Cats stunned by St Kilda’s ‘Harlem Globetrotters’; Houston’s heavy bump sparks tempers in Showdown

Joe Daniher then had the opportunity to bury the Magpies, but he sprayed a set shot and his chance at his fifth goal of the match, before Collingwood kicked the final three majors to win 11.13 (79) to 11.12 (78).

“Our last 11 games, we’ve won nine of them and lost two. That’s pretty good form,” Fagan said.

“We lost a game by a point, didn’t lose by a lot (against GWS) last week, we had a lot more shots, so our form is pretty strong.

“We’ll take confidence from that and understand the season being like it is, you can turn things around pretty quickly.

“I’ll remain optimistic. Why shouldn’t I?”

The Lions will finish the weekend fifth, and their hopes of a crucial top-four finish are all but gone ahead of their final home-and-away game against Essendon at the Gabba next Saturday night.

It was the second straight week they were made to pay for their inaccuracy, after kicking 8.16 in last Saturday’s defeat to the Giants.

“You’ve got to move on pretty quickly,” Fagan said.

“We’ll take some learnings from the game.

“Obviously the main one will be take the opportunities in front of goal, which has been a thing I’ve had to talk about too often this year.

“But the players will know it.

“They’ll be disappointed, so I won’t be rubbing it in their noses.

“We’ll just get to work and try and do a better job.”

Forward Eric Hipwood returned after two weeks out with a groin injury, but had minimal impact on the game.

Fagan bristled at a question surrounding Hipwood’s fitness.

“He was fit to play so we played him,” he said.

“We don’t play injured players in games, that’d be a silly decision to make, so no, he was fit to play.”

Midfielder Jarrod Berry was subbed out with hamstring tightness in the second quarter and will undergo scans.

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Lyon added he and his players would take some belief on how well the team played in the final weeks of this season.

“Early we had nine entries in the first quarter and couldn’t score. It’s that composure. It’s learning to handle that heat,” Lyon said.

“They really stamped us down at Geelong early in round one. They were doing it a bit early [tonight]. We were in there but we just weren’t composed enough. But I thought we grew into that. Hopefully, we take some valuable lessons out of it for the future.”

The spice remained in the air when Darcy Fogarty bowled over Willie Rioli, retaliating after the Power goalsneak felled Crow Lachlan Sholl. Port handled the chaos better, turning a 12-point deficit midway through the term into a three-point lead with a quarter to play and ultimately a 22-point victory.

TOP TWO BECKONS
The equation for Port entering the last fortnight of the season was simple. Win the Showdown, then knock off Fremantle next week in Perth and second position is at their mercy, coming with it a home qualifying final and the coveted double-chance. Lose both and the Power could have finished as low as eighth.

Before a heaving, parochial crowd of 52,459, Port trailed at the first two breaks before finally backing up their stoppage ascendancy with territory and scoreboard nourishment. Vice-captain Zak Butters (42 disposals, 10 clearances) was unstoppable all over the ground and several of his Power mates, belatedly, followed his inspirational lead.

Forward Willie Rioli, well held for much of the evening by emerging Crows stopper Hugh Bond, started the fourth quarter with a clever snap before adding another from a set shot, which he followed by mimicking Steph Curry’s famous “night night” celebration. Ruckman Jordon Sweet shrugged off an elbow scare and a whack to the eye to ruck strongly, but backman Lachy Jones finished the match on the pine, passing a second-quarter concussion test before hurting his left Achilles in the third.

TOOTH TALK
Josh Rachele was public enemy No.1 as far as Power fans were concerned, earning himself a chorus of merciless boos every time he touched the footy following his midweek claim on Adelaide radio that “Port supporters don’t have many teeth”. Rachele backed up his talk and doubled down on his pre-Showdown jibe by slotting a beauty from 40m from a slick Lachlan Murphy handball in the second stanza, before bolting to the fence in the south-western pocket and pointing provocatively to his teeth while staring down opposition fans.

Moments later, Rachele snared a fine one-on-one mark against Logan Evans, which resulted in a goal to Riley Thilthorpe in the shadows of half-time. But the Power were the only ones smiling in the finish, Ollie Wines returning serve after the full-time siren by pointing to his teeth in front of a group of Crows supporters.

KEY STATS