Port Adelaide
Coach – Josh Carr
2025 –
Points For – 15th
Points Against – 14th
Top 5 Best and Fairest
- Zac Butters
- Mitch Georgiadis
- Connor Rozee
- Joe Richards
- Aliir Aliir
2025 Rising Star Noms
Nil
Ins – Will Brodie, Corey Durdin, Jack Watkins, Jacob Wehr
Outs – Rory Atkins, Travis Boak, Ryan Burton, Lachlan Chrleson, Jeremy Finlayson, Hugh Jackson, Jed McEntee, Willie Rioli, Dylan Williams
My Prediction
After spending last season as a middling team farewelling their long term coach, they look to spend this team as a below middling team farewelling their best player. It is hard to look at their list with optimism. They have some top end talent but it drops away very quickly.
You could make an argument that if not for North Melbourne, this would be the worst backline in the competition. BZT, Ratugolea and Aliir are the talls although some talk that they have been trialling Marshall back there as well. Farrell and Jones lack the class of disposal from half back. It will be interesting to what Carr does with them as on paper they look fundamentally broken.
The midfield is a reflection of their entire team. Good top end talent and then no depth. Butters and Rozee are a very good one two punch. Wines has almost dropped off enough for Essendon to consider offering a first round draft pick for him. Bergman looked a player long enough to get a solid contact and then Burgoyne who has teased that he may be a player but then also disappears long enough to forget that he showed that promise. If teams are a representation of their coach then they would want to find that harder edge this year.
The forward line looked unstructured last year and didn’t apply enough pressure. Richards did a good job as a small forward and Georgiadis reminded people that he could play. Lukosius did some amazing things amongst long periods of nothing. JHF has had another limited preseason and he is the player more than any other they need to reach his potential. He is going to spend another season playing up forward and just pinch hitting in the middle.
The rucks looks like being Sweet. He is ok. Is average had a face. The coach I think will be ok. History has a habit of making angry little football players into pretty good head coaches and I think Josh Carr fits the mold. It is going to take time though as the list right now doesn’t look great and when Butters leaves at the end of the year it will look considerably worse.
Port are a team that over achieved a couple of years ago on the back of senior players and a lack of injuries. Last year felt like much more where their list sits and I don’t see enough organic improvement in the list to think they will be better this year. I think very possibly a bottom four team this year. 13th-15th for mine.