Power book finals place

Port Adelaide   120 defeated Fremantle   75

Port Adelaide have earned the right to defend their 2004 Premiership, as they booked a spot in the 2005 finals series with a second-half demolition of the Fremantle Dockers, recording a 45-point victory at AAMI Stadium tonight.

The Power, down by five points at the long break came out breathing fire in the third term, and pummelled the Dockers into submission with an 11 goal to three second half.

For the victors Kane Cornes (32 disposals) and Domenic Cassisi (24 disposals, 4 goals) were terrific and received valuable support from Josh Mahoney and Chad Cornes.

Peter Bell (22 disposals) and Byron Schammer (20 disposals) tried hard but it was to no avail as a second half rampage earnt a finals position for the boys from Alberton.

Both sides made one late change, with Peter Bell replacing Graham Polak for the Dockers. Polak, went down with a mystery injury and Bell who was originally going to miss the match due to a back problem – was called into the side. The late change for the Power saw Peter Burgoyne pull out, in a big loss for the reigning premiers.

The first quarter was played in spurts by both sides, with either side being unable to control the play for the entirety of the term. The first six minutes went by without a goal, before Port midfielder Domenic Cassisi snapped the drought with the all-important first goal. His goal was quickly followed up by a major from Josh Mahoney which brought the house down, and gave the Power an early 2 goal lead. Freo replied with 2 goals of their own, but Port asserted their authority by kicking another 2 consecutive goals. In this do or die clash, the Dockers slammed on 4 un-answered goals, 2 of them from skipper Peter Bell as they took a 13 point lead into the quarter time break.

The second term saw the fans starved of goal-mouth action, with just five majors being booted in the quarter. Paul Haselby gave the Dockers the perfect start to the second term as he goaled and extended the Dockers lead out to 19 points early in the term. The Power then kicked three of the next four goals, as they came back after having a poor start.

Sandwiched in between the Power majors, was a ripper goal from Brett Peake. Peake took two bounces through the middle before kicking onto a team-mate at half forward. Peake then ran past and collected the handball before slotting a long goal on the run, in a special bit of play. However, Byron Pickett replied with a timely goal as the half-time scoreboard saw Freo lead by just five points.

Who knows what the message was from Power coach Mark Williams at half time, but whatever it was – it sure worked. Domenic Cassisi started the term on fire and commenced proceedings with the opening two goals of the term. Then Cassisi was back in the action again, this time using great vision to spot up Josh Mahoney, who made no mistake.

Mahoney then followed up his earlier goal by kicking another one, and all of a sudden the Power had four successive goals. Some respect was restored for the Dockers when Des Headland goaled on the stroke of three quarter time, and cut the Power lead to 15 points.

The last term was all Port Adelaide as they ran rampant, outscoring Fremantle seven goals to two.

A spell of three Stuart Dew goals in succession had the AAMI Stadium crowd on their feet, as the Power booked a finals place in 2005.

•  Have a view on this story? Send us your feedback!