Port Adelaide is unsheathing its trio of off-season recruits on Sunday afternoon against the West Coast Eagles, who have ready-and-waiting additions of their own to blood at Adelaide Oval.
The Power will introduce new ruck Ivan Soldo, as well as key-defending pair Esava Ratugolea and Brandon Zerk-Thatcher — leaving out fellow newcomer Jordon Sweet, who will start his Alberton tenure as an emergency.
Meanwhile, while West Coast’s headline act is No.1 draftee Harley Reid, Adam Simpson’s men will also be bolstered by the arrival of small forward Tyler Brockman, who will make his first appearance in Eagles colours after crossing from Hawthorn.
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MATCH CENTRE: Power vs Eagles teams, live scores, stats and more
Defenders Jase Burgoyne and Dylan Williams join Sweet as Port Adelaide’s emergencies, while West Coast’s just-in-cases are Jamaine Jones, Ryan Maric and Tyrell Dewar.
This match got underway at 4:00pm AEDT from Adelaide Oval.
Watch it live on Fox Footy (channel 504) and streaming on Kayo.
LIVE MATCH REPORT
Charlie Dixon gave Port Adelaide the opening goal but the underdog Eagles were up for the fight, responding quickly through Jake Waterman.
Halfway through the opening term Harley Reid had an equal game-high five disposals, as coach Adam Simpson attempted to get the suepr-promising young talent involved as much as possible around the ball.
Zak Butters was allowed to pounce for a goal at a forward 50 stoppage with Adelaide great Mark Ricciuto declaring about the amount of space the Eagles left him – “that’s just criminal”.
But once again the Eagles responded quickly, with Bailey Williams snapping one out of the ruck.
In bizarre scenes Jake Waterman was well and truly out of bounds on route to the Eagles’ third goal.
“That looked a mile out, and the umpire’s in a fantastic position. Play on?!” Nick Dal Santo said on Fox Footy commentary.
“The crowd had a better chance of getting a hand on it.”
Port Adelaide led 3.6 (24) to 3.1 (19) at quarter-time.
The pace of the Power began to strike in the second term as they jumped out to the expected lead, with Charlie Dixon quickly kicking three goals from five scoring shots.
Two late goals left them up 9.10 (64) to 5.3 (33) at halftime, and the Power added two more to begin the third term, extending the margin out to 42 points.
Commentator Nick Dal Santo was quick to lament West Coast’s apparent lack of fitness as the Power started to pull away.
“We saw this with the Kane Farrell goal – just hands on hips resting while the ball is in their defensive 50 West Coast, allowing easier shots and other options,” he said.
“Got to be better than that.”
But just as the Power seemed to be in cruise control, the Eagles pounced.
Goals to Jack Darling and Liam Duggan got West Coast back to the six-goal margin as Port Adelaide lost Jed McEntee to a heavy Bailey Williams collision.
“He was brave to go back – he was exposed,” Dal Santo praised of McEntee.
“Just the unknown coming the opposite way.”
At the final change it was Port leading by 32 points.
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