World Footy News

Port Adelaide rallied inside the last minute to kick the winning goal, ending the most fantastic game of footy Europe has ever seen.

The Bulldogs put out a young team, but they came out strong in the first quarter, with early goals from Ayce Cordy, Liam Jones and Luke Dalhaus. The Bulldogs then further extended their lead in the second quarter, with new recruit Koby Stevens putting on an impressive debut performance and Liam Picken exciting the curiosity of the crowd by leaping onto the shoulders of the Port defence in a textbook specky to grab the mark.

The Dogs were able to effectively control play for the majority of the game, seemingly unanswered by Port. And by midway through the third quarter, Port were trailing by 39 points, a gap that was surely insurmountable, and it looked like it was game over for the young and inexperienced Port team.

However, inspired by Angus Momfries, newly recruited from Essendon, the Port team rallied and finally got back to pace, kicking nine consecutive goals.

As Port started to inch back the points, the 10,000 strong crowd, many of them locals who were completely new to the game, soon got into the swing of things and by the last quarter they were roaring.

With the Bulldogs seemingly caught napping, the tension both on the field and in the stands started to rise, and as the crowd came to life, a few scuffles broke out amongst the players. This was only added to by a pitch invasion from a semi-naked man in a lion mask.

Eventually, the Bulldogs woke up and reclaimed a 10 point margin late in the final quarter. However, Port stayed perfectly composed and came back, Brad Ebert kicking the winning goal with just 40 seconds to go.

On his side’s dramatic win, Port Adelaide’s new coach Ken Hinkley said, “We always want to win- it doesn’t matter if it’s an exhibition game or not.

“It was a great performance. Both sides put on a really good game, I think for the fans also if you’ve got a one point game. You’d be happy with that from the AFL’s point of view, from the clubs’ point of view and we’re happy ‘cos we got the one point!”

Hinkley, who was only appointed coach of Port Adelaide last month, said of his new team, “The coaching side told me I had some talent here to work with and it was nice to see that. It makes you confident.

“Angus and the two Sydney boys – it’s great to have them in the side. It’s important for them to feel like their part of the team and a win does that.”

Western Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney admitted he was really pleased the crowd got involved and said both teams played terrifically.

“They got the goal at end so it was their win,” he said. “We saw a few get kicked against us and thought, let’s see what they do without actually giving them too much help.

“A couple of the younger guys were a bit slow to react to what was happening and they played well and it gave them a bit of momentum. We fought back but we weren’t doing a lot of coaching. It was just have a look at them and let them have a run around.”

He added, “It’s good to promote AFL in other countries. But we still wanted to win.”


Final score: Port Adelaide 14.4 (88) defeated Western Bulldogs 13.9 (87)

Goals

Port Adelaide: Monfries 3, Hitchcock 2, Ebert, Hartlett, Trengove, Newton, Moore, Pittard, Redden, Hombsch, Lobbe.

Western Bulldogs: Higgins 3, Picken 2, Veszpremi 2, Cordy, Dahlhaus, Jones, Greenwood, Stevens, Liberatore.

Best on Ground

Port Adelaide: Monfries, Hartlett, Moore, Ebert, Hitchcock

Western Bulldogs: Picken, Higgins, Veszpremi, Howard, Stevens

Highlights of both games can be seen on Port TV:

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The online replay of the game has unfortunately been delayed, but the link will be posted up as soon as it is available.