Port Adelaide has held its nerve to survive an almighty fourth quarter scare on the road in a scrappy Saturday night affair, defeating West Coast by one goal.
Both bottom-four sides struggled to use the ball cleanly all night, however the Power were able to convert just enough of their opportunities to win 11.11 (77) over the Eagles’ 10.11 (71).
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The visitors hung on for dear life in the final quarter, as Andrew McQualter’s side peppered the yellow Sherrin inside their attacking 50 to look like the late favourites.
2024 All-Australian Jake Waterman was enormous all night in the hosts’ forward half, finishing the night with 19 disposals, 11 marks, three goals and three tackles inside 50.
The unlikeliest of goal sources in Tom Cole looked every chance of coming up clutch for the Eagles with his second goal of the night, but unfortunately missed a regulation set shot not long after to keep the Power in front by the barest of margins.
Star Port forward Mitch Georgiades marked inside his side’s forward 50 on the final siren, with his set shot fading to the right and putting the final margin at six points.
West Coast goalkickers: Waterman 3, Cole 2, Hough, Allan, Shanahan, Yeo, Duursma
Port Adelaide goalkickers: Horne-Francis 3, Berry 2, Cochrane, Moraes, Marshall, Durdin, Georgiades, Sweet
THE 3-2-1…
3. POWER HOLD ON FOR DEAR LIFE FOR FOUR MORE POINTS
Neither West Coast or Port Adelaide will walk away overly impressed with their output on Saturday night, but the latter has a strong case to claim on why they ultimately came up trumps.
The Power’s relenting pressure early on was what enabled them to find plenty of scoring shots early on in the clash, albeit Josh Carr’s side weren’t able to make the most of everything that came their way on the scoreboard.
“The story of the game has been the intercept game, which Port Adelaide are dominating at the moment — 21 intercepts and 3.2 from that area (before quarter time),” Collingwood AFLW Ruby Schleicher said at quarter time.
2018 West Coast premiership player Will Schofield added during the second term: “It’s been a real feature of their game when they’ve played well this year, is their pressure factor.
“They didn’t take most of it on the scoreboard in the first quarter, but they’re starting to put it on, off the back of their pressure.”
It wasn’t all bad news for the Eagles, who managed to find themselves looking more threatening as the game went on with deeper entries that brought all their forwards into the game.
Jake Waterman worked his way into the match beautifully and threatened to take the game away from Port Adelaide completely in the later stages, while Tom Cole proved himself an option moving forward in the Eagles’ attacking half.
“They’ve looked really good when they’ve gone deep and created a contest to bring the ball to ground in a predictable spot — where then they can get after it and hit the scoreboard off the back of that,” three-time Geelong premiership player Tom Hawkins told Fox Footy.
Ultimately though, their efficiency with ball in hand hurt them dearly.
“From the start of the game, there was a lack of composure or disposal efficiency in their front half,” 2018 Eagles premiership coach Adam Simpson said.
Port Adelaide now move themselves out of 16th place on the ladder and into 14th, jumping Carlton and West Coast all the while maintaining a net positive percentage of 101.4.
“It’s nice to be on the other end of a close game. It’s certainly nice after a bye to freshen up the body, and it’s a good start to the second half of the year,” Power star Mitch Georgiades told Fox Footy’s Super Saturday Live post-game.
“He (Josh Carr) just said to enjoy this moment for the time being. We’ll go back and review over the next couple of days, but we’ve had some pretty tough losses at the start of the year … it’s a good one.”
Jason Horne-Francis was instrumental all night with three goals from his 18 disposals, while fourth-gamer Tom Cochrane was involved in a number of scoring chains to finish with three goal assists and 1.2 off his own boot.
2. EAGLES DEALT MAJOR SETBACK WITH KEY COG, POWER DEFENDER’S NIGHT ENDS EARLY
After a highly-praised season to date so far in 2026, West Coast key defender Reuben Ginbey looks set for a stint on the sidelines with a suspected quad injury.
A last-gasp effort in the Eagles’ defensive goal square saw the 21-year-old dive at full stretch to try and stop Power opponent Mitch Georgiades from running into an open goal.
His valiant attempt was ultimately unsuccessful, but in the process the key defender looks to have picked up a soft tissue injury.
The moment Reuben Ginbey injured his quad trying to chase down Port Adelaide star forward Mitch Georgiades.Source: Fox Sports
“There are only a couple of players in this Eagles side that are irreplaceable, and they’ve just lost one of them in Reuben Ginbey to a quad injury,” Collingwood AFLW star Ruby Schleicher told Fox Footy at three-quarter time.
2018 West Coast premiership player Will Schofield added: “It’s not a good (injury) — not that any soft tissue injury is good — but that looks like a really severe quad injury.
“He tried to run it off. That could be tendon, that could be season — we don’t know.”
2025 Power SSP signing Josh Lai was also ruled out of the game just after half time with his second concussion inside the last month, after a head knock in the final minutes of his side’s Round 9 loss to Gold Coast in Darwin.
His knock came as a result of some unfortunate friendly fire, running into teammate Esava Ratugolea mid-contest in the Power’s defensive half.
1. ‘KEY DEFENDER’S DREAM’: UNLIKELY SUSPECTS SHINE AMID POOR EXECUTION
It’s not often that key defenders are front and centre of attention as a collective group, but poor execution and usage of the Sherrin by foot on Saturday night saw the proactive types rack up the intercept possessions.
At half time, West Coast (-13.1%) and Port Adelaide (-6.9%) were operating well below their season average with disposal efficiency inside 50 in a scrappy Optus Stadium encounter.
It saw West Coast defensive duo Reuben Ginbey and Tylar Young combine for a whopping 15 intercepts in the first half, while usual Power suspects Esava Ratugolea and Aliir Aliir combined for 13 of their own.
“It’s a key defender’s dream out there at the moment, with shanked kicks all over the place that are easy to read,” Collingwood AFLW star Ruby Schleicher told Fox Footy at half time.
“Ratugolea’s intercepts are a lot further up the ground, whereas Ginbey’s are close to goal.”
2018 West Coast premiership player Will Schofield added: “The disposal’s been poor at both ends, and it’s easier to read that — especially when you’re playing proactively as a defender.
“Both of these guys (Reuben) Ginbey and (Esava) Ratugolea sit in front of their man, so when there’s pressure on the ball and it’s been butchered all night, it’s a defenders’ dream.”
Ratugolea in particular was dealt the tough task of juggling his match-up on 2024 All-Australian Jake Waterman while intercepting.
Ratugolea leaves the field due to the blood rule on the brink of half time (Photo by Janelle St Pierre via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
Unfortunately for the 27-year-old, a head knock on the brink of half time saw him leave the field under the blood rule, freeing up his opponent to take multiple shots on goal in his absence — one of which he converted.
“He’s been the beneficiary of some of the disposal by West Coast, but he’s had four intercept marks and put himself in the right spots throughout the game,” Schofield said.
“Interestingly, as the game went into the second quarter, Jake Waterman was the one to come back the other way … he had seven marks, two goals and really fought his way into the game. A really good battle at that end of the ground.”
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