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Very disappointing for Port. Played in patches all night but they looked good when they were on. Looks to be some massive holes in their line up eg, rucks and key forwards.

Interestingly Frankston, while still fielding a strong side,  had 7 or 8 of their best players out. 

Ild say the big weak spot is the forward line and if we don't go hard after accomplished forwards during the off season I'll be surprised. Was listening to SEN yesterday on their assessment of Carlton and I can't help to think that theirs so many similarities what we are hearing about Carlton and with us - such as the comments of a decent list, inability to kick straight,  ineffective inside 50s, wasted disposals as well as the one that hits the hardest, a side who has underachieved. Carlton of course has had a longer period of not being prominent and understandably their supporters are becoming restless but I feel the irritability and frustration is also building with some Port fans - well that's the case of the ones I talk to. 

Who would have thought we would only have 4 wins with 4 games to play - and that despite the huge coaching overhaul we dont look any better than seasons gone by. As for the officiating Frankston deserved their win but the umpiring definitely assisted the dolphins with some atrocious calls. Where to from here for Port ?  Love to win 4 out of 4 to finish strong and build some kind of moral to keep the better players from departing, in reality we are most likely to only win 2 of the remaining games which may be the catalyst of another big player turnover which may end up being hard to replace as that destination club tag moves even further away from northport. May see a reduction of  our good supporter base as dejection kicks in, in what was touted as yet another promising season. 

As a Frankston supporter I'm quite pleased with last night. One thing that's been missing in a lot of our wins this year has been an intent to truly put teams away when we've got them down. With how narrow the race for the wildcard spots is getting, there's a very good chance percentage will make a huge difference to where everyone finishes up and our heavy defeats make it even more important that we win by as much as possible. Over the past two weeks I've seen far more endeavor to put the foot down and see games out instead of conceding junk time goals. Hopefully it's a mentality we take into our remaining games.

Hmm, that's 4 consecutive wins (all reasonably comfortable) for the Dolphins over Port. Any chance we're actually just the better side right at the minute? From where I sit, yes Port have a reasonable sort of playing list, have been competitive most weeks, but have failed to step up the intensity and composure with the game on the line. Their game plan looks ordinary moving into forward 50 where you're looking for big forwards that aren't there. Frankston have 3 big weapons in Gown, Ellison and Johnson that can hurt you at any moment. Our midfield isn't quite where we'd like it to be......we have key players injured and still don't quite have the ruck strength we'd like......but gee that wasn't bad with Trent Mynott, Seb Quirk and Taj Campbell-Farrell missing from it. With those three in we'd have won by 10 goals. 

Big shout out to Joe Lloyd who was superb in defence as stand-in captain. We're building nicely and if we continue on this trajectory we'll move up higher into the finals standings. It's a good time to be a Dolphin!

Preston go back to back wins. Williamstown led by 34 points at three quarter time. Kicking with the wind in the last quarter Preston kicked 7.2 to 0.2. Will Elliott makes a big difference. Andrew can play a bit. The way they played another win or two not out of the question. The bullants were exceptional in the last quarter. Williamstown play box hill at home next Sunday followed by Southport away the following Saturday. Two big games coming up. Box hill also have a few big games. A few interesting contests coming up with 5 rounds to go. 

I don't think there's any denying that Frankston are the better side right now. On Friday night they certainly played a fast, exciting gamestyle that would have been fun to watch if it weren't being deployed against Port Melbourne, and if they can play like that against top sides, they'll be a genuine finals threat.

The lack of dominant key forwards is definitely hurting us. Some of the turnovers going inside forward 50 are the result of sloppy kicks, but for the most part, they reveal deeper structural issues. A number of those turnovers, particularly early, came from technically good kicks that were placed to the advantage of the player in front... who was a Frankston defender. Our forwards were really struggling to take that front spot. And when our mids made kicks that went higher so our forwards could compete in the air without necessarily having front position, the Frankston defenders were better at reading the flight of the ball and timing their jumps. Credit to the Frankston defence, certainly, but at the same time the forward craft on display by Port Melbourne very much left something to be desired. I'm not suggesting that the mids don't share blame for the turnover problem, but poor forward craft is a big part of what's going on.

