It was a scorching afternoon at Memorial Oval in Port Pirie, and the Crows and Power did battle in over 40-degree temperatures. Both sides have plenty of fantasy football relevant players to discuss, and we learnt plenty because of this hitout.

Rory Sloane

A strong all-around game from the new co-captain. Sloane amassed 28 disposals at 75% efficiency, seven score involvements, eight marks, five clearances and four tackles. With no tagger employed today by Port, we got to see exactly how good a fantasy footballer he is when permitted to dictate the game.

Rory Laird

Plenty has been speculated (including by myself) about the potential impact of the new kick-in rules and the scoring damage it could have on Laird. Based off this game, it seems apparent that we may be over complicating it as he continued on his merry way scoring at will and very much showed that a ‘dip’ in scoring might be marginal if any.

Brodie Smith

If you’d been considering Brodie before today, he did nothing to dent your confidence. He started the game on fire and was used often used by his club to rebound out of defensive 50 (6) and also deliver the ball inside 50 (4). Smith spent most of the game across half-back. He had only two kick-ins today (from a possible five) and played on in every occasion.

Brad Crouch

Brad looked not just good, but very good. Moved freely and covered the ground in trying conditions with relative ease. Won his fair share of the contested ball, and was able to utilise his speed from stoppage as he won five clearances. He showed everything you’d want as a current owner and will tempt those looking for value even more so given how strong his performance was.

Matt Crouch

Matt led all players for total disposals on the ground finishing with 32 at 71% efficiency. Typical Crouch game and showed precisely what he’s capable of delivering.

Travis Boak

Travis is listed as a forward, but he played this game predominantly as a midfielder, something the coaching staff have spoken about numerous times during the preseason. With Ollie Wines likely to miss the opening 2-3 games he could well be the leader of the midfield unit and like today score well.

Zac Butters

Zac demonstrated speed, class and poise beyond his years. Port Adelaide have a beauty of a player, and he’ll be a long term fan favourite for the club. With the departures of the side during the offseason, they need to add a dynamic player and Butters meets that criteria. Lock him in for a round one appearance based off that performance.

Will Drew

Drew did plenty of nice things leading his side with seven clearances, kicked a nice goal and used the ball well both in traffic and in space. As mentioned above with Wines missing a few games early this cash cow is doing everything required to be named round one.

Justin Westhoff

Played just over 50% of the game time and did some nice things, but all my fears got confirmed across this game. That being Port at times looked too tall and lacked speed and ground pressure. Mr FixIt is still an upgrade target, but someone I’m still going to steer away from as a starter.

Tom Rockliff

Spent plenty of time off the ground with Tom just playing 60% of game time. For the minority of coaches that were considering Rocky, I do think it’s time you look elsewhere. At his price, while he will improve on his average I don’t see it being to the level owners may hope for.