Former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire has revealed that Port Adelaide is “overwhelmed” by the thought of playing at home again in 2024 following its 84-point qualifying final loss to Geelong.
The Cats stormed home at Adelaide Oval last Thursday night — holding the hosts to just one goal after half time as they ran away 20. 18 (138) to 7.12 (54) winners.
The result added another twist to Port Adelaide’s mixed success at Adelaide Oval this season.
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The Power have lost three do-or-die finals at Adelaide Oval in the last four years.
Speaking on Nine’s Eddie and Jimmy podcast, McGuire said he had been told on good authority that the Power is worried about playing another home final.
“I spoke to a senior Port Adelaide person and it was very interesting their mindset,” he said.
“They’re hoping they can win this weekend against Hawthorn because then they don’t have to go back to Adelaide.
“The feeling is that what’s big and green and has power, Adelaide Oval in September, it’s got into their heads.
https://omny.fm/shows/eddie-and-jimmy/there-were-people-in-port-adelaide-barracking-for/embed
“The pressure and the fact that they’ve been walloped the last four or five times they’ve played there has gotten into their heads that they now believe they’re a better team away than they are at home.”
“That is the mindset.”
McGuire also said this feeling was shared by some Port Adelaide supporters and had evolved into something like a superstition.
”There’s also the feeling in Adelaide, a very strong feeling, that a lot of Port Adelaide people were barracking for that result,” he said.
“All of those people who have been castigated for booing them off the ground that day have said, ‘That’s why we did it’.”
“So, it’s interesting. To me, that’s the story of Port Adelaide at the moment … They are concerned that they’re overwhelmed now whether it’s voodoo or anything else.
“I’m not making this up and I’m not talking to Billy Bob in the cheer squad, I’m talking to serious people who are thinking, ‘What do we need to do?’.”
“When you’re involved in a club, you start to analyse everything — where things are going wrong — and there is a feel at Port Adelaide that the Adelaide Oval in September is now a negative and that clubs will come over, like Geelong, and go, ‘These guys are packing themselves.”
McGuire’s comments come as David King claimed the club had made the biggest match committee mistake of the first week of finals.
“It was one of the biggest coaching cock-ups off the weekend,” he told SEN’s Whateley on Monday.
“[How] with two weeks of planning, can leave a match committee meeting leaving Jason Horne-Francis on the bench in the first quarter for seven minutes of footy in a final where you’ve got to throw your best punches early?
“If you’ve got two weeks of planning and you leave a match committee with Horne-Francis on the bench, that’s just wrong.”
The Power will meet the Hawks in the first semi final on Friday night. The winner will then play the Swans in the first preliminary final the following week.