Outlaw Charlie Dixon fires Port’s young guns to keep Power surging

In blowing away the Gold Coast Suns, Port Adelaide showed a full range of gears being driven by a winning mix of quirky veterans and sundance kids

There’s an almost avian quality to how Connor Rozee moves on the football field. He hovers and lurks. He swoops and steals. He glides in, and accelerates out of a contest. On Saturday night, he anticipated the spill from a throw in, met the ball at full cruising speed, took it in his left hand, switched to his right, consulted his protractor, caressed the ball on the lateral column of his preferred foot, and let it tumble, talk, and taunt its way past the scrambling Gold Coast defender. From gather to goal-line, it took about 3.5 seconds.

There’s been some preposterous goals kicked at the Adelaide Oval, almost all of them by Eddie Betts. Commentator Dwayne Russell, not always renowned for his restraint at such moments, called it “one of the greatest goals of all time.” It was certainly equal to this year’s offerings from Brody Mihocek, Jamie Elliott and Dan Houston.