Port players honour John McCarthy ahead of tribute match.
Remembered - the late John McCarthy. Picture: Sarah Reed. Source: The Advertiser
Port Adelaide CEO Keith Thomas, left, with members of John McCarthy's family watch the tribute to J-Mac before the match. Picture: Dylan Coker. Source: Sunday Mail (SA)
Power's Justin Westhoff takes a spectacular mark in the second quarter against the Giants. Picture: Reed Sarah Source: adelaidenow
With Justin Westhoff and Chad Wingard playing the games of their lives, the John McCarthy tribute match last night turned into a celebration for Port Adelaide.
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The rebuilt Power overcame a resilient Greater Western Sydney - the team which dramatically ended Matthew Primus's Port coaching career last year - to win its first two games of a season for the first time in three years.
In an emotion-charged game which followed a stirring tribute to McCarthy - the former Power player who died on an end-of-season trip to Las Vegas with teammates last year - Port set up its win with a devastating, unanswered six-goal second-quarter burst.
In a sign of a good side and vastly-improved fitness levels, it then kicked clear in the final term to win easily by 56 points.
The Power's triumph followed the 79-point MCG thumping of Melbourne in round one and was further evidence the club is on the right track under new coach Ken Hinkley.
Port became the last team to beat GWS - the AFL's 18th club - after losing their previous clash at Skoda Stadium in round 19 last year.
The much-maligned Westhoff led from the front.
He displayed raw emotion in his pre-match tribute to McCarthy - shown on the AAMI Stadium screens - and played magnificently.
The tall utility kicked five goals, hauled in 14 marks and had 25 disposals in his role as a floating forward.
His standout game included a towering mark in the second quarter.
Wingard - Port's 2011 first-round draft pick - showed why he was rated so highly with a career-best performance.
The former SA under-18 captain kicked an AFL career-high three goals as well as having three score assists.
The rapidly-improving Jasper Pittard, Campbell Heath and Lewis Stevenson were solid across half-back, Brad Ebert, Kane Cornes and Travis Boak won plenty of the ball in the middle of the ground and Alipate Carlile was strong at full back in his first game of the season.
Only poor kicking for goal cost the Power a much bigger victory.
While playmaker Hamish Hartlett was well held by former Docker Rhys Palmer, Port played quick, long and direct footy through the corridor to have an impressive 39 scoring shots.
The only downside for the Power was injuries to key forward Jay Schulz (ankle) and Hartlett (sore back).
The emotion of the occasion and its extraordinary build-up, which included a magnificent tribute to McCarthy from his former teammates, clearly affected Port early.
It did not look like it had come to play with the Giants dominating contested possessions and clearances.
With captain Callan Ward leading from the front, GWS won 15 of the first 20 contested possessions and continually bombarded the ball inside its 50-metre zone.
Ward had 11 disposals in the opening term and his strong ballwinning ability was capitalised on by key forward Jeremy Cameron, who kicked two goals, as the Giants quickly broke to a 19-point lead.
They booted four of the first five goals before Wingard pegged one back for the Power on the stroke of quarter-time.
Port could thank Westhoff for being so close. He had 10 disposals and took six marks for the term in his role as a high forward.
The Power's woes were highlighted in the damning 3-13 clearance statistics. Eight Giants, led by Dylan Shiel's three, had managed a clearance compared to only three Port players.
Whatever Hinkley said to his players at quarter-time worked.
In a complete turnaround from the opening term, they started diving into packs, hunting in numbers and running hard from the back half.
Boak ignited the comeback with a brilliant snap from the main scoreboard pocket three minutes into the second quarter.
Fourteen minutes later the match was effectively over.
In a blistering nine-minute burst from the eighth to 17th-minute marks, the Power kicked five goals to turn an earlier 19-point deficit into a 27-point lead.
Westhoff was again at the centre of the action with two goals, including one from a towering mark, while Hartlett produced another of his customary goal of the week contenders with a bouncing gem from the scoreboard pocket.
Two late goals to GWS reduced the deficit to 16 points at the long break but the damage had been done and the floodgates opened in the final term.
SEE THE JOHN MCCARTHY TRIBUTE VIDEO HERE
PORT 2.5 8.9 12.17 19.20 (134)
GWS 4.4 6.5 8.9 11.12 (78)
BEST - Port: Westhoff, Wingard, Pittard, Cornes, Brad Ebert, Heath, Carlile, Boak. GWS: Ward, Cameron, Palmer, Coniglio, Shiel.
GOALS - Port: Westhoff 5, Wingard 3, Broadbent, Neade 2, Boak, Hartlett, O'Shea, P. Stewart, Schulz, Mitchell, Ebert. GWS: Cameron 3, Coniglio, Shiel, Whitfield, Patton, Giles, Treloar, Brogan, Smith.
INJURIES - Port: Schulz (ankle), Hartlett (back).
UMPIRES - G. Fila, S. Hay, T. Pannell.
CROWD - 25,122 at AAMI Stadium.
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