"YOU can play a tune on black keys, you can play a tune on white keys, but both are needed for perfect harmony."

- Sir Doug Nicholls

Everyone is looking for perfection with Port Adelaide. Such is the burden of high expectation at a club that boldly declares it is chasing greatness.

On Sunday, the perfect 11-0 start captain Tom Jonas wanted for his invincible season will be marked with an 8-3 win-loss count should Port Adelaide beat the emerging Fremantle at Adelaide Oval from 4.50pm (new start time).

Not a bad strike rate ...

It would make for a solid first half to the 22-game AFL home-and-away series of a season that seems set up for an exceptional finish, particularly for a team that builds its team and form to peak in September.

Port Adelaide certainly has its best still to come.

"We will get better as the season improves," said coach Ken Hinkley at the captain's run at Adelaide Oval on Saturday morning. "It is not a bad spot to be at (7-3) but we have been a good side ... not a great side."

That perfect harmony Pastor Doug Nicholls imagined in Australian society remains a goal - one that is appreciated more with each AFL Indigenous Round that honours his name.

That perfect harmony every Port Adelaide fan imagines unfolding on the football field remains the objective for a team chasing greatness.

"It is a challenge to close that gap (between good and great)," adds Hinkley. "We look at the sides that have done it in the past - Richmond is a perfect example of being able to do it and it took them a while. Once they got there, they have been able to stay there for a good period of time.

"That is what we are trying to do in a pretty tough competition."

So will Port Adelaide's midfield win the contests, a key barometer to the team's form? Will the three talls - Charlie Dixon, Todd Marshall and Mitch Georgiades - combine and fire to rattle the Fremantle defence as they did with their seven-goal haul against Adelaide in Showdown LXIX?

How does inexperienced ruckman Peter Ladhams, after his second-half surge against Collingwood maestro Brodie Grundy, work against Sean Darcy?

Will Port Adelaide make a fast or false start?

Can Port Adelaide's defence again set up the creative drive to open space to unravel Fremantle's defensive systems?

Sometimes a piano is an easier landscape to work than a football field.

Port Adelaide's midfield will be challenged - and measured - by a Fremantle engine room with two high-class midfielders in Brownlow Medallist Nat Fyfe and the vastly experienced David Mundy, who go head-to-head in setting up the contest with Ollie Wines and former captain Travis Boak.

Then the depth test comes with Port Adelaide needing to counter Adam Cerra, Angus Brayshaw, Caleb Serong and Michael Walters.

It might be the moment that sparks a form revival in Connor Rozee who is to be handed more midfield minutes this weekend.

"It is well documented that Connor Rozee has been finding it difficult as a forward," Midfield coach Jarrad Schofield said. "We will bring him into the game, so we will see him around the footy. And when he is on, he is on. He is electrifying for us around the footy."

It certainly cannot have another game with a heavy reliance on Wines and Boak.

"Ollie Wines has been fantastic, Travis Boak has been fantastic for us," Schofield said. 

"Fremantle is a team that likes to flick the ball around and they have some clean ball users and big bodies around the footy, so we have to make sure we share the load. 

"We have young fellas like Willem Drew who are all playing a role and we need to make sure that we share the load and everyone steps up. There are players who were down - by their own admission - but they have had pretty good years to date. 

"We will look to inject a little bit of speed around the ball. We will have a good mix."

Port Adelaide-Fremantle clashes from 2012-2019 - the Ross Lyon era with the "Purple Haze" - went 8-6 in the Dockers' favour, with strong defensive systems in Perth games denying critical time and space to Port Adelaide's running crew.

Port Adelaide has won all five matches against Fremantle at Adelaide Oval.

Schofield expects much of the Ross Lyon playbook to still apply during the second year of senior coach Justin Longmuir's tenure.

"They are different in some ways ...," says Schofield.

"Their pressure has not changed. Ross Lyon had them well structured behind the ball defensively and Justin Longmuir has brought that from Collingwood. 

"Their ability to use their hands around the football is up there with the Western Bulldogs and Richmond. And they have some speed on the floor. We have some real challenges. But we know if we bring our game - the Port Adelaide way - we can match them. And being at home we'd like to think we can get the crowd involved and generate that atmosphere for us."

