COREY ENRIGHT STARS AS GEELONG BEAT PORT ADELAIDE
Ben Jensen 13 June 2015

AFL ROUND 11 2015: PORT ADELAIDE POWER V GEELONG ONE GAME SHY of his three hundredth AFL match, Corey Enright played a vintage game off half-back last night, unanimously best on ground in game 299. The Cats led for most of the match, defeating the Power by twenty-three points. Unfortunately triple-Premiership teammate James Kelly looks likely to miss the milestone against the Demons next Sunday, suffering a nasty looking ankle injury early in the first quarter. Kelly was replaced soon after by substitute Shane Kersten who had a ripper of a night, it's fair to say he's cemented his spot in the side, finishing with two goals.

Kersten was equal top goal kicker for the Cats on the night, Rhys Stanley, Steve Motlop, Tom Hawkins and Josh Caddy also bagging two apiece. For Port Adelaide Chad Wingard was deadly in front of goal all night, with four.

After a close first half the Cats nudged sixteen points ahead of the Power by three-quarter time after a four goal to three quarter. The Cats dominated the last quarter though, the lead blowing out to 27 points midway through the term before Wingard kicked Port's only goal for the quarter and in fact the last goal of the match with half the quarter going by without any scores.

For us, Enright, Mark Blicavs, Stanley, Cameron Guthrie and Caddy were the stars. Cory Gregson and Darcy Lang also had good games, really rewarding the selectors for faith shown now. It was hard to find a weak link on the night with the backs solid led by sweeper Enright and fellow defenders Jed Bews, Tom Lonergan and Harry Taylor. Stanley and Blicavs in the ruck work very well, Guthrie, Caddy, Joel Selwood great in the middle along with half a dozen others, while in the forward fifty if the Power defenders had one forward like Hawkins or Josh Walker covered, someone else like Kersten, Motlop or Lang would bob up and make them pay.

The Cats have an extra day break until their next match, at Geelong against Melbourne for Enright's three hundredth- the first three hundred gamer since Ian Nankervis and third overall after Sam Newman. Going into this match the Cats had sixteen players on their injury list, one of whom played last night (Stanley) and will likely have to make compulsory changes for the match against the Dees.

GEELONG: 5.1, 8.4, 12.7, 14.8 (92) DEFEATED
PORT ADELAIDE: 5.2, 7.3, 10.3, 11.3 (69)

GOALS
GEELONG: Kersten 2, Stanley 2, Caddy 2, Motlop 2, Hawkins 2, Gregson, Johnson, Guthrie, Lang
PORT ADELAIDE: Wingard 4, Gray 2, Westhoff 2, Boak, Monfries, Schulz

BEST
GEELONG: Enright, Caddy, Stanley, Guthrie, Blicavs, Stokes
PORT ADELAIDE: Wingard, Gray, Wines, Broadbent, Ebert, Carlile

SUBSTITUTES
GEELONG: Shane Kersten, who replaced James Kelly (ankle) in the first quarter
PORT ADELAIDE: Aaron Young, who replaced Matt White in the second quarter

INJURIES
GEELONG: James Kelly (ankle), Rhys Stanley (foot)
PORT ADELAIDE: Matt White (hamstring)

UMPIRES:

Foot, Nicholls, Pannell

CROWD: 47,058 at Ethiad Stadium, Melbourne Docklands