THE NORTHERN Bullants' winning run has come to an end, with Port Melbourne beating them by 47 points at TEAC Oval on Saturday.
The result sees the Bullants in sixth place on 36 points. They missed an opportunity to move a game clear of the fifth-placed Casey Scorpions and seventh-placed Geelong, with Port Melbourne now joining top side Williamstown and second-placed North Ballarat on 44 points. The Box Hill Hawks separate the two groups on 40 points, with Collingwood slotting in for eighth on 32.
Bullants coach David Teague talks about how the match evolved and how some of the Carlton-listed players performed throughout the afternoon.
The match was very even up until three-quarter time, but the way we ran the game out was very disappointing. We probably didn't play our best footy in the first half, but we managed to stay within reach.
Our ball use was very average early; we over-used the handball and refused to kick the ball long despite Port's ground being quite small.
We had a great third quarter when we kicked the ball long and Cameron Cloke was either marking it or bringing it to ground for our crumbing forwards like Chris Yarran or Jeff Garlett who both did well.
But we just stopped in the final term and Port Melbourne ran over the top of us. They started winning the contested ball and got it quickly to their big forwards with Fabian Deluca, in particular, taking a few grabs and kicking some goals.
Clokey has been in good form for us for three or four weeks now and when we kicked long to him in the third quarter he took six or seven marks and he finished the day with seven shots on goal.
He's backing in his ability to mark the ball, he's attacking the contest hard and providing a real focal point for us.
Adam Hartlett was outstanding for us when given a really tough job down back. Obviously Port has some quality tall forwards and he rotated on a few opponents and kicked well out of defence.
He defended well, but also had 26 touches for the day which was our second highest total playing as a key defender.
There's obviously a lot of interest in our two big guys Robbie Warnock and Sam Jacobs and Robbie took another step forward.
He had about 12 possessions, continues to move around the ground well and looked to take a fair bit of confidence out of the game. We increased his match time again and he played just over 50 per cent which is what he'll need to do playing ruck at the next level.
Sammy has been really improving each week, but it's fair to say he was a bit down. He played alright, but he normally plays really well against Port Melbourne and his output was probably a bit lower than he would have liked.
Garlett is still only lightly-built, but he's playing his best footy since coming over from WA. He's crumbing really well, but he's also putting a lot of pressure on inside 50.
Shaun Grigg worked hard through the middle, but we probably ended up getting beaten in that area. He had about 26 possessions and most of those were won in tight in a contest.
Jordan Bannister did his hamstring which will be a big loss for us. He was playing well before that and we'll miss his bigger body over the next few weeks.
Port Melbourne 3.5 9.8 12.10 20.13 (133)
Northern Bullants 3.5 5.6 12.10 12.14 (86)
Port Melbourne
Goalkickers: S. Dwyer 5, F. Deluca 3, A. Bonaddio 3, D. Robbins 2, B. Grima 2, C. Cain 2, D. Fanning, A. Deluca, P. Raymond
Best: F. Deluca, S. Dwyer, J. Baird, C. Cain, D. Fanning, B. Nixon
Northern Bullants
Goalkickers: C. Cloke 4, C. Yarran 2, J. Garlett 2, A. Bentick, A. Iacobucci, D. Boundy, A. Woods
Best: A. Hartlett, A. Iacobucci, C. Cloke, S. Grigg, J. Garlett, B. Fisher
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the club.