BIRD SEED

(the little stuff that counts most)

Port Adelaide v Fremantle

When: Sunday, May 30, 2021

Time: 4.50pm

Where: Adelaide Oval

Last time: Port Adelaide 10.10 (70) d Fremantle 6.5 (41) at the Gold Coast, round 3, June 21 last year

Overall: Port Adelaide 21, Fremantle 17

Past five games: From the most recent, W W L L W

Scoring average: Port Adelaide 93, Fremantle 87

Tightest margin: Port Adelaide by seven points at the WACA Ground in round 17, 1999; Fremantle by seven points at Subiaco Oval in round 1, 2015

Biggest margin: Port Adelaide by 92 points (163-71) at Subiaco Oval, Perth in round 14, 2001; Fremantle by 79 points (151-72) at Subiaco Oval, Perth in round 22, 2006

By venues - Adelaide Oval (Port Adelaide 5-0), Football Park (7-5), Subiaco Oval (7-9), WACA Ground (1-1), Perth Stadium (0-2), Metricon Stadium (1-0).

By States - South Australia (Port Adelaide 12-5); Western Australia (Fremantle 12-8); Queensland (Port Adelaide 1-0).

A FAST-STARTING Port Adelaide has seen off a determined second-half Fremantle fight back to enjoy a 46-point win in the AFL’s Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous Round.

The 18.7 (115) to 9.15 (69) victory at Adelaide Oval saw Port head into the mid-year bye at 8-3.

Criticised for its slow starts, Port set up the result with a breathtaking opening quarter which had the home side leading by 40 points at the first change.

Mitch Georgiades got the ball rolling inside 65 seconds when he marked strongly and goaled from the top of the goal square.

Port had the first six inside 50s and 40 possessions to five, and made the Dockers pay with further majors to Sam Powell-Pepper and Charlie Dixon – who started in the ruck a the first centre bounce.

The visitors responded with the next four inside 50s and much more possession but could only add six behinds to the scoreboard by the first break.

Port on the other hand added the next four goals with Powell-Pepper and Dixon joining Todd Marshall and Orazio Fantasia – back in the side after a week out with injury – in contributing.

Karl Amon had 16 first-quarter disposals – a new club record but Fremantle started to fight back early in the second term with skipper Nat Fyfe finally breaking his side’s duck after marking and playing on.

Fyfe was involved as Travis Collyer slotted a clever dribbled goal to close the Dockers to within 27 points.

Port responded with three consecutive goals. Kane Farrell’s from 50 metres out on a tight angle was the pick of the bunch before Dixon slotted his third with a neat snap when everyone ran past him.

Again, the Dockers came with Liam Henry nailing a set shot from 25 metres out but Port had the answers with Powell-Pepper snapping his third on the run less than 60 seconds later.

When Fantasia pinned Adelaide boy Brennan Cox holding the ball in the pocket and hit a left-footed snap from the boundary the margin was out to 50 points.

A late flurry saw the Dockers kick the next three and go into the main break 31 points down and with some momentum.

Despite that, it was Port that started hot with Robbie Gray booting his second after marking on the lead inside the first 30 seconds of the third quarter.

Consecutive goals to the Dockers gave them some hope of a second half revival but when ruckman Pete Ladhams sidestepped an opponent and a couple of teammates before blasting a bounced effort from 50 metres out, the visitors had only cut the margin by three points at the final change.

The sides again traded blows early in the last term with Fyfe and Ladhams each booting majors, the latter after a big mark deep inside 50.

Ryan Burton was subbed out of the game with a left knee injury, bringing substitute Miles Bergman into the game, which started to fizzle out somewhat after Port’s hot start.

He bobbed up to snap home a goal in heavy traffic to stretch the margin out to 34 points and late majors to Amon and Marshall sealed a comfortable win in front of 26,759 supporters.

SCOREBOARD

PORT ADELAIDE            7.5     12.5        14.5     18.7   (115)             

FREMANTLE                   0.7      6.10       8.13   9.15  (69)              

Goals

Powell-Pepper, Dixon 3, Fantasia, Gray, Ladhams, Marshall, 2, Georgiades, Farrell, Bergman, Amon

Best

Wines, Amon, Ladhams, Dixon, Powell-Pepper, Boak