Round 11, 2011
Coburg Tigers v Port Melbourne
by Mark Towson
With 8 wins and still undefeated in season 2011, Port Melbourne headed out to the City Oval to take on the Coburg Tigers. The Borough made the mistake of taking the Tigers lightly last year and paid the ultimate price. No wins are guaranteed in the VFL and this was set to be an interesting contest.
1st QUARTER
If any Port supporters were worried about the Borough going through the motions and not being entirely switched on, these concerns were distinguished after Port piled on 3 goals in the opening 3 minutes.
Rose, Lynch and Cain all nailed shots on goal and Coburg simply couldn’t get their hands on the ball.
This was just the start of a totally dominant quarter as Gary Ayres' men hit top gear.
Port looked slick and their ball movement tore pieces in the Tigers' backline. The Borough had 8 individual goal scorers for the term. Amazingly the game looked over at quarter time with Port having a massive 60 point advantage.
Coburg didn’t bother the scorers and simply looked well out of their depth.
2nd QUARTER
The stunned crowd was hoping for a more competitive second term but with early goals to Port’s Wayde Skipper and Myles Pitt, the game was now over.
Coburg looked overawed and was playing reactive football.
The Borough had winners all over the ground and their skill level was as high as it has been all season.
With Rose, Cain, Skipper and Dillon kicking majors, Ports lead had now ballooned past 90 points in the most one sided game seen for the season. Even Coburg behinds were now being clapped.
To the relief of Coburg’s coach Adam Potter, the Tigers mustered their first goal on the half time siren to save complete embarrassment.
At half time the scoreboard read Port Melbourne 15.7. 97 to Coburg 1.4.10.
3rd QUARTER
The third term was much more competitive with Coburg getting a fair bit of the ball and working much harder to quell Port’s dominance.
Although Port looked a lot superior, they were not able to finish many of their forward thrusts and kicked an inaccurate 3 goals 9 to the Tigers 2 goals straight.
In Port’s previous match against Werribee the midfield wasn’t quite on top of their game, however this was an area against Coburg that could not be faulted.
Chris Cain and John Baird were back to their very best form and the rest of the midfield brigade simply did what they have done all season.
Having played the bulk of his career as a dashing defender, Port’s captain John Baird has reinvented himself as a destructive midfielder. His clearance work and ability to read the play has been stunning to watch. Although not as quick as he once was, Baird’s fast hands and football brain is bringing many of his quicker team mates into the game.
4th QUARTER
Chris Cain kicked Port's opening goal of the last term which was his third for the afternoon.
From that point, each side was able to kick 3 more goals each in a fairly even quarter of football.
Promising forward Cal Sinclair kicked a late goal which would give him a lot of confidence in his first senior game for 2011.
With the game being in Port’s grasp so early in the contest, it was a credit to the players that they were able to go on and win all 4 quarters and not slacken off at any stage.
The final scores saw Port Melbourne run out convincing winnings by 104 points.
The Borough’s next assignment is against North Ballarat at Eureka Stadium on Saturday.
After a slow start to 2011, the Roosters have slipped into 4th spot but will be full of confidence having knocked over Williamstown on the weekend.
This really is a clash of the titans and promises to be a classic encounter.
Go The Mighty Borough!
Coburg Tigers: 0.0 1.4 3.4 7.6 (48)
Port Melbourne: 9.6 15.7 18.16 22.20 (152)
GOALS:
Coburg Tigers: Murphy 3 Helbig 2 Webberley Tuck
Port Melbourne: Pitt 4 Galea 3 Dillon 3 Rose 3 Cain 3 Skipper 2 Batsanis Pinwill Sinclair Lynch
BEST:
Coburg Tigers: Gourdis Murphy Post Jordan Rayson Tuck
Port Melbourne: Baird Cain Dillon Edwards Skipper Dwyer
Last Modified on 14/06/2011 13:50