There were also turnovers that came when a midfielder or defender under pressure tried a long kick when most of the forwards had pressed so far up the ground that the kick went past most of them, while Frankston still had more defenders farther back, and one of those defenders was able to mark the ball. So that suggests wanting to play in a very direct, fast-paced way but not having the timing / composure / team coordination fully worked out to either make the long option possible or to find the short options first while the forwards move back to create the possibility for a long kick as the next move. Conversely, some of Frankston's goals came when most of the Port Melbourne defenders had pressed farther up the ground than most of the Frankston forwards.

Interesting to see how many players rotated through the wing or midfield in this game. In addition to the players who have usually played in those positions, I recall Watson, Sparkman, and Cahill (Dimattina as well, who was most recently in defense, but I think he was part of the mid/wing rotation at some point previously). Rosman was also briefly positioned there before going back to defence, while also making an appearance up forward; I was surprised to see Van Es briefly forward as well. I very much prefer Rosman in defence, but it looks like either McCartney really values positional versatility and it will continue to be part of his gameplan, or he's experimenting to see if one of these moves will turn out to work really well.

I don't recall Polkinghorne on the wing in this game, but he certainly did spend a lot of time up forward instead. Still, I'd say he showed enough to justify keeping him in the side.

I thought this was Signorello's best game since returning to the side.

It certainly was great to see Roy George's performance, although since so many of our forwards look great one week and then drop off the next, I hesitate to be too excited as yet.... I'm guessing Cahill is the one who comes out for Anastasio, should he be available again for the next game.

It seems like Boyd has to be dropped, most likely for Alessio, after getting 1 disposal and then 2 in his games so far. Alessio wasn't getting a whole lot of the ball either and just had 3 disposals in his most recent game when he played in defence, but when played up forward he was at least good for about a goal a game. Ideally he'd manage more than that, but we may not have anyone else available to bring in who can offer more. I see that Manton is now listed as TBC on the club's injury list, which is concerning.

Before today's games I'd been planning to agree with Mega that we were most likely to win only 2 of the remaining 4 games. Having seen that Preston beat Williamstown, I am now less confident of 2 wins.... To be clear, it's great to see Preston get another win (given that it is not against Port Melbourne!), and great that they were able to win in front of the home crowd too. I'll be watching the replay of that one. The fact that I'm referencing that game in the course of discussing the rest of Port Melbourne's season may seem overly negative, which isn't my intention - obviously I want to see Preston become a competitive side again, and if we can only beat teams that are easy to beat, we'll never get anywhere. But 0-4 to finish out the season looks like a distinct possibility.

On the other hand, unexpected results have turned out in our favor a few times; if you'd told me a few weeks into the season that we'd beat GWS and draw with Southport, I'd have figured we'd ended up having a pretty good season indeed. We've shown composure and intensity in patches (even as low on the ladder as Geelong are [ETA: I see they are above us - not sure what I was remembering - but not in finals contention], the circumstances of that win, needing to repeatedly hold them and keep forcing stoppages inside their own forward 50, showed an ability to grind out wins that we've struggled to repeat). I do think that the team will gel better next season if we can retain players and recruit some good key forwards. Another preseason and more improvements in fitness should help with the turnovers that arise from lack of composure and/or communication, though there's no getting around the fact that the forward lines need better players.

It would be great if Heppell would stick around as a player (not sure how long a VFL playing career he was envisioning when he signed). I would guess the top 3 in our best and fairest right now are Lazzaro, Hooper, Heppell. Lazzaro hasn't been quite as impactful in the last couple of games but overall has been very consistent and is exactly what the midfield needed. We absolutely have to keep Kuol Mun as well - he's a good tap ruck, and although he needs to become more consistent in his impact around the ground, at 22 he should only improve as he continues to develop. In general we want as much player retention as possible since improvement will be easier the more experience they have playing with each other, but if I had to pick the two most important re-signings of the players who made their club debuts this season, I'd say Lazzaro and Kuol Mun.

