Match

West Coast Eagles vs Port Adelaide

Commentary / 03 Apr 2021

Pre Game

00:00

Port Adelaide relies heavily on their pressure to win games, applying the second-best pressure factor of the season. Alternatively, the Eagles like to maintain possession through uncontested marks and keep a high kick-to-handball ratio. As a consequence, the Eagles have recorded the third-lowest pressure factor this season.

Quarter 1

00:00

Q1 is now underway.

01:46

SCORE GOAL - Eagles (Tim Kelly)

03:42

West Coast has scored the opening goal of the match through Tim Kelly, this goal being sourced from a defensive midfield intercept. West Coast only generated two scores from intercepts won in this zone last week.

04:12

SCORE GOAL - Eagles (Jamie Cripps)

05:50

SCORE GOAL - Eagles (Liam Ryan)

06:47

West Coast has started on fire, converting all three of their inside 50s into goals. This has been a strength for the Eagles so far this season, recording the third-best goals per inside 50 ratio in the opening two rounds this season at 26%.

07:01

SCORE BEHIND - Eagles (Luke Shuey)

09:35

SCORE GOAL - Eagles (Josh J. Kennedy)

10:24

The Eagles are in complete control here. Despite having won double the amount of disposals compared to Port Adelaide, they have also laid five tackles compared to zero for the Power.

11:36

SCORE BEHIND - Power (Todd Marshall)

14:01

West Coast leads contested possessions 21 to 11. Furthermore, they have won eight more post-clearance contested possessions than the Power in the opening 14 minutes. This was an area they struggled in last week against the Bulldogs, losing the contested possession count by 11.

16:10

SCORE BEHIND - Eagles (Jarrod Brander)

17:51

SCORE GOAL - Power (Mitch Georgiades)

18:34

Mitch Georgiades has continued his strong form from last week, kicking the first goal of the match for Port Adelaide. Georgiades kicked a career-high four goals last week against Essendon, as well as setting career-highs in disposals and marks inside 50.

21:37

Luke Shuey has been a welcome addition to the midfield of the Eagles, bringing the hard-nosed edge that is typical of his career. He has applied a game-high four tackles, as well as leading the game in score involvements with four. This comes despite having only recording 57% time on ground so far.

23:39

SCORE BEHIND - Eagles (Oscar Allen)

24:37

SCORE GOAL - Eagles (Jarrod Brander)

25:15

West Coast has been impressive in their ability to win groundballs in their forward 50 zone this evening. They have won four in this zone now, three more than the Power have won in their respective zone. West Coast has lost the forward 50 groundballs by nine per game this season – ranked last.

26:47

SCORE BEHIND - Eagles (Josh J. Kennedy)

28:23

West Coast has recorded their greatest-ever opening quarter score against Port Adelaide since they first met back in 1997. They have dominated contested possessions on the ground, winning 13 more than Port Adelaide, as well as in the air with an overall advantage of five in contested marks.

Quarter 2

00:00

Q2 is now underway.

01:58

Port Adelaide was restricted to just the eight inside 50s in the opening quarter. This is three inside 50s fewer than their next lowest result in a quarter this season.

02:42

SCORE BEHIND - Power (Rushed)

04:49

Port Adelaide has enjoyed dominant second quarters this season, outscoring their opposition by 56 points in this term – ranked No. 1.

06:41

SCORE BEHIND - Eagles (Rushed)

07:40

SCORE GOAL - Eagles (Dom Sheed)

08:21

Dom Sheed has kicked the second goal of the match for the Eagles sourced from a stoppage. Sheed has won eight disposals so far tonight, as well as generating a team-high 208 metres gained. Sheed finished with 34 disposals in the season opener at Optus Stadium – his second-best disposal tally at the venue from 32 games.

09:18

SCORE GOAL - Power (Mitch Georgiades)

11:52

SCORE GOAL - Eagles (Jamie Cripps)

12:11

The Eagles are dominating territory, with an overall advantage of over eight minutes in the time in forward-half differential. The Eagles have generated 10 of the first 13 inside 50s for this second quarter.

14:18

SCORE GOAL - Eagles (Josh J. Kennedy)

16:03

SCORE GOAL - Eagles (Jack Darling)

16:56

West Coast has clearly been the more efficient side when going inside 50. The Eagles have scored a goal from 38% of their inside 50s, compared to 17% for Port Adelaide.

18:31

SCORE BEHIND - Power (Steven Motlop)

21:05

SCORE BEHIND - Eagles (Jarrod Brander)

23:48

SCORE GOAL - Eagles (Jack Petruccelle)

24:11

The Eagles have won 23 more contested possessions than the Power. Since 2017, the Eagles have only once recorded a greater differential in this stat during an opening half.

27:19

Andrew Gaff has collected 16 disposals in their first half – the most of any player in the match. Gaff has averaged 16 disposals across the opening two rounds – his lowest return since 2013 and the third-lowest of his career.

28:44

SCORE BEHIND - Eagles (Liam Ryan)

31:52

The Eagles enter half-time with a 52 point advantage - their greatest-ever lead against Port Adelaide at half-time. 10.7(67) is the second-highest score at half time for the Eagles against this opposition, whilst 2.3(15) for Port Adelaide is their second-lowest ever first-half score against West Coast.

