KEN Hinkley only needs to look into the eyes of his Port Adelaide captain Tom Jonas to know his team is not done with Season 2022.

And hasn't this season proven not to discount Jonas, even when the odds seem hopelessly stacked against him. The captain always finds a way ...

Port Adelaide is at 7-8 with seven games to play. Percentage is inferior to many of Port Adelaide's rivals currently in the AFL top eight or those hoping to be there at the end of the mad scramble to September. And the lop-sided draw - with those five "double-up games" to make up the 22 games for a home-and-away series among 18 clubs - certainly is graded as tough for Port Adelaide.

Mission impossible? Tell that to Tom Jonas.

"Do the players still believe? Of course we do," says Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley. "I only have to look at Tom Jonas to know that."

Many would say they might have become delusional at Alberton. It certainly has been a place for those with unbreakable spirit from the moment Port Adelaide put a noose around its collective neck with a 0-5 start to the home-and-away rounds. Each loss tightens that noose.

This weekend, with a Saturday night game at Adelaide Oval, the obstacle is Greater Western Sydney - the 13th-ranked team that has cut the rope to play with the freedom that comes without the demanding expectation of chasing a top-eight finals berth. Greater Western Sydney is deciding who stays in the race, however.

WATCH THE TUMBLERS

IT always comes in threes.

Port Adelaide's reputation for delivering the toughest "team defence" system has been tested to the limit in the past fortnight - and probably will not change this week.

Gold Coast a fortnight ago tried to become just the second team to break the 100-point barrier against Port Adelaide this season (following Hawthorn's 120 points at Adelaide Oval in round 2).

Fremantle came even closer with 99 in the eight-point thriller at Perth Stadium on Sunday.

Greater Western Sydney is certainly capable of maintaining this theme at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night, putting the Port Adelaide defence led by Jonas on notice.

After losing defender Trent McKenzie to illness on Friday, Port Adelaide has restored the Jonas-Tom Clurey-Aliir Aliir combination after recalling Clurey from the emergency list.

All-Australian Aliir had his 100-game milestone become a tough day out against in-form Fremantle key forward Rory Lobb. But Hinkley is full of trust in Aliir.

"Aliir has been pretty reasonable since he got back from his ankle injury - and it was a significant ankle injury," said Hinkley of the surgery Aliir required after the season-opener against Brisbane at the Gabba. "Up until last week (against Lobb), he was building his form really strongly. We were comfortable with him. Last week was not his best, but if we over-react or under-react to one individual game, it is not great judgement. He will play very well (on Saturday night)."

NEW LOOK

BOTH Port Adelaide and Greater Western Sydney have midfields adjusting to new hands in ruck.

Jeremy Finlayson will face his former team-mates at Greater Western Sydney as a ruckman in partnership with fellow key forward Charlie Dixon.

They will be opposed to second-year Greater Western Sydney ruckman Matt Flynn who has been preferred ahead of the older journeyman Braydon Preuss. Flynn, who has played 22 AFL games, chalked up a career-high 46 hit-outs in a neat contest with Hawthorn rival Ned Reeves at the weekend.

Finlayson will again give up centimetres - 196 v 201 - but not territory.

"What Jeremy - and Charlie - have been able to do, particularly when the ball hits the floor, is quite remarkable," says Port Adelaide midfield coach Brett Montgomery.

Port Adelaide has experienced ruckman Scott Lycett back in action in the SANFL this weekend after a three-month lay-off to recover from shoulder surgery.

AT THE CONTEST

WHAT do the "barometers" say?

There is not much in the most-quoted figure in Port Adelaide games - contested possession. Port Adelaide's season average is 137; Greater Western Sydney is 137.3.

At clearances, Port Adelaide leads 37.9 to 37.3.

Sounds like an enticing battle to watch. More so with the return of Port Adelaide midfielder Zak Butters after two weeks on the sidelines to recover from a medial ligament strain to his left knee.

"Zak brings lots of stuff. He certainly makes us better - and he plays forward of the ball too, to help our scoring," Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley said. "Zak Butters, Ollie Wines, Connor Rozee, Travis Boak ... they all share a bit of time in the forward line and Zak certainly helps us from a scoring capacity with goal assists. He brings a lot of dynamics for us around the ball - and forward of the ball."

Greater Western Sydney has its own parade of stars - Tom Green, Stephen Coniglio, Lachie Ash, Josh Kelly ...

"Our midfield is travelling along really nicely," says interim Greater Western Sydney coach Mark McVeigh. "When you talk about Steve Coniglio, Tim Taranto, Tom Green, Josh Kelly, just to name a few, there’s some good players there that are obviously going well."

The scoreboard attendant at Adelaide Oval certainly could be busy.

AFTER PERTH

HOW does Port Adelaide perform after the long road trip to Perth - with the greatest time zone shift in Australian football? The record book is more than encouraging.

