From www.localfooty.com.au
Reported by Paul Amy
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THE Port Melbourne players thought it was one of the best, one that would lodge in the memory.
They weren't talking about their thrilling three-point victory over Box Hill Hawks at North Port Oval on Saturday, but coach Gary Ayres' withering blast at three-quarter-time.
Not often has the former Hawthorn champion had cause to give his Boroughs an old-fashioned bake.
But after watching Port fiddle and diddle and surrender their lead in the third quarter, he quickly rounded up his men at the last change and gave them a sustained burst.
They'd played "cheap" and "dumb" football and had come to a crossroad at their season, he said.
The time for talk was over. He even let slip an F-word. Rest assured it wasn't fantastic.
"And what happened down there!" he said, turning on champion rover Shane Valenti, who'd given away a free kick at the top of the goalsquare, gifting Amos Frank a goal.
Port responded with a run of four goals in a gritty last quarter , kicked by Dean Galea, Josh Purcell, captain John Baird and Mitch Woffindin.
Baird had slipped out a handpass to set up Purcell's goal and four minutes later he drilled one of his own from 45m, a leader rising in a crisis.
Woffindin's off-the-ground effort put Port's advantage to 15 points, but the Hawks kept coming and it took a floating mark from Sam Pleming deep in defence to turn them away.
It was Port's 12th win of the season and it remains the premiership favourite.
But it isn't playing well and hasn't for weeks. Ayres knows it and his three-quarter-time wallop might have been a build-up of the frustration of previous rounds.
Yet the Borough had started the game well, with the midfielders moving the ball quickly and scoring goals through the corridor.
Valenti and Baird were quickly into stride and Galea's leads and marking suggested the spearhead might be in for a bag.
But for the next two quarters Port puttered along like an old car in need of a service.
Box Hill lifted, as it always does against the Borough, to produce another gripping. Matches between these clubs have been compulsory viewing in the past few seasons.
"Sometimes you do have to get a bit nasty. I haven't pulled out a paint-peeler for a while," Ayres said after the match.
"After quarter time we lowered our standards badly. We dished up some football you'd see in the Under 12s.
"Guys didn't want to work hard, didn't want to create, didn't want to make a switch of play.
"We're a Jekyll and Hyde team at the moment. We can play a really good quarter and then.... "
Putting on eye towards the finals, he added: "You don't have to be playing super well now. But you do want to be improving in the next fortnight."
Baird (32 possessions) and Valenti (31) led the way again, and zippy Clay Hinkley (27) played one of his best games for the Borough. Toby Pinwill had 26 disposals and Adam Bentick, returning from injury, had 22.
