‘I thought we were daring’: Lyon bristles in strange media conference; Port’s heavy injury toll

Power Carnage

Captain Connor Rozee, defender Aliir Aliir and forward Sam Powell-Pepper all suffered game-ending injuries in Port Adelaide’s Friday night of carnage against St Kilda.

Aliir will miss next Thursday’s Showdown against Adelaide after being dump-tackled by Saints forward Jack Higgins, who faces a stint on the sidelines courtesy of the match review officer.

Higgins pinned Aliir’s left arm and forced him to ground, the Power backman’s head slamming into the turf midway through the second quarter as he attempted to kick the ball, leaving him concussed and substituted out at half-time.

Then early in the third term, Powell-Pepper landed awkwardly while attempting a mark in attack before clutching his right knee in obvious pain and hobbling off in the hands of trainers.

The worst was to come when Rozee pulled up short on the members’ wing and immediately reached for his right hamstring.

The skipper came back on briefly but was clearly inhibited and had the hamstring iced at three-quarter-time.

Houston’s rocket

Port’s superboot Dan Houston launched a 70m torp on the run from the middle of the ground, which landed in the lap of Willie Rioli, who slipped over, recovered, turned Liam Stocker and Nasiah Wanganeen-Miler inside-out and snapped truly deep into the second period to put the Power in front. It was sheer brilliance from both men. A magic moment.

Houston’s expert intercepting and pristine ball use behind the footy hurt the Saints as much as Willem Drew’s typically hard-hatted display in the middle.

Undermanned Port won the clearances with Drew leading that charge, stepping up in Rozee’s injury-enforced absence to take out the Peter Badcoe VC Medal.

Marshall knee scare

St Kilda’s worst fears were alleviated when gun ruckman Rowan Marshall played out the match after an early knee scare.

Marshall was forced to the bench in the opening minutes and was in some discomfort while he had the outside of his left knee attended to.

The big fella looked slightly proppy on his immediate return to the field before finding his way back into the game and forcing a virtual dead-heat in ruck against Power opponent Jordon Sweet.

The loss of their No.1 ruckman would have added devastating injury to insult for the sagging Saints, who were brave but ultimately outclassed, unable to capitalise on Port’s errant goalkicking as they slumped to 2-5.

Defeated St Kilda coach Ross Lyon has shown glimpses of his prickly past during a bizarre post-match press conference on Friday night.

Lyon appeared to take umbrage at a number of questions about the Saints’ inability to wear down an injury-hit Port Adelaide late in the game, falling 10 points short.

It was shades of Lyon at his antsy best during his time at Fremantle when he made headlines for signalling out a journalist’s line of questioning. “You’re quite brilliant, Shane,” he said at the time.

On Friday night, Lyon seemed to bristle slightly and then alternate between sarcasm and humour when asked if he was disappointed with how St Kilda finished the game, considering the Power were out on their feet with injuries to three key players – Aliir Aliir, Sam Powell-Pepper and Connor Rozee.

“I don’t know, did you think that we weren’t running and didn’t get close?” Lyon asked back.

The journalist then asked if St Kilda could have shown a little bit more dare to win the match.

“I thought we were daring,” Lyon said. “I thought the entries, I thought we were playing up-tempo. We were taking it on. Well, that’s just my opinion.

“I would have thought, as Kenny said, ‘I saw you in green, I saw you going, and we were really worried’. So, I know sometimes it’s a fumble or a dropped mark, isn’t it? Do you know what I mean?”

A second journalist then asked if Lyon altered the way St Kilda approached the last quarter when they saw Port Adelaide’s injuries.

“Yeah, what did you observe?” Lyon shot back with a wry grin. “I thought we were challenging and they were under a little bit of pressure.”

Lyon was next asked if he took positives from the night after a big loss against the Western Bulldogs last week.

“I think we took a step forward. I don’t know, where do you put them (Port Adelaide)? What are they, top what? You’re local journos, where do you put them? What’s your expectation on them?”

In explaining St Kilda’s season, Lyon said the Saints were trying to win games and rebuild at the same time by blooding young kids.

“Win and run a dual narrative,” he said of the Saints approach. “And, you know, we had a bit of youth tonight with Phillipou; we liked Hastie when he came on.

“So we feel that we’ve got some youth that we’re gonna continue to push through with Owens and Caminiti.

“But we know ourselves really well. And we know when you get in that really tight stuff, and what separates us a little bit is that we’re going to have a fair bit of work to do – but nothing that we don’t know about.”

Lyon was also asked about the 25-10 free-kick count from the match.

“Was it? See, I don’t even buy in. Who’s way did it go?” he asked.

The free-kick count was in Port Adelaide’s favour.

“That’s not what cost us the game,” he said. “It didn’t cost us. That’s not why we didn’t win. Umpires do a bloody hard job.

“If I’m sitting here talking about rub of the green and umpires consistently, I’m in the wrong chair. I should be on that side.“

Q: Let’s get the injuries out of the way. There was a little bit of carnage out there?

Hinkley: Yes, there was a little bit of carnage. As it falls, Aliir Aliir has concussion, so he’ll miss next week. He will go into concussion protocols. He looked pretty good, to be honest, when he came off, but he did the test and didn’t quite get through that. Connor (Rozee) has soft signs of a hamstring. But we’ll get a scan, and then we’ll be clear with what that looks like. He went back on during the game, but couldn’t stay there. It’s lending itself towards a hamstring, which will mean he’ll miss a little bit of time, probably. And, Pep (Sam Powell-Pepper), we’re sitting back waiting and hopeful of what the scans will look like. It looked a bit nasty with his knee. The medical report is that they’re a little bit hopeful. But we’ll wait and see what, again, what the scan says.