Last season, Port Adelaide followed up a loss to West Coast in Perth with a two-point win against Richmond at Adelaide Oval ... on a six-day break.

In 2019, Port Adelaide won both home games the weekend after playing in Perth - beating North Melbourne (after the "dirty ball" win against West Coast on Good Friday) and winning against Geelong by 11 points (after losing to Fremantle).

OPPO WATCH

SINCE round 10 - after the resignation of senior coach Leon Cameron - Greater Western Sydney has worked a 3-3 win-loss run under interim coach Mark McVeigh. The team that seemed unable to play to its attacking potential has scored at an average of 98 points (breaking the 100-point barrier three times in six games - compared with just once in the previous nine).

McVeigh's audition - with his desire to become the senior coach well stated - has delivered wins against West Coast, North Melbourne and Hawthorn, three teams ranked lower than the 13th-placed Greater Western Sydney.

But the three losses to finals contenders do highlight a competitive spirit among McVeigh's men - Brisbane (14 points), the Western Bulldogs (20 points) and Collingwood (11 points).

"They are such a dangerous team - they have such talent around the ball and forward of the ball that they can put a score on anyone," said Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley. "They have freedom. They are playing attacking football. They are playing risk-free in their offence."

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

BIRD SEED

(the little stuff that counts most)

PORT ADELAIDE V GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY

Where: Adelaide Oval

When: Saturday, July 9, 2022

Time: 7pm (SA time)

Last time: Port Adelaide 15.10 (100) d GWS 11.7 (73) at Marvel Stadium, round 20, August 1, last year

Overall: Port Adelaide 6, GWS 6

Past five games (most recent first): W W L L L

Scoring average: Port Adelaide 88 points, GWS 85

Tightest margin - Port Adelaide by 17 points (63-46) at at Metricon Stadium, round 6, July 12, 2020; GWS by one point (56-55) at Adelaide Oval, round 19, July 27, 2019

Biggest margin - Port Adelaide by 75 points (125-50) at the Sydney Showgrounds, round 12, June 16, 2013; GWS by 86 points (151-65) at Manuka Oval, Canberra, round 4, April 17, 2016

By venues - Adelaide Oval, Port Adelaide 1-3; Football Park, 1-0; Sydney Showgrounds, 1-1; Manuka Oval, 1-2; Metricon Stadium, 1-0; Marvel Stadium, 1-0.

PORT ADELAIDE is not going away. It is not giving up on the prospect of a late entry to the AFL top eight - and on the form shown at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night, there would be a few teams looking uneasily over their shoulders.

Some of them are in the next few weeks to come face-to-face with a defiant Port Adelaide team that has more and more reason to believe its best football is good enough to present on the big stages of the AFL games that matter in September.

Port Adelaide's commanding 55-point win against 13th-ranked non-contender Greater Western Sydney levels the win-loss ledger again, this time at 8-8. The gap from 12th spot to the doorway to September's top-eight finals has become just one win - and the percentage gap also narrowed, just marginally.

The nine-goal win elevated Port Adelaide's percentage from 103.9 to 108.6. At one stage, after such a commanding first half that built a 38-point lead, it might have seemed capable of building even more percentage with the team's biggest win of the season (still 84 points against West Coast in round six).

The second half was more of a grind than a grinding down of Greater Western Sydney, a team that promised with recent form under interim coach Mark McVeigh to deliver much more. Until Sam Powell-Pepper, Connor Rozee and Mitch Georgiades launched an unanswered three-goal surge during the last 10 minutes of the match, Port Adelaide was comfortably holding the much-needed four premiership points with a six-goal advantage.

Port Adelaide now has six home-and-away games to play. The equation remains Port Adelaide must find at least four wins. The percentage gap might mean there will need to be five. This long, tightrope script - Will Port Adelaide stand up or will it fall? - has a little bit more to play out.

Not in question is the Port Adelaide players' patience to live on the edge.

Certainly not in question is the rise on the AFL player rankings of Port Adelaide midfielder Connor Rozee.

Free of the limitations of injury, Rozee now does appear to float where others plod on the football field. He does find space where others see road blocks. He works the ball with such precision that the No. 5 call in the 2018 AFL national draft is game by game earning the right to carry the label of "elite" footballer.

Rozee did as such great midfielders do - he hit the scoreboard. His 4.2 made him Port Adelaide's most-productive player.

Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley's concept that his team's best football is good enough - it just needs to be seen more often and with more consistency - certainly was evident during the first half.

In every facet of the game, there was a command that made Port Adelaide appear very, very good ... and Greater Western Sydney, by comparison, sub-class.

