and not take up the Brisbane Father-Son option the next year. Michael Stevens vs Jono Brown, Adam Morgan vs Matthew Pavlich. Real sliding door moments.

Brown stayed out of the draft and nominated in 1999 as an 18 year old and Brisbane had to give up pick 30 ie their Rd 2 pick for father sons that year.
Click to expand...

And just for extras, Port were right into Lenny Hayes all year. To the point where he was convinced he was coming to Alberton.

Then Michael Stevens went HAM in the U18 GF, looking like a perfect clone of his elder brother.

Imagine the 2001-2007 team plus Pav and Hayes lol.
 
Not sure if posted already but the Tale of the Tape for PAFC from Rohan Connolly's Footyology blog is worth a read.. I'm a big fan of paying for quality independent journalism so send a few bucks his way via Patreon if you think it's worth it.

The 'weaknesses' section gets the biggest focus and is very unflattering. But we love self flagellation (aka harsh reality) in this thread so I post it in full here:

Port have lost five of their last seven finals, including a straight-sets exit last year, and with three of those defeats coming at Adelaide Oval, that heightened aura of invincibility that they usually exude at their home ground during the regular season dissipates in the most important month of the year. And, as is always the case in these situations, the focus goes squarely on the coach. Ken Hinkley earned himself a two-year extension late last season, but Port fans will justifiably question whether it was the right move. Sure, he guided the team to another finals series, but they fell well short yet again. The previous record for a coach to hang onto his first job in the AFL without winning a premiership was 10 years, and none of the joint holders of that record – Neale Daniher, Brad Scott or Nathan Buckley – made it to the end of their 10th season. Not only has Hinkley smashed that record as he embarks on his 12th year in charge of the Power, having only made it as far as the preliminary final stage three times, but unlike Daniher and Buckley, Hinkley hasn’t even made it to a grand final. He might be signed until 2025 on paper, but this season has a bit of a do-or-die feel about it for Hinkley.

Frustrated by perennially failing to feature on the last Saturday in September, the Power went all in during the trade period to bring in experienced players they believed would push them over the edge and realise their dream. But in this writer’s opinion, the quartet they traded in was underwhelming. In Soldo, Zerk-Thatcher, Ratugolea and Sweet, you have a few B-graders at best, and some C- and D-graders at worst. Nothing screams “exciting” about them.

And when one considers what the Power gave up to bring them over to Alberton, it makes their strategy all the more eyebrow-raising. These days, you do have to give something up to get something, and often clubs pay overs in order to get the man they want. But that’s usually what happens when a superstar is involved. Port traded/on-traded a first-round pick, a pair of second-round picks and Xavier Duursma, as well as a host of other selections, to bring in a bunch of guys who are largely unproven. The best thing you can say about them at this stage in their careers is that they are serviceable.

That’s a big price to pay for players of that calibre. But when you believe you’re on the precipice of premiership glory, sometimes you do crazy things. And who knows? Maybe it’ll pay off in the end, and Hinkley and co. will make their critics look foolish. At this juncture, though, it doesn’t look like the best bit of business, and while they’ve brought some mature bodies in to try and shore up their ruck stocks following Lycett’s retirement, Soldo and Sweet aren’t exactly Max Gawn and Luke Jackson. They also bolstered support for Aliir Aliir down back where the Power got exposed badly in the finals by big key forwards Joe Daniher and Jesse Hogan. So, they will hope the arrivals of Zerk-Thatcher and Ratugolea will go some way to solving that problem. The return of Tom Clurey after an injury-ruined 2023 will also help down back. The Power had the 12th-ranked defence last year and were the worst of the top-eight teams in that department. As impressive as the Power midfield is, incredibly they were 16th last year for contested possessions, with Butters the only Port player to feature in the league’s top 20.

There's more positive stuff in the opinion piece and many will disagree with his top 22. But it's as good as I've seen on us lately in terms of proper analysis, even if it is stats based from an interstate writer (Ronny Lerner).

footyology.com.au

Tale of the tape for your AFL team: Port Adelaide | Footyology

footyology.com.au footyology.com.au
 
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Festerz said:
that heightened aura of invincibility that they usually exude at their home ground during the regular season
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Overall one of the more realistic summaries I’ve read in years, but this bit still managed to raise an eyebrow.

Apart from that opening 6-7 games in 2014, Port hasn’t had an ‘aura of invincibility’ at home in 20 years.
 

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tribey said:
Overall one of the more realistic summaries I’ve read in years, but this bit still managed to raise an eyebrow.

Apart from that opening 6-7 games in 2014, Port hasn’t had an ‘aura of invincibility’ at home in 20 years.
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The "portress"? Didn't we start well at Adelaide oval before.... Falling into this coin flip at home crap.
 
RussellEbertHandball said:
He actually was 17 years old in that state game, as his date of birth is 31 December 1981 and every club could take one 17 year old in the 1998 draft, so he just scrapped in to qualify as a 17 year old in the 1998 draft as the cut off was 31st December.

We took Adam Morgan as our 17 year old at pick #38 ( dob 28/10/1981) and at #39 took Toby Thurstans (14/10/1980).

We took Michael Stevens at 5 - trade pick for Heuskes, Josh Carr at 7 and nobody took Pavlich in the 1998 draft as he had a back injury issues and it scarred every club away including Adelaide who a couple of injury prone players and had plenty of CHF types.

Jono Brown's old man talked to Port and said that if we guaranteed we took him with pick 5, guaranteeing a couple of of other clubs who were interested in him, couldn't draft him, he would nominate for the draft as a 17 year old ( dob 29/10/1981) and not take up the Brisbane Father-Son option the next year. Michael Stevens vs Jono Brown, Adam Morgan vs Matthew Pavlich. Real sliding door moments.

Brown stayed out of the draft and nominated in 1999 as an 18 year old and Brisbane had to give up pick 30 ie their Rd 2 pick for father sons that year.
Click to expand...
Brown was such a traditional PAFC type as well. Total shame.
 
Doctor Feel said:
Brown was such a traditional PAFC type as well. Total shame.
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The fact that there was an actual genuine possibility to have all the main stars of the existing 01-07 squad plus Pavlich or Brown and Hayes is one of the more tantalising counterfactuals.
 
tribey said:
The fact that there was an actual genuine possibility to have all the main stars of the existing 01-07 squad plus Pavlich or Brown and Hayes is one of the more tantalising counterfactuals.
Click to expand...

It’s worth jumping on Carsales.com to see if we can find a Dolorean.
 

Too Hard? - The Black And White Noise

When I was a kid Port was always confident, so much so that others would often mistakenly label it as arrogance. As supporters we would laugh at the self-defeating remarks coming out of the opposition camp about how hard it was to win games and more importantly to win flags against the dominant...
theblackandwhitenoise.com
 
Enviable Tradition said:

Too Hard? - The Black And White Noise

When I was a kid Port was always confident, so much so that others would often mistakenly label it as arrogance. As supporters we would laugh at the self-defeating remarks coming out of the opposition camp about how hard it was to win games and more importantly to win flags against the dominant...
theblackandwhitenoise.com
Click to expand...

The Port Adelaide we knew hasn't just gone - it's been destroyed, by a limp dick administration.
 
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