A friendly face and an unfriendly hand

The last time Port came to Sydney was also heartbreaking, just in a different way. And we’re not talking about the fact that it was Paddy McCartin’s last game at the top level, his career ending with an innocuous scramble with Power forward Todd Marshall in which his head lightly brushed the ground, triggering his 10th concussion.

No, we’re talking about the way that Port came from 25 points down in the second quarter and 14 points down at the final change to snatch the lead through Jeremy Finlayson with 90 seconds left on the clock. Ollie Florent had a chance to win it with a set shot as the siren sounded, but his kick failed to make the distance and was swatted away on the line by former Swans teammate Aliir Aliir. It took a few moments for everyone to figure out what had gone on; the image of Florent’s confused face, as reality began to dawn on him, became an instant and unfortunate meme.

Peter Ladhams loses it

When a team such as Port Adelaide deems a player to be too emotional and aggressive to be worth bothering with any more, rivals should probably heed the warning. The Swans did not, and in mid-2022, it blew up in their face.

Peter Ladhams grew up around the corner from Alberton Oval but was traded away to Sydney at the end of 2021. His first match against his boyhood club went, in retrospect, the way it was always going to go: Ladhams struggled to keep himself in check, committing a spree of ill-disciplined acts which gave Port all the momentum and saw him not only dragged by Longmire but ultimately suspended for punching Ollie Wines in the ribs after dragging him down in a tackle. He played only one more match that year, despite Sydney’s march to the grand final, and has been a bit-part player for the Swans ever since; his only game this year was against Port, in the aforementioned 112-point defeat, and he had just six touches.

What does it all mean?

It’s difficult to read too much into the rest of the head-to-head ledger. The AFL’s fixture boffins generally keep these two teams apart, with double-bookings within the one season exceedingly rare for the Swans and Power – which means the further you look back, the less relevant those games might be. Only one of their last five clashes has been at the SCG, and Port has a losing record there overall, with six wins and 12 defeats from their 18 previous trips. In fact, take last year’s result out of the equation, and the Power haven’t won at Moore Park since 2006.

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So what’s the secret behind Port’s 8-0 streak? The secret is that there is no secret: it seems to be just one of those sporting trends that unfolds without rhyme or reason.

As they say in the superannuation ads, past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Indeed, there are probably no teams in the competition this year with as big a gap between their best and worst than Sydney and Port Adelaide.

The Swans have already dismantled one hoodoo this September, ending the Giants’ 3-0 run of victories over them in finals. Putting an end to Port’s run of dominance would be a good way to continue their redemptive arc.

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