In defence, where Port Adelaide conceded just one goal in each of the first three quarters and none in the last, the best term to sum up the work of captain Tom Jonas' crew was: "stingy". The 2.4 conceded at half-time is the second-lowest score in the clubs' 13 meetings for AFL premiership points. The full-time score of 3.11 (29) marks Greater Western Sydney's lowest score against Port Adelaide - replacing the 6.10 (46) at Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast from the shortened games of the 2020 COVID-impacted season.

In attack, Port Adelaide is more and more becoming confident of building its plays to key forward Todd Marshall rather than just Charlie Dixon. The 12 goals were from seven boots - with the midfielders, led by Rozee, taking up the pressing challenge to contribute more.

The biggest concern in this zone remains the goalkicking yips of young forward Mitch Georgiades. Lauded a year ago by some of the game's greatest goalkickers for having a perfect routine, Georgiades today cannot keep his kick on line. He finished with 1.0 on the scoresheet - plus an out-of-bounds on the full after the three quarter-time siren.

And when Georgiades rushes his set shot - as he did from the boundary at the northern end during time-on of the last term - he can make the ball do as he commands. Make sense of that.

And in between the two 50-metre arcs there was this silky connection between the lines, particularly with the foot passing. Given the noted talent in the Greater Western Sydney line-up, keeping control of the match agenda - rather than being caught amid momentum swings - is quite an achievement.

Port Adelaide's forced need to work an unconventional ruck tandem put - again - Jeremy Finlayson in the lead ruck role. His energy for the first bounce might have been fuelled by wanting to make a strong impression against his former Greater Western Sydney team-mates, but there is no questioning how Finlayson does have a genuine eagerness for the demanding role to work in ruck while conceding centimetres to opposition ruckmen.

The key performance indicators reinforce Finlayson's work is truly measured AFTER the ruck contest. He did deliver 15 hit-outs - and followed up with five clearances.

On the "barometer" statistics, Port Adelaide lost the hit-outs 27-35 (5-10 at centre). But it won the centre clearances - against a noted midfield - 9-8 and all stoppages, 37-26.

Port Adelaide's defence remains the cornerstone of this determined campaign to remain relevant in Season 2022. Tom Clurey used his late call-up - to cover the loss of fellow key defender Trent McKenzie - as an opportunity to out-do All-Australian team-mate Aliir Aliir for intercept marks.

The work of Ryan Burton, who had to counter the well-known threat posed by Greater Western Sydney captain Toby Greene, is of high order - in particular is pin-point rebound kicks.

For the fourth consecutive week, Port Adelaide has opened without a deficit at quarter-time. This time, the 16-point lead on GWS was loaded with some special first-quarter highlights provided by Dixon, Marshall and the very industrious Rozee.  

Marshall put aside the disappointment of the last-minute miss from a set shot against Fremantle in Perth six days earlier to open with a goal from each side of the River Torrens end.

Rozee was at 100 per cent efficiency with his eight disposals at quarter-time. He also had two goals - and the second from outside-50 just underlined how good the midfielder was off the boot.

Dixon did not score - but his attempt to put up Port Adelaide's first score of the match from the south-east pocket deserved better as a reward for his persistence ... and the dummy sold to Greater Western Sydney defender Phil Davis on the boundary line.

Dixon worked the more conventional script at the start of the third term to out-lead and out-mark Davis in a run through the same pocket to finish with a long-range goal - his first on a night when he again played with vigour, particularly when thrust into ruck relief for Finlayson.

The prize for best goal from a tight situation in a forward pocket seemed appropriately assigned to Port Adelaide half-forward Sam Powell-Pepper during time-on of the third term. Unfortunately, SPP's kick from the south-west pocket's boundary - after shrugging off Callan Ward - did not survive the scrutiny of the ARC score review system that saw enough on the video to declare Callum Brown left his fingerprints on the Sherrin.

For the past three months Port Adelaide has lived in the now - week by week, game by game, to stay on the edge of the conversation of how September would play out with the top-eight finals. But the next month, with four solid tests against recent premiership clubs and noted rivals, is as close to replicating September without offering any silverware: AFL premier Melbourne in Alice Springs on Sunday, followed by league leader Geelong at Adelaide Oval, the super hot Collingwood at the MCG and Richmond at Adelaide Oval.

One game at a time ...

PORT ADELAIDE v GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY

PORT ADELAIDE   4.2       8.6     9.9       12.12 (84)

GWS                         1.4       2.4      3.9       3.11  (29)

BEST - Port Adelaide: Rozee, Butters, Powell-Pepper, Boak, Finlayson, Burton.

GOALS: Port Adelaide: Rozee 4, Farrell, Marshall 2, Bergman, Dixon, Georgiades, Powell-Pepper.

INJURY - Nil.

MEDICAL SUBSTITUTE: Jed McEntee (not activated).

CROWD: 24,744 at Adelaide Oval.

NEXT: Melbourne at Alice Springs, Sunday 2.50pm start.