Regarding Heppell he has signed for 2 years therefore will be at Port next season. Your prediction of 0-4 (which I sadly admit doesn’t seem overly unrealistic) paints a very ordinary picture for Port and one that is hard to understand when you consider theirs 11 players on Ports list who have AFL experience and several other very solid players who were on AFL club but didn’t get a game such as Rankin and Van Ess. It pains me to say it but my old sparring partner Digs may be correct when he says ex AFL players are not always the answer.

i agree with the forward line assessment- in there ild be thinking must signs are Miller, Farrant, Anastasio, Manton - if I was outside these 4 ild be working my butt off in the remaining games to make a strong impact and put a case forward to re sign. If Roy George puts in similar performances in the remaining games the. Ild definitely sign him as well. Of course who the club lets go is dependant on who they can recruit to fill those positions so who knows it could be a similar looking forward line if the recruits don’t come through on the other hand I think 3, 4 top line forwards (which is hard to achieve) and a otherwise similar side will see us break our finals drought.  Actually who am I kidding ? I dunno what to predict with the unpredictable Port Melbourne of this day and age - I’ve lost the last 3 hairs on my head trying to work out what the near future looks like !

Don't stress Mega. Every dog has their day !

On most occasions ex AFL players are often no better than those on your own list.

John Baird was one exception that I can think of & Heppell has been OK.   

 Who else have I missed ?

Thanks for the reminder about Heppell having signed a 2-year contract, Mega - that is good. You mention Anastasio as a must-sign - do you know if he does want to go around again? I hope that he does, but I remember the word being that he'd been considering retirement after last season.

Agreed on Farrant, Manton, Miller, and George as well. Charlie Clarke has had multiple games where he gets to all the right places, but also some quiet games, and his kicking has tended to be inaccurate. But depending on how recruitment goes he could be worth hanging onto to see if he improves in that regard. I would like to see Drew Lloyd improve enough to keep his spot because I do like his intensity and how hard he tackles, but I don't know how much chance there is of that; my impression from watching (and having seen some open trainings in preseason) is that the big question mark on him is fitness, and it's true that his impact had dropped off a fair bit in the weeks before he was dropped.

Agreed that we should have a pretty good side if we can improve the forward lines. The defense has been holding up pretty well, and the midfield is generally solid; Lazzaro and Hooper are very good; Green and Hird are fairly good (small sample size so far, but it looks like Hird's ability to play midfield may have improved this year); in general the addition of Lazzaro has made the whole midfield look better; and while I have made my thoughts on Rosman being moved out of defence clear, we do have other solid options who can rotate through the midfield as well (ETA: which could potentially include Rosman as long as we have enough taller players down back to cover - my objection is not that I don't think he could play midfield but about how it impacts the balance of the team). Hooper and Hird have been down in regards to kicking efficiency lately, but while that's partly on them, some of the turnovers are partly on the forwards as well. (Tom Hird is so good at kicking the ball directly off the ground and still sending it where he wants it to go that I might *almost* be forced to concede that soccer has some use exclusively as cross-training for footy players! Sometimes I almost think he's more accurate kicking directly off the ground, but there's surely a selection effect where he kicks that way only when he's absolutely sure he can pull it off or at least that it's the best option available.)

Charlie Lazzaro is ex-AFL and probably leading our best and fairest. On the other hand there are obviously a lot of good to great VFL players who have never been in the AFL system. Not sure how much difference there is on average between the players who are drafted to the AFL in the later rounds of the draft and the players who go undrafted. I'd think the ex-AFL players would come in with a fitness advantage, but otherwise there may not be a lot of difference. I think Heppell was held back a bit early by some sort of injury concern that kept him out of the preseason games. He is one of our classiest ball users, but he's also not the typical ex-AFL player since he actually had a long AFL career.

You've missed several there Digs, Jordan Lisle, Shane Valenti, Magner. Nahas, Dwyer, Eli Templeton - do I sense the old Digs is back, the one that likes to poke the bear or in this case poke the Borough!! 

Spiny yes ild like to see Clark at Port next season - I feel he is doing OK but could do exceptional if he practices his kicking.  With some focused training I think he could be one of the leagues best forwards. Hopefully he isn't too dejected from no longer being on a AFL list and puts focus into his game as I feel he could be a 40 goal a season player. I heard from a local lad who knows him personsllt that when he was desisted he was going to give up playing altogether which explains why he took a while to come to Port - leaving the club his father  grew up.at to come down the road suggests that he is now ready to push himself again.

Your right about Anastasio he wasn't certain to go around this year, hopefully after the big lay off he has found that hunger again to go around. If we recruit well my guess would be that he would be tempted, If the opportunity arises I'll ask him.

I'd like to see at least two tall forwards,  I'm.not convinced our recent recruit Boyd is the answer.