Quarter 3

00:00

Q3 is now underway.

02:54

SCORE GOAL - Eagles (Oscar Allen)

04:42

West Coast has capitalised on the turnover this evening, outscoring the Power by 39 points from this source. Port Adelaide kicked five more goals from turnovers than Essendon in their match last round.

04:51

SCORE GOAL - Power (Todd Marshall)

06:57

SCORE GOAL - Power (Robbie Gray)

07:12

Port Adelaide has kicked consecutive goals for the first time tonight, their most recent coming from a Robbie Gray set shot. This is the first goal that Gray has ever kicked at Optus Stadium, having played four matches at this venue prior to tonight.

08:35

SCORE GOAL - Eagles (Josh J. Kennedy)

10:13

SCORE GOAL - Eagles (Jack Darling)

11:12

Port Adelaide entered the round as the equal-highest scoring side from centre bounces – averaging 20 points per game from this source. However, it is the Eagles tonight who have dominated this source, outscoring the Power by 18 points from these stoppage types.

15:56

Dan Houston has collected the most disposals for the Power tonight with 18. However, he has been unable to have his typical impact on ball movement - recording just one rebound 50 and no inside 50s. Houston was one of the most prolific ball transition players in the opening two rounds. He generated a combined 24 inside 50s and rebound 50s this season – the most of any player.

16:57

SCORE GOAL - Power (Todd Marshall)

21:11

West Coast has won 10 more pre-clearance contested possessions than Port Adelaide tonight. Port Adelaide won the pre-clearance contested possession differential by an average of 12 per game this season – ranked second.

22:14

SCORE BEHIND - Eagles (Dom Sheed)

25:48

Luke Shuey and Dom Sheed have won a combined seven centre clearances tonight – the Power have won six as a collective team. Sheed entered this round as the equal-second ranked midfielder for centre clearances. Only Collingwood’s Taylor Adams had won more of the clearances coming into Round 3.

26:24

SCORE GOAL - Power (Orazio Fantasia)

29:56

Port Adelaide has managed to win the inside 50 count in a quarter for the first time tonight – with these increased entries resulting in them winning the quarter by five points. The Power generated a goal from 31% of their forward 50 entries in the term - an improved result from their 11% in the opening half.

Quarter 4

00:00

Q4 is now underway.

01:29

SCORE BEHIND - Eagles (Oscar Allen)

01:43

Despite entering the round on top of the ladder, Port Adelaide is one of just four clubs yet to win a final term (Sydney, Fremantle and Carlton).

02:40

SCORE GOAL - Power (Orazio Fantasia)

04:46

SCORE GOAL - Eagles (Josh J. Kennedy)

05:31

Orazio Fantasia has kicked multiple goals for the third-consecutive match, taking his season tally to eight. Only once in his career has Fantasia scored eight or more goals in the opening three rounds of a season.

09:01

SCORE GOAL - Eagles (Jack Darling)

10:17

Thanks largely to Nic Naitanui, West Coast has won eight hitouts-to-advantage at centre bounce stoppages this evening. Naitanui won 12 pre-clearance hard ball gets in the first two rounds – two more than any other player.

11:28

SCORE BEHIND - Eagles (Josh Rotham)

14:59

SCORE GOAL - Power (Willem Drew)

15:26

Willem Drew kicks a late consolation goal to reduce the margin to 49 points. Drew attended 45 centre bounce stoppages through the first two rounds this season, the most of any Port Adelaide player. He has attended 12 of these events tonight - 11 fewer than the most for Port Adelaide, Ollie Wines.

16:45

Eagles Interchange - Luke Shuey and is possibly out for the game.

18:26

West Coast has taken 51 more marks than Port Adelaide tonight, which is a flow-on from their short kicks differential lead (137 to 74). This has resulted in a kick-to-handball ratio of 1.99. Their season ratio is 2.13 - ranked No. 1.

18:52

SCORE BEHIND - Power (Karl Amon)

21:16

SCORE GOAL - Power (Robbie Gray)

22:37

Luke Shuey has been medically-subbed out of the game and replaced by Zac Langdon.

23:40

Shannon Hurn has been a reliable contributor out of defence tonight - generating 449 metres gained in the match (ranked second for West Coast). Hurn has generated the most metres gained of any player after Round 2 with 1379. This is more than 300 metres than the next best Eagle, Dom Sheed, with 1052 metres.

24:02

SCORE BEHIND - Eagles (Tim Kelly)

25:24

SCORE GOAL - Eagles (Liam Ryan)

27:06

SCORE GOAL - Power (Todd Marshall)

27:42

West Coast has scored a season-high 50 points from stoppages tonight, as well as setting a season-high for marks inside 50 with 15.

29:02

SCORE BEHIND - Power (Mitch Georgiades)

29:53

SCORE BEHIND - Eagles (Jamie Cripps)

31:23

SCORE GOAL - Power (Robbie Gray)

31:26

West Coast dominated clearances all night, leading this statistic by 14 for the match. This resulted in a strong territory advantage, generating 17 more inside 50s and an overall differential advantage of 12 minutes for time in forward half.