Preview 2023 Semi Final : Port Adelaide v Greater Western Sydney at Adelaide Oval, 7.10pm ACST (7.40pm AEST)

[PaythePerryman]

Riccardi is showing he can be that third option and threat

He competed well against the saints and got some good reward

Honestly he's been a good 2nd tall for the second half of the year. Great sig to get. He could have had a bag.

 

[Giant Strides]

Honestly he's been a good 2nd tall for the second half of the year. Great sig to get. He could have had a bag.

Yep, should have been at least 4, and had that miss not affected his confidence, possibly 5. Oh, well.

 

[JC100]

Last time their pace in the midfield tore us to shreds. However I can see it easily going the other way where our size gives them nightmares.
Again I like our changes from the last match up structurally with Bedford and Daniels doing damage and putting pressure on every entry.
Callaghan is genuinely a star and he's played 20 games. The guy is massive and kicks like Josh Kelly. His run will add a lot.
Port fans will be nervous coz they lost a game but wait till Wednesday and they'll be telling you we don't stand a chance.

Kingsley mentality is strong. We have a chance

It’s that speed they which is why I think XO is a red hot chance to keep his spot in the team. Could be used on the wing/forward but if they got a hold of us in the middle he could be switched to a run with role on JHf, Butters or Rozee. He will also help close them down quickly whilst he is on the wing

 

[PaythePerryman]

It’s that speed they which is why I think XO is a red hot chance to keep his spot in the team. Could be used on the wing/forward but if they got a hold of us in the middle he could be switched to a run with role on JHf, Butters or Rozee. He will also help close them down quickly whilst he is on the wing

I reckon he will be a handy sub

 

[Powkid]

Some very big differences and positives to when we previously played them:

- We’ll have Bedford, Daniels, Taylor, Callaghan, XOH (likely to replace Cumming or sub)

- They’ll lose Williams, McKenzie, Jonas.

- We came off a very physical derby vs the swans. It’s always a massive advantage playing a team off a derby.

- Our system and confidence has had another month to mature on the back of 3 extremely impressive wins.

With the speedsters back and player changes swings the momentum back to near even. But still Port deserve to be favourites with their record at the Adelaide oval being fairly impressive.

Think their will be a huge amount of internal confidence with our boys. They are hurting right now after the Lions mauled them! We CAN do this! Rip in boys!!!!


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[Land of the Giants]

I think we can safely assume Port will come out breathing fire, regardless of who lines up.

History is on their side and they've had the wood on us for a while now. There's been bigger turnarounds, but it will still be a major achievement for us to beat them.

 

[Giant Pete]

I think we can safely assume Port will come out breathing fire, regardless of who lines up.

History is on their side and they've had the wood on us for a while now. There's been bigger turnarounds, but it will still be a major achievement for us to beat them.

Ken loves to work the underdog angle. He was quick to react when a journo suggested they are not the underdog against us. But he couldn’t argue it.

 

[dlanod]

Ken loves to work the underdog angle. He was quick to react when a journo suggested they are not the underdog against us. But he couldn’t argue it.

Rather than Oppenheimer last week, this week they'll be going with Grave of the Fireflies.

 

[BarryAglett]

Rather than Oppenheimer last week, this week they'll be going with Grave of the Fireflies.

I had to Google your reference - very dark...

 

[Land of the Giants]

Still waiting in the queue for that ticket...

Update: I'm in!

 

[Hendo_21]

Just got back from 3 and a half months in Europe today and think I'm going to try and make the trek to AO next week, been unreal to watch from afar been keen to be back for hopefully a deep finals run

 

[Giant Strides]

Giants are the “worst possible matchup” as Power look to avoid straight-sets exit

“As soon as you don't do either of those things, you're gone.”

www.sen.com.au

David King is concerned about Port Adelaide ahead of their home Semi-Final against GWS on Saturday night.

While the Power enter the game as warm favourites, King believes their issues are coming back to bite them at the worst time.
Throughout the season Port Adelaide hasn’t been near the best defensive teams and they were found out in their Qualifying Final against Brisbane as the Lions piled on 123 points. With Trent McKenzie

12

Trent Mckenzie

Age

32

Ht

191cm

Wt

89kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

15.6

4star

K

11.2

4star

HB

4.4

3star

M

4.3

4star

T

2.6

4star

MG

305.7

4star

D

12.1

3star

K

10.6

4star

HB

1.6

1star

M

4.7

4star

T

1.1

2star

MG

290.6

4star

D

16.8

4star

K

10.4

4star

HB

6.4

4star

M

3.6

4star

T

3.8

5star

in doubt for the clash with an ankle injury and Port Adelaide’s back six already struggling, King believes they’ll need to deny GWS inside 50 entries if they’re to win on Saturday.

“We've argued about Port Adelaide all year, and this is coming to the full stop on the discussion,” King said on SEN Whateley. “What is their weapon? Why would they win it this year? Why would they make a Prelim, let alone win one?"

