The Northern Blues have gone down to Port Melbourne by 44 points in their final practice game at Preston City Oval on Saturday.
The Borough took the lead midway through the opening term and didn’t look back, breaking away in the second half to win 16. 15. (111) to 9. 13. (67).
Despite the result, Lachie Plowman’s successful return was a big positive for Blues fans, having 11 disposals in the first half and emerging unscathed in limited game time.
Port Melbourne got off to a fast start, leading by 17 points at quarter time with an efficient display going forward (11 scoring shots from 15 forward-50 entries).
Scott Clarke did the damage for Port Melbourne in the first half, kicking two goals and taking four marks, giving Port Melbourne a 22-point lead going into half-time.
Matthew Dick and Mark Whiley led the way for the Blues, finishing with 24 disposals apiece to be their side’s most prolific.
Kye Declase and Daman Aujla took their spots in the senior side after playing full games for the Development team earlier on.
Port Melbourne kicked away in the third term with a seven-goal-to-two quarter, led by Jordan Lisle (three goals).
Liam Jones and Clem Smith both kicked their second goals of the game to give the Blues a small boost heading into the final quarter, but Port had all the momentum.
Northern fought hard in the last quarter but wastefulness cost them, kicking 2.6 in the final term to eventually go down by 44 points.
First-year Blue David Cuningham also got his fair share of the ball with 22 disposals, while Andrew Gallucci was impressive with 18 disposals and four inside-50s.
However, too many contributors on the day for Port Melbourne proved too much for the Blues to handle, with the Borough leading across the board for the entire afternoon.
Speaking post-match, Matthew Dick said the Blues had their work cut out for them ahead of their upcoming clash with Footscray in round one.
“It was a disappointing result especially given the win against Richmond last week. It would have been good to show that consistency heading into next week,” Dick said.
“There’s a lot of things to work on but that’s the positive for us going forward, there’s still a lot of room for improvement.
“We’ve just got to stick to our structures because I think we went away from that today … we’ll have to go back to that Blues style of footy.”
Dick said the gradual returns to fitness for new Blues Plowman and Liam Sumner were “great to see” ahead of the VFL home-and-away season next week.
“To see them coming back is really uplifting. ‘Plow’s’ had a difficult run over pre-season with his hip but it was really good to have him running around, and Liam as well in the last two weeks.”
The Northern Blues get their VFL season underway next Sunday against Footscray at VU Whitten Oval from 11am.
NORTHERN BLUES 3.1 5.5 7.7 9. 13. (67)
PORT MELBOURNE 5.6 8.9 15.12 16. 15. (111)
GOALS
NORTHERN BLUES: Jones 2, Smith 2, Casley 2, Gorringe, Kerbatieh, Whiley
