Phew! Port escaped with the 4 points, in a game that ebbed and flowed, largely with the strong westerly breeze worth somewhere in the order of 4 goals.
North Ballarat 5.2 7.3 12.3 14.4 (88)
Port Melbourne 1.2 7.3 8.5 15.7 (97)
GOALS:
North Ballarat: Hooper 2 Stephenson 2 Eagles 2 Rippon 2 Cassidy Keeble Tate Schnerring Austin Wheelahan
Port Melbourne: Scipione 3 Mihocek 3 Sandilands 2 Haretuku 2 Halsall 2 Hobbs Cook Golby
BEST:
North Ballarat: Kiel Eagles Lyle Mellington Rippon Schache
Port Melbourne: Rivett Mihocek Pinwill Golby Scipione Dickson
The Roosters started with it and were up and about. It was another game where Port really didn't looked switched on early, and struggled to get first use of the ball.
After I had criticised Mitch Golby's efforts in recent weeks, it was good to see a much improved effort from him. Rivett, Mihocek and Pinwill continue to be some of Port's best. Rivett adding a lot of tackling and harassing pressure that has been strangely lacking during stages of the season.
Scipione after an in and out start to the season with injury, got amongst the goals, and the switch from defence to a forward option for Mihocek in recent weeks again worked well.
Great to travel up to North Ballarat to enjoy a feed in the Bistro with Burraburger and Staionhotel and to catch up with Digs as always.
I have to say I am very impressed with the redevelopment to the ground. The position of the oval has rotated slightly, with the western goals now to the left (south) of the scoreboard. The night lighting wasn't ideal, but didn't seem to cause a problem for the players. I had to go grab glasses at 1/4 time which did help. I don't have an issue at MCG and Etihad games so I guess thats an indicator that the brightness is a few rungs lower.
No cars! Great to see the area where cars used to park up against the fence has gone, and a really decent sized grass hill on the outer wing, could accommodate thousands of supporters.
Again it was a final quarter effort that got Port across the line and the State game break comes at a good time. I think missing Lisle has really exposed problems going into Ports forward line with no real marking options. We should begin to see a few midfielders returning in coming weeks.
I thought the Roosters used the space of the ground more effectively than Port for the most part too.
I'll post up a few photos later. Not a bad crowd either for a cold and windy Saturday night at North Ballarat. I'd say noise level, the crowd was around the 60/40 Port's way.
