It’s a Rough Time for Our Skipper - Arnell Speaks on Cuthbertson

Port’s captain, Janelle Cuthbertson, came hobbling from the ground as the Power dismantled the Dogs. Scans later confirmed that she’d ruptured the ACL in her left knee and would miss the rest of the season. Ahead of the Dockers clash at Alberton on Saturday, Lauren Arnell spoke on the club’s leader.

“We’re feeling so devastated for JC [Janelle Cuthbertson],” Arnell began.

“She’s so selfless and just being able to turn up early in the week, she’s all about the team and guiding them through what the next stage is.”

Arnell believes that the job to replace Cuthbertson will fall to the entire team, not just inclusion Madeline Keryk.

“Everyone needs to step up across the field,” Arnell said. “[Cuthbertson’s] weapon being intercept marking and she really structures our backline.

“We’ve seen Amelie Borg come on leaps and bounds. Teagan Germech has been a nice little surprise packet so far this season.

“[Madeline] Keryk comes in and with [Angela] Foley as well, you know there’s a bit more experience there to help structure the backline without [Cuthbertson].”

Arnell has been massive on contest work all year, and she says that her team is enjoying playing football at Port Adelaide;

“Our players enjoy playing this style of footy,” Arnell said on her team’s playing style.

“It’s not necessarily a heavy stats based game, we see other teams accumulating a lot of possession. Our ability to win contests so far this year and play pretty direct into out forward line is benefiting us.

“I’m expecting a hotly contested game here at Alberton on Saturday. I think with Fremantle, we know how disappointed they are, they’ve been really public.

“I think you try and measure over two games what a team’s trying to do. It’s not a lot of data to be fair, I think they had a really windy game at Windy Hill against Essendon in Round 1 and performed quite well.

“They wouldn’t be pleased with [how] they went about it against the Crows. We take more of a gauge of how they went against Essendon.

Gemma Houghton will play her first game against her old side this weekend. After playing 46 games with Fremantle, Houghton moved to Port Adelaide when the Power entered the competition ahead of Season 7;

“I’m excited for Gem, she’s obviously playing some pretty good footy as well. I haven’t talked to her yet, I might have a little talk to her at Captain’s Run. She’s going really well and certainly very focused on her role within our team and it’s benefitting everybody.”

The game gets underway from 4:05 ACST at Alberton Oval.