For the fifth time in seven years, Port Adelaide has lost its opening round match, this time to the West Coast Eagles by 48 points at Subiaco.
The match was tight for the first two and a half quarters, before the home team slipped into overdrive, with seven goals for the third term.
The final score was 17.20 (122) to 11.8 (74).
It didn’t take long for the on-field fireworks to start. In the eighth minute of the first term, West Coast captain Ben Cousins was reported for striking Port hard-man Damien Hardwick.
Chad Morrison, playing his first game since round 13 2001, was extremely fortunate to survive a trademark Byron Pickett charge when Pickett ran past the ball in an attempt to collect him.
The resulting free ball was slotted through by Port’s newest recruit, Steven Salopek, with only his second kick the AFL.
Port went into the game missing Josh Carr and Dean Brogan (suspended), Jarrad Schofield, Michael Wilson and Adam Kingsley (hamstrings), and Roger James (groin), while West Coast was unable to select Daniel Chick (quad), Adam Hunter (compound dislocation of a finger) or Michael Collica (ankle).
West Coast was the first to score at Subiaco this year, when midfield star Chris Judd marked and kicked well from 50 after Daniel Kerr worked hard to give him a free run at the ball.
Port Adelaide then kicked the next three, with the Burgoyne brothers causing West Coast all sorts of problems, as small forwards did throughout last year.
Port had a setback in the first minute of the second term when Darryl Wakelin was assisted from the ground with what appeared to be a back or rib injury.
Port kicked two goals in three minutes of the second term, while West Coast’s two were more spaced out, but the quarter was characterised more by pressure than by clean ball-handling.
West Coast kicked five points straight in the third before Judd grabbed a kick-in after a shot went out on the full, and slotted it through.
He followed it with another just three minutes later, and when Dean Cox snapped a beauty off his left foot deep in the left pocket, after an intelligent tap from Phil Matera, the hosts were out to a 27-point lead.
The flood gates opened, and West Coast went to the last break with a 51 point break.
The Power has won just twice in the opening round of a season. It beat Sydney at the SCG in 1999 and Brisbane at AAMI Stadium in 2001. The Power lost its opening two matches of 2002 before going on to win 18 of its last 20.
After four years of waiting, Toby Thurstans reveled in his first AFL match. He joined the game in the second term and made an immediate impact with a crunching tackle, earning him a free kick for holding the ball. Thurstans went on to record six kicks, two handballs and three marks.
Steven Salopek, the 17-year-old boy wonder from the Dandenong Stingrays, kicked two goals in his debut match, which included 8 possessions and four marks.
WEST COAST: 4-4, 6-9, 13-14, 17.20 (122)
PORT ADELAIDE: 4-3, 6-5, 6-5, 11.8 (74)
GOALS: WEST COAST: Matera 4, Judd, Haynes 3, Cousins, D. Cox 2, Embley, Wilson, Gaspar
PORT ADELAIDE: Salopek, P Burgoyne, K Cornes, Dew 2, Burgoyne S, Guerra, Tredrea
BEST: WEST COAST: Gardiner, Judd, Embley, Haynes, Cousins, Carroll, Banfield
PORT ADELAIDE: Francou, Wanganeen, P Burgoyne, Tredrea, Montgomery
INJURIES: WEST COAST:
PORT ADELAIDE: Wakelin (back)
REPORTS: WEST COAST: Cousins (West Coast) for allegedly striking Hardwick in the first quarter.
PORT ADELAIDE:
CHANGES: -
UMPIRES: Kennedy, McKenzie, Margetts
CROWD: 35079 at Subiaco Oval.
