Calamitous final quarter sees Cats cough up top spot, consigned to first final in Adelaide

Port Power v Geelong Cats, AFL 2021 second qualifying final, Ben Jensen PORT ADELAIDE breezed past Geelong into the preliminary final on Friday night, easily defeating a Cats side that has now lost two games in a row to other top four sides. Sadly it was not a game to remember for Tom Hawkins who played his 300th AFL match nor skipper Joel Selwood who equalled club record holder Corey Enright on 332 games. The Power led at every change and while the Cats were theoretically within range at half time 29 points down, they didn’t kick a goal in the third quarter and couldn’t outscore the Power in the final term either, the final losing margin 43 points half that of Port. With the double change Geelong now faces Jeremy Cameron’s old side the GWS Giants on Friday night at Perth’s Optus Stadium in the resources-state Western Australia.

AFL FINALS 2021
SECOND QUALIFYING FINAL
PORT ADELAIDE POWER V GEELONG CATS
FRIDAY 27 AUGUST, 19:50 AEST
ADELAIDE OVAL

PORT ADELAIDE POWER: 4.3, 8.7, 9.10, 12.14 (86) DEFEATED
GEELONG CATS: 2.5, 3.8, 3.11, 5.13 (43)

GOALS
PORT ADELAIDE POWER: Fantasia 4, Motlop 2, Powell-Pepper 2, Butters, Gray, Ladhams, Marshall
GEELONG CATS: Hawkins 2, Cameron, Selwood, Simpson

BEST
PORT ADELAIDE POWER: Boak, Aliir, Fantasia, Wines, Duursma, Byrne-Jones
GEELONG CATS: Duncan, Smith, Dangerfield, Henry, Parfitt

INJURIES
PORT ADELAIDE POWER: Nil reported
GEELONG CATS: Nil reported

CHANGES
PORT ADELAIDE POWER: Nil
GEELONG CATS: Nil

SUBSTITUTES
PORT ADELAIDE POWER: Sam Powell-Pepper (replaced Orazio Fantasia in the fourth quarter)
GEELONG CATS: Shaun Higgins (replaced Mark O’Connor in the second quarter)

REPORTS
PORT ADELAIDE POWER: Nil
GEELONG CATS: Nil

CROWD: 19,712 at Adelaide Oval

UMPIRES
FIELD Curtis Deboy, Simon Meredith, Jacob Mollison EM: Nick Foot
BOUNDARY Matthew Konetschka, Michael Barlow, Nathan Doig, Brett Dalgleish
GOAL Angus McKenzie-Wills, Matthew Dervan EM: Peter Challen

GEELONG CATS – SELECTED SIDE
IN: Mitch Duncan
OUT: Max Holmes (omitted), Shaun Higgins (substitute)
B: J.Henry, L.Henderson, J.Bews
HB: M.O’Connor, M.Blicavs, T.Atkins
C: S.Menegola, M.Duncan, I.Smith
HF: S.Simpson, J.Cameron, G.Rohan
F: B.Close, T.Hawkins, G.Miers
FOLL: R.Stanley, J.Selwood, P.Dangerfield
INT: J.Kolodjashnij, B.Parfitt, C.Guthrie, L.Dahlhaus
EMER: M.Holmes, S.Higgins, E.Ratugolea, Z.Guthrie

PORT ADELAIDE POWER – SELECTED SIDE
IN: O Fantasia
OUT: M Georgiades (injured), S Mayes (omitted) 
B: R.Burton, T.McKenzie, A.Aliir
HB: M.Bergman, T.Jonas, D.Byrne-Jones
C: X.Duursma, O.Wines, D.Houston
HF: K.Amon, T.Marshall, Z.Butters
F: R.Gray, C.Dixon, C.Rozee
FOLL: S.Lycett, T.Boak, W.Drew
INT: O.Fantasia, P.Ladhams, R.Bonner, S.Motlop
EMER: S.Powell-Pepper, S.Mayes, B.Woodcock, T.Clurey