While GWS are the lower ranked of the two sides coming from seventh-placed, King believes it’s the worst possible Semi-Final matchup for Port Adelaide. King believes the Giants could cut Port Adelaide to ribbons through the middle of the ground. “It's the worst possible matchup,” King said. “The Giants the last six weeks, if you give them the footy, they're the second-best team in the competition of getting on the scoreboard. As soon as you lose the footy, they're the hardest team to score against in the competition. Carlton and GWS had the best profiles coming into the final series, they were ranked equal-one on our metrics, and I'm not shocked to see them progress."

“I wouldn't be shocked to see GWS go to Port Adelaide, and everyone will say, ‘This happened three weeks ago’. The last time they met discussions are not for me outside of individual matchups. They're playing some serious footy, their ball movement is probably the number one feature. If you can't already stop ball movement and you get these guys who have become the GWS Globetrotters just coming through the corridor at speed. It's going to be a tough night. I'll be tipping the Giants this week just because I think they're asset-rich.”

 

[Giant Strides]

AFL winners and losers: The results from finals week one and who it says more about

The results from the first week of finals.

www.sen.com.au

St Kilda (77) defeated by Greater Western Sydney (101)​

Cornes: “I think it speaks volumes about the Giants.

“They’ve won at 11 different venues this year which speaks to the resilience of the group, how well they are led by Toby Greene

4

Toby Greene

Age

31

Ht

182cm

Wt

85kg

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Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

22.7

5star

K

12.5

5star

HB

10.2

5star

M

4.8

5star

T

3.0

5star

G

1.2

4star

D

17.5

4star

K

9.5

4star

HB

8.0

4star

M

4.8

4star

T

1.0

2star

G

2.3

5star

D

26.6

5star

K

12.4

5star

HB

14.2

5star

M

4.8

5star

T

3.6

5star

G

0.0

1star

… they’ve won at Adelaide Oval, so that would hold no fears for them (this weekened against Port Adelaide).

“I think their preparation has been better than Port Adelaide’s considering they would have landed on Saturday night in Sydney, get the extra night.

“Port Adelaide looked tired, they looked weary, they looked banged up, they’ve got personnel issues. So they (GWS) would be feeling really confident about their progression through to a prelim.

“I’m not convinced on their key forwards. Are you going to trust Jake Riccardi in a final? Jesse Hogan

23

Jesse Hogan

Age

30

Ht

196cm

Wt

100kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

15.0

4star

K

9.3

4star

HB

5.7

4star

M

6.4

5star

T

1.4

3star

G

1.9

5star

D

10.3

3star

K

6.0

2star

HB

4.3

3star

M

5.3

5star

T

0.0

1star

G

0.0

1star

D

13.0

4star

K

9.0

4star

HB

4.0

3star

M

6.4

5star

T

1.4

4star

G

1.8

5star

’s been okay, but I think that would be a weakness of theirs.

“They got a lot of goals out of their midfield on the weekend… but their game is just in good order, they’re well-balanced inside and outside, speed across half-back, my only query would be on their key forwards.

“But with (Jack) Buckley and (Sam) Taylor behind the ball fit and firing, they’re a difficult proposition.”

 

[GWS Goose]

I think we are going great and as well as anyone, however this narrative happens every year. The winner of the elimination final often gets all the wraps and the loser of the qualifying final looks beaten, everyone falls in love with the winner and all of a sudden the loser is no good. Rarely ends up that way..the crux of it is, you have to be a good side to finish top 4. It'll be a very tough game, but if we bring our stuff we are every chance.

 

[Giant Strides]

I think we are going great and as well as anyone, however this narrative happens every year. The winner of the elimination final often gets all the wraps and the loser of the qualifying final looks beaten, everyone falls in love with the winner and all of a sudden the loser is no good. Rarely ends up that way..the crux of it is, you have to be a good side to finish top 4. It'll be a very tough game, but if we bring our stuff we are every chance.

Yep, exactly. Port have been an excellent team, playing at home, where they dismantled GWS just 4 weeks ago.

Can we turn it around? Well, I think so, but it won't be easy. The addition of Bedford, Daniels & Callaghan to the team that played previously will certainly help. We'll need every drop of the belief that AK has instilled in the players ... and some luck on the night.

 

[Adam Giant]

I get why Port fans are acting a little nervous. This one has ambush written all over it.

 

[JC100]

I think we are going great and as well as anyone, however this narrative happens every year. The winner of the elimination final often gets all the wraps and the loser of the qualifying final looks beaten, everyone falls in love with the winner and all of a sudden the loser is no good. Rarely ends up that way..the crux of it is, you have to be a good side to finish top 4. It'll be a very tough game, but if we bring our stuff we are every chance.

I was curious about this point so I had a look at the past 10 years. 7 out of the last 10 years at least one of the top 4 have gone out in straight sets. Of those 7 years, on one occasion 2 teams went out in straight sets. Form in September is what matters most.

History suggests that Port or Melbourne will lose this weekend.

 

[Giant Strides]

I was curious about this point so I had a look at the past 10 years. 7 out of the last 10 years at least one of the top 4 have gone out in straight sets. Of those 7 years, on one occasion 2 teams went out in straight sets. Form in September is what matters most.

History suggests that Port or Melbourne will lose this weekend.

