PORT Adelaide has kept its finals flame flickering after Indy Tahau booted four goals in a tense 19-point win against the Western Bulldogs at Alberton Oval on Saturday night.

Abbey Dowrick also starred for the Power who led by a point at three-quarter time and sealed the 8.6 (54) to 5.5 (35) win with a dominant last quarter.

POWER v BULLDOGS Full match coverage and stats

A week after giving up an AFLW record points turnaround after leading at three-quarter time in a loss to St Kilda, hard-finishing Port had the first six inside 50s of the final term and ran over the top of the Dogs.

“Obviously I’m pleased to win, and then the most pleasing part beyond that is our group's response (to last week),” Power coach Lauren Arnell said.

“We've had some challenges with second halves, and particularly last quarters, and obviously, the Bulldogs turned up in a really strong fashion and applied a lot of pressure to us, particularly in that first half.

“I’m really proud and pleased with the group's response when things weren't necessarily on our terms earlier in the game.”

The loss was further soured for the visitors when Elisabeth Georgostathis went down clutching her left knee after heavy contact in the last quarter.

The Bulldogs led by 13 points when Elaine Grigg goaled two minutes into the third term, but Tahau kicked the next three goals as the Power went on a match-winning run of six unanswered goals.

Lauren Young was mobbed after she booted her first AFLW goal after overcoming two knee reconstructions and Kirsty Lamb, a late in for Piper Window, kicked the sixth goal in the blistering run to secure the win against her old team.

The sides entered the clash two wins adrift of eighth-placed West Coast with disappointing 2-5 records and near identical percentages.

With the valuable four premiership points in the bag after their third win of the season, the Power at least have an outside chance to mount a late charge with four rounds remaining in the home-and-away season.

The hard-tackling Power won the territory battle early, going inside 50 six times to the Bulldogs’ one, but couldn’t capitalise with a goal.

The Dogs made the home side pay for its inefficiency inside 50, Rylie Wilcox with the first major of the contest as the visitors gathered momentum.

Port trailed by eight points at the first break after going goalless in the opening term for the third time this season.

Tahau broke the Power’s goal drought seven minutes into the second quarter, but alarm bells were ringing when Sarah Hartwig’s back-to-back goals stretched the margin to 15 points with halftime approaching.

The Dogs were dominating possession with 47 more disposals in the first half, but Lauren Arnell’s side dug deep, Ash Woodland marking strongly in the goal square to make it a seven-point game with the last goal of the first half.

“We're happy on a lot of fronts, it's just probably about being in the game for longer and continually working,” Bulldogs coach Tamara Hyett said.

“Port has a really strong, established group, and that's where we want to get to.

“They just seemed a little bit calmer and composed in that second half.

“So happy in some areas, but disappointed that we probably fell into a few old habits of not capitalising early on, especially in the first quarter. I felt like we were pretty dominant there and then let the game get away from us a little bit in that second half.”

Drop kick alert!
Fresh off her two-goal performance in a win against Collingwood, Sarah Hartwig’s radar wasn’t on early with three behinds in the first quarter, including one from a rare drop kick. With Molly Brooksby chasing, Hartwig didn’t quite get the ball drop right as she raced toward goal and scuffed a drop kick wide to the left. Hartwig also missed everything early in the second, but stormed back into goalkicking form with back-to-back majors.

Terrific tussle of the talls
One of the more intriguing aspects of the contest was the ruck battle between young Port star Matilda Scholz and Alice Edmonds, who led the AFLW in hitouts after seven rounds. It was an even battle for three quarters, but Scholz came out on top 27-20 in the hitouts, had two more possessions and gained 414m to Edmonds’ 260 to just edge her rival in the key match-up. 

Up next
The Power will take on Brisbane at Brighton Homes Arena on Saturday, while the Bulldogs are back in action on Friday night when they host Essendon at Whitten Oval.

PORT ADELAIDE               0.1    2.3    4.5     8.6 (54)
WESTERN BULLDOGS      1.3     3.4    4.4     5.5 (35)

GOALS
Port Adelaide: Tahau 4, Woodland, Young, Houghton, Lamb
Western Bulldogs: Hartwig 2, Wilcox, Grigg, McDonald

BEST 
Port Adelaide:  Dowrick, Tahau, Scholz, Woodland, Pope, Heads
Western Bulldogs: Pritchard, Blackburn, Edmonds, Fitzgerald, Smith, Hartwig 

INJURIES 
Port Adelaide: Nil
Western Bulldogs: Buttifant (leg), Georgostathis (knee)

LATE CHANGE
Port Adelaide: Piper Window (ankle) replaced in selected side by Kirsty Lamb
Western Bulldogs: None

Reports: Nil

Crowd: 2,444 at Alberton Oval