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Port Adelaide forward Indy Tahau set an AFLW goalkeeping record as the Power edged out arch-rivals Adelaide by seven points in a crunch match on Friday night.
Tahau scored twice in a 7.10 (52) to 6.9 (45) victory at Norwood Oval; this was the Power’s first win in four games against the Crows.
Tahau has scored 23 goals this season; this made him the most goalscorer in the AFLW home and away season.
Indy Tahau and Katelyn Pope after Power’s win over local rivals.Credit: AFL Pictures
The Power dynamo equaled Melbourne’s Eden Zanker’s overall season record in 2023 with 23 goals, including three goals in three finals.
Brisbane Lions first-year player Tahau, who joined Port in 2022 and suffered an injury that required knee reconstruction a year later, missed out on a goal-of-the-year contender during a crucial win.
The Power have moved up to 10th in the standings with just one win behind the seventh-placed Crows and one game away from the finals.
Adelaide took a nine-point lead at quarter-time from 3.3 to 2.0 thanks to two goals from Grace Kelly.
However, the Crows lost Niamh Kelly to concussion; The Irish talent walked off the field after taking an accidental header during heated pushing and shoving following Adelaide’s opening goal.
The Crows were extremely effective, led by midfield star Ebony Marinoff’s 10 disposals; They scored from all six entries within the attacking 50m zone.
But Port stayed in touch on the scoreboard with Tahau scoring a stunning strike when it was pinned on the byline from around 30 meters out.
In the second quarter, the floodgates opened with four consecutive Port goals in less than eight minutes.
They outscored the Crows by 4.2 to 0.3 points during this period and Tahau was again involved in a run of points that ended with an Abbey Dowrick goal.
Dowrick gave the Power a 14-point advantage at the half-time siren, 6.2 to 3.6, and another melee between the rivals began.
Port scored the only goal in a tense third term and made it a 23-point break after three quarters to lead from 7.6 to 3.7.
However, the Crows led by 13 points with the remaining nine minutes following goals from Anne Hatchard and Rachelle Martin.
And Caitlin Gould’s late-major cut Adelaide’s deficit to just seven points with 90 seconds left, but neither side could score again.
“It felt like a final,” Power captain Justine Mules-Robinson, the Crows’ treble premiership player, told Fox Footy.
“It was a very competitive game but we just kept pushing forward and playing our style of football.”
AAP