Fingers crossed it's at least Port ...

 

[Giant Pete]

Let’s just turn up, play our gamestyle as well as we can and see what happens.

 

[Orange crush]

Just popped up in my feed ... a harbinger of good things

 

[ragzztoriches]

As an aside I find it quite funny that when we went and beat Melbourne in Alice Springs , the dominant narrative was oh look the giants got lucky Melbourne trounced them in all the metrics. Now Collingwood have done the same thing we did to them it’s suddenly oh they exposed Melbourne.

Melbourne media sleep on us to their peril I guess.

Re this game, I think we have it in us to run them close and put ourselves in a position to win. Kingsley and the new dream team of assistant coaches have shown that they can plan well for opponents week to week and i believe that they will have analysed what went wrong last time. That plus a full squad to choose from this time around (touch wood ) puts us in a place to be competitive. Then it comes down to luck of the bounce and our ability to curtail the runs they will go on.

 

[Danny88]

They are an effective attacking team

That’s their one wood. They are going to kick goals on us.

Their defence is leaky and we will get enough opportunities to win this

 

[Hendo_21]

Giants are the “worst possible matchup” as Power look to avoid straight-sets exit

“As soon as you don't do either of those things, you're gone.”

www.sen.com.au

David King is concerned about Port Adelaide ahead of their home Semi-Final against GWS on Saturday night.

While the Power enter the game as warm favourites, King believes their issues are coming back to bite them at the worst time.
Throughout the season Port Adelaide hasn’t been near the best defensive teams and they were found out in their Qualifying Final against Brisbane as the Lions piled on 123 points. With Trent McKenzie in doubt for the clash with an ankle injury and Port Adelaide’s back six already struggling, King believes they’ll need to deny GWS inside 50 entries if they’re to win on Saturday.

“We've argued about Port Adelaide all year, and this is coming to the full stop on the discussion,” King said on SEN Whateley. “What is their weapon? Why would they win it this year? Why would they make a Prelim, let alone win one?"

While GWS are the lower ranked of the two sides coming from seventh-placed, King believes it’s the worst possible Semi-Final matchup for Port Adelaide. King believes the Giants could cut Port Adelaide to ribbons through the middle of the ground. “It's the worst possible matchup,” King said. “The Giants the last six weeks, if you give them the footy, they're the second-best team in the competition of getting on the scoreboard. As soon as you lose the footy, they're the hardest team to score against in the competition. Carlton and GWS had the best profiles coming into the final series, they were ranked equal-one on our metrics, and I'm not shocked to see them progress."

“I wouldn't be shocked to see GWS go to Port Adelaide, and everyone will say, ‘This happened three weeks ago’. The last time they met discussions are not for me outside of individual matchups. They're playing some serious footy, their ball movement is probably the number one feature. If you can't already stop ball movement and you get these guys who have become the GWS Globetrotters just coming through the corridor at speed. It's going to be a tough night. I'll be tipping the Giants this week just because I think they're asset-rich.”

Every year it's pretty easy to get sucked into the EF winning team going up against the QF losing team because of how things looks but something that can't be dismissed is the fact that "if you give them the footy, they're the second-best team in the competition of getting on the scoreboard. As soon as you lose the footy, they're the hardest team to score against in the competition". That's a massive flashing green light and not something you'd see in the typical team that finished in the bottom half. I've got my fair share of concerns with going across to AO with how they've spanked us in the past but the form is as good as any team in the entire competition, I think we're a real chance. The most impressive part of the win for me against the Saints was how we absolutely dominated scores from stoppage when that's not even a strength of ours and that's without our best mid not even playing.

Done a bit of looking around at our statistical profile across the last 5 matches:
2nd for Cont. Poss differential
4th for total clearance differential
Tied for 1st in i50
2nd for shots on goal
Conceding the 5th fewest shots on goal
1st for scoring off turnover
2nd fewest points conceded off turnover

This of course isn't every stat, but these are all some pretty key ones and we rank right up there for them

 

[Land of the Giants]

Here's how I think it will go on Saturday.

We want to get the tsnuami going - a free running style of play, where we can exploit their problems in defence. Port will get numbers back to stifle our run and carry into forward 50, and pressure us in front of goal. The last thing they want is to give us space.

For their part, Port want first hands on the ball, maintaining possession. In Round 22, they had control of the ball 47% to 38% of the entire match - a huge disparity.

We really struggled with clearances and our work around the stoppages was way down on our season average. They had the ball going forward at a pace we couldn't handle.

To win, we must at least break even with clearances and also around the stoppages. Deny them first use of the ball as much as possible.

Do that, and we can cause an upset.

 

[Giant Strides]

To win, we must at least break even with clearances and also around the stoppages. Deny them first use of the ball as much as possible.

Do that, and we can cause an upset.

I agree. So it will be important to get Cogs back, and for he, Tom Green, Kelly, Callaghan and Ward to be hard at the contest. Plus some Toby, Snooze and Binga to use their speed to take it away, or tackle the Port players if they win the contest. We did that pretty well in the EF - can we step up a notch against the Port mids?