From Port Phillip Leader
Reported by Paul Amy
Full Story Click Here
It was all about Ryan McMahon's 200th senior match for Port Melbourne.
Reserves players from Port and Sandringham formed a guard of honour as "Shooter" he ran on TEAC Oval on Saturday and cameras flashed as he breasted a banner.
But after an uncertain start Sandy threatened to turn celebrations for McMahon into commiserations.
Down by 33 points in the second quarter, they persisted to grab the lead early in the final term through rookie spearhead Matthew Boland's fifth goal.
A stunning upset loomed in a meeting of an unbeaten team and an opponent coming off a howler of a match in which it kicked only two goals.
The Borough had been sluggish, as they were for extended periods last week against Bendigo Bombers.
But they scrapped out their 14th consecutive win, 18 if you count practice matches. "Come on," Dean Galea roared, his fist pumping, as he converted a set shot that gave Port back the lead at the 12-minute mark.
Chris Cain intercepted a Sandy kick-out to push the margin out to 12 points, and two late goals from Sam Dwyer made it a 24-point victory.
The second came after the siren and after he was hit hard by Tom Simpkin.
The incident sparked a bit of push and shove, but soon thoughts turned to McMahon.
Captain John Baird and Corey McGrath hoisted him on their shoulders and carried him from the ground, clapped all the way by teammates and Port officials and fans.
Former Fitzroy star David McMahon joined in the applause, saying he couldn't be prouder of his son.
McMahon applied a shepherd as Port opened with two goals in the first three minutes of the match, and he finished with 19 tackles and 16 possessions. Dwyer (30), Nathan Batsanis (26), McGrath (24) and Malcolm Lynch (22) were the Borough's major possession winners.
Leading goalkicker Patrick Rose went goalless and hardly touched the ball, shut out of the game by St Kilda veteran Steve Baker.
Two other seasoned Saints, Jason Blake and Michael Gardiner, were strong contributors for the Zebras, who lost Tommy Walsh in the first quarter but ploughed on in pursuit of a pride-restoring performance.
Bad disposal cost them repeatedly but their endeavour couldn't be questioned.
"The effort and the work rate came back," coach Brett Lovett said after the match.
"We'd been working on our ball movement. In the previous two games we'd probably been a bit too predictable, going down the line a bit much, so we just tried to create a bit of run and get some numbers around the ball and switch the ball a bit more."
He said his players had been embarrassed to kick only 2.7 (19) against the Bullants in Round 15.
The long-kicking Boland, nippy forward Chris Michaliades and dynamic midfielder Marcus Marigliani, who had 32 possessions, led Sandy's surge at the ladder leader.
As coach Gary Ayres had forecast, Port made changes, bringing in tall forward Callum Sinclair for his first game of the season, the experienced Corey McGrath, Tom Langford and 23rd player Damian Mascitti from the Oakleigh Chargers.
Marc Johnston, Billy Burstin and Daniel Keely were spelled.
Ayres said that although the Borough were down, they found a way to win.
"That's what you give them credit for. It wasn't pretty. But Sandringham kicked two goals two weeks ago. They were never going to let us just roll over the top of them," he said.
With the bye this week, Ayres said Port had got through a difficult period and could now look forward to "fine-tuning" in August in preparation for the finals.
Meanwhile big Adrian Bonaddio returned from an a long-term ankle injury to be one of the best players in the reserves' narrow win.
Playing against their former club, Marc and Clay Johnston kicked the last two goals of the match.
