Undermanned Port Melbourne win in the rain

By Ferguson Hickey on April 17, 2023

Port Melbourne were able to pull off an extremely gutsy win against the Northern Bullants, as they held on to secure their second win of the season, beating the Ants 88 to 63. An important win for the Borough as they pleased a very vocal home crowd at ETU Stadium.

Port Melbourne were undermanned for the whole second half, with Aiden Fyfe, Tom Hird and Ethan Phillips all going down with injuries in the first half.

The win was built off of an extremely free flowing first quarter, and then a domination of the territory for the rest of the contest, finishing the game with 12 more inside 50’s.

Captain Harvey Hooper again led from the front, playing out of the middle this week, and finishing the game with 29 touches to go along with two goals.

Jake Gasper was also a stand out for the Borough as he kicked three goals from 24 disposals.

Fraser Rosman was also excellent across half back, constantly providing an intercepting presence for Port, especially in the second half as Phillips got hurt in the second quarter, Rosman ended the game with 18 touches and 5 marks.

Billy Barnes opened the goal scoring for the day, kicking the first for the Bullants. Port Melbourne’s response would come through skipper Harvey Hooper, as he kicked a great goal off one step to get Port going.

Preston would kick the next but imposing key forward Felix Flockart would get Port’s quick response. After a great bit of teamplay highlighted by Anthony Anastasio’s willingness to get the ball going Flockart would kick his second to give Port a lead.

Jake Gasper would be the next man to score, as he was able to kick his first of the season, the goal came from a forced turnover that led to an easy run in for Gasper.

Anthony Anastasio wowed the home crowd with a ripping goal late in the quarter, as he kicked a great running banana. The Ants would get another before quarter time to tighten Port Melbourne’s lead to 14 at the break.

After a very free flowing offensively centred first quarter, the rain started to fall and really impacted the ball movement. The quarter became more of a contested ball dominated game and Port Melbourne was able to reap the benefits of getting first hands to it via ruckman Sam Naismith.

Flockart was able to keep his strong day going as he kicked his third for the afternoon and Port’s first of the quarter. The goal came after Flockart was awarded a free kick in a ruck contest in the forward 50.

The next goal would come through Paul Hunter, with Harry Stubbings closing the second quarter in style with Port’s third goal of the quarter. Port Melbourne went into the main break with a 32-point advantage.

With Port Melbourne down three men for the whole second half it meant they were going to really have to scrap out the rest of the game in the rain.

The Bullants opened the term with the first goal of the second half through Brandon Ryan. Port Melbourne was able to get the response through Hunter as he kicked his second for the afternoon.

Another goal coming directly off of a Bullants turnover, the Borough were able to find Hooper as he stormed on to kick his second for the game and really put the foot down.

Gasper and Stubbings were both able to kick their second of the day to close out the term, leaving Port Melbourne with a seven-goal lead going into the final break.

The Bullants played themselves back into the game in the final term, capitalising on the numbers advantage they had. The Bullants would kick the first four goals of the quarter to shorten the margin to just 17 points.

With the Bullants surging Port needed a goal, and up stepped Jake Gasper as he kicked the clutch sealer to give him his third of the afternoon and also lock in the victory for the Borough.

Port Melbourne will look to build on the huge win as they travel down to play Frankston next Monday night in an Anzac Eve blockbuster, game starts 6:35pm.

Port Melbourne 13.10 88 def 9.9 63 Northern Bullants

Goals: J Gasper 3, F Flockart 3, H Hooper 2, P Hunter 2, H Stubbings 2

Disposals: H Hooper 29, J Gasper 26, M Signorello 22, A Anastasio 21

Twitter: Ferg_Hickey36