Q: Ross mentioned it potentially being an ACL, is there any scare of that?

Hinkley: Yeah, there’s some scare, because he has hurt his knee. And when you hurt your knee, and can’t go back on, my history in the game and the amount of times I’ve seen those sort of things happen, it lends itself towards possibly being an ACL. But my doctors were saying afterwards, that there’s some promising parts around the way he tested. So wait and see. We won’t guess it’s too hard to guess.

Charlie Dixon says he is happy to miss games whenever required by Port Adelaide’s coaching group after a four-goal return to the senior line-up on Friday night.

Coach Ken Hinkley raised eyebrows when he rested the big forward for their away match against Collingwood last week, but Dixon reaped the benefits of a week off with a strong performance against St Kilda.

“I think I want to try to play as many as I can, obviously, but Ken wants to keep me a little bit more fresh for towards the end of the year,” Dixon told Fox Footy.

“So whenever they make the call, which they did last week, obviously, I’ll do what they want me to do.

“I felt good out there after a week off, but, you know, I always want to play, but it’s about being fresh for the pointy end of the season.”

Power Carnage

Captain Connor Rozee, defender Aliir Aliir and forward Sam Powell-Pepper all suffered game-ending injuries in Port Adelaide’s Friday night of carnage against St Kilda.

Aliir will miss next Thursday’s Showdown against Adelaide after being dump-tackled by Saints forward Jack Higgins, who faces a stint on the sidelines courtesy of the match review officer.

Higgins pinned Aliir’s left arm and forced him to ground, the Power backman’s head slamming into the turf midway through the second quarter as he attempted to kick the ball, leaving him concussed and substituted out at half-time.

Then early in the third term, Powell-Pepper landed awkwardly while attempting a mark in attack before clutching his right knee in obvious pain and hobbling off in the hands of trainers.

The worst was to come when Rozee pulled up short on the members’ wing and immediately reached for his right hamstring.

The skipper came back on briefly but was clearly inhibited and had the hamstring iced at three-quarter-time.

Houston’s rocket

Port’s superboot Dan Houston launched a 70m torp on the run from the middle of the ground, which landed in the lap of Willie Rioli, who slipped over, recovered, turned Liam Stocker and Nasiah Wanganeen-Miler inside-out and snapped truly deep into the second period to put the Power in front. It was sheer brilliance from both men. A magic moment.

Houston’s expert intercepting and pristine ball use behind the footy hurt the Saints as much as Willem Drew’s typically hard-hatted display in the middle.

Undermanned Port won the clearances with Drew leading that charge, stepping up in Rozee’s injury-enforced absence to take out the Peter Badcoe VC Medal.

Marshall knee scare

St Kilda’s worst fears were alleviated when gun ruckman Rowan Marshall played out the match after an early knee scare.

Marshall was forced to the bench in the opening minutes and was in some discomfort while he had the outside of his left knee attended to.

The big fella looked slightly proppy on his immediate return to the field before finding his way back into the game and forcing a virtual dead-heat in ruck against Power opponent Jordon Sweet.

The loss of their No.1 ruckman would have added devastating injury to insult for the sagging Saints, who were brave but ultimately outclassed, unable to capitalise on Port’s errant goalkicking as they slumped to 2-5.

Port Adelaide has paid a heavy price for a gutsy 10-point win over St Kilda at Adelaide Oval.

The Power kicked poorly – 11.16 to 11.6 – and are now 5-2 heading into the Showdown next week, but lost three players throughout the course of the night – Aliir Aliir (concussion), Sam Powell-Pepper (knee) and Connor Rozee (hamstring).

Powell-Pepper was taken from the ground soon after the start of the third quarter with a knee injury. He jumped for a mark, but as he landed his right knee appeared to buckle. He has had ACL issues in the past.

Aliir Aliir was subbed out of the game at half-time after his head hit the ground during a tackle.

Channel Seven commentator Luke Hodge believes Saints forward Jack Higgins will be in trouble with the Match Review Officer for the way he pinned Aliir’s arm and slung him to the turf.

But Aliir was trying to kick the ball in the process, which left him unprotected.

Port Adelaide skipper Rozee left the ground for six minutes during the third term to have his hamstring looked at, but after a short stint back on the ground was ruled out of the game at three-quarter time. He had ice on the injury when the final siren sounded.

Zak Butters celebrated his 100th game on the night, while the winner of the night’s medal was Willem Drew.

Zaine Cordy kicks a late goal for the Saints.

Power by 10 points, 40 seconds remaining.

Port looks to have sealed the game.

Jason Horne-Francis barged his way through a pack, looked to be taken high, dished the ball off to Ollie Wines, who snapped the goal.

That gives them a 16-point lead, three minutes remaining.

The Saints’ bench is still holding up a green sign. Power’s bench is holding up a red sign.

We are inside five minutes and the interchange signs are up.

The Saints bench is holding up an all green sign. Does that mean go? You bet.

The Power bench is holding up a battery, that looks to be at half charge. What does it mean? No idea. Maybe someone has forgotten to power up the Tesla.

Jack Higgins has pulled the lead back to 10 points. The Saints are a massive chance here with six minutes remaining.

Port have been hit with injuries and are running out of steam. The goal was set up by a brilliant intercept from Brad Hill.