AT the start of Season 7, Port Adelaide was regarded as the "most likely" of the four new AFLW teams to make the biggest impression and strongest run to the top eight.

The baton for the team "Rising Star" has passed from Port Adelaide to Essendon and now to Hawthorn ... and in the next month there is the challenge to Lauren Arnell's "Inaugurals" to reclaim the honour in the power rankings of the AFLW's new entries. 

The form line of Season 7's four new teams - Port Adelaide, Sydney, Essendon and Hawthorn - gets a significant barometer moment on Saturday evening with Port Adelaide's bus trip from Melbourne to Frankston to play the in-form Hawthorn.

So far, after six rounds, the premiership table tells of the new quartet -

ESSENDON, 10th with two wins - including the season-opening triumph against Hawthorn. It was the first of the new entries to score a win against an established team (Season 6 wooden spooner West Coast)

HAWTHORN, 15th with two wins - both in the past two rounds and including the ice-breaker against Sydney

PORT ADELAIDE, 16th with one win and a draw - the win collected against Sydney. It also has taken points off an established team, Carlton.

SYDNEY, 18th of 18 with no win - and losses to fellow new teams Port Adelaide and Hawthorn

A nice script is at play this weekend. With victory, Port Adelaide would be with 10 premiership points - and the highest ranked of the newcomers (provided sixth-ranked Geelong beats Essendon). Then the Round 10 clash at Alberton Oval with Essendon would definitely settle where the "Rising Star" peaks at the end of the first 18-team AFLW season.

But first to Frankston to deal with the challenge posed by an in-form and confident Hawthorn unit.

"We are coming up against another new team; we take the strong lessons from a benchmark team last week ... for me, we continue to implement all the things that we are trying," says Port Adelaide senior coach Lauren Arnell. "I am looking for consistency and more development from a team perspective on how we want to play footy."

"If we play our game style, we create our own results."

Port Adelaide senior coach Lauren Arnell

AFTER THE DERBY

HISTORY tells derbies can be so taxing, both physically and emotionally, that the week after can become the "letdown after the Showdown".

For Lauren Arnell's "Inaugurals", the fall-out from a 60-point loss to AFLW premier Adelaide in the first women's Showdown should leave inspiration to prove Port Adelaide can be better - and wants to be better - after seeing the benchmark of the national competition.

"We are not losing focus - and there is so much to learn from that (Showdown) experience," Port Adelaide defender Ebony O'Dea said. "We know we will continue to build.

"We have taken our learnings from that (derby) and we move on."

O'Dea's greatest take from the Showdown was to learn just how much work she needs to put into her ambition to transfer from defence to the midfield. She measured herself against one of the AFLW's premier midfielders, Ebony Marinoff, on Friday night. O'Dea's review is as honest as can be.

"That was a challenge, this is for sure," said O'Dea, recognising Marinoff as a "fit player who gets a lot of the footy and is very hard to get in front of."

"I was not too thrilled with how I pulled off that role," added O'Dea who moved back to defence in the second half. "That was more comfortable, but tagging in the midfield is still something I am interested in. It is something I have done in the past."

"Consistency in performance with a young group is a focus for us. Not just performance on the weekend, but also how you apply yourself during the week. That is a big part of our learning this year. We have 16 of our 30 players who are first-year AFLW players. Part of my role - and that of the coaching group - is teaching our young group how to be elite athletes and how to perform consistently at training and at games."

Port Adelaide senior coach Lauren Arnell

MISSION STATEMENT

ASK Port Adelaide defender Ebony O'Dea what she wants to achieve in the next four weeks and the response is loaded with ambition.

"We want to get more wins on the board," said the master of the Rubik's cube. "We want to be a competitive side and to build more consistency - and get more games under the belt of our young players. 

"We have shown good patches through all of our games. Now we have to do it more often. We have to find four good quarters more often. That would give us a good end to the season."

Port Adelaide's fixture for the remaining four games of the 10-week home-and-away series is: Hawthorn (away), the return to Alberton Oval on Saturday, October 15 to play North Melbourne, St Kilda (away) and the qualifying season finale at home against fellow newcomer Essendon. 

So far, in six weeks of football action, after a rushed passage to the start of an advanced season (with the start in late August rather than in early 2023), Port Adelaide has revealed it has competent defenders in Ebony O'Dea, Alex Ballard and Indy Tahua; energetic midfielders in teenagers Hannah Ewings and Abbey Dowrick and Brisbane recruit Maria Moloney; a strong commitment to harass the opposition with manic tackling and a spirit that is not easily broken. The appetite for contested football is now being challenged by opposition teams knowing what Port Adelaide stands for - and how to stand up against Lauren Arnell's side.

The connection of all these pieces - and the challenge to score while covering the loss of Fremantle recruit Gemma Houghton (ankle surgery) - is the work in progress at Alberton. This game presents another opportunity to measure how far Port Adelaide is moving on this track to establishing more than a competitive line-up.

Basketball convert Olivia Levicki's study of ruck work will not end soon with the return of Liz McGrath to the medical rooms. Recovered from a hamstring strain, McGrath was back in the hands of the trainers after suffering an ankle sprain during a ruck contest at training on Tuesday night.

"We like to think of ourselves as a contested team. I am slightly disappointed we are not the No. 1 tackling team in the competition any more."

Port Adelaide senior coach Lauren Arnell

OPPO WATCH

HAWTHORN appears to have followed Port Adelaide's path of heavily investing in youth to chase, as is said, "sustained success".

The program is led by one of the most thoughtful and motivational coaches in the game, the mentor of the first AFLW premiership - Bec Goddard. She also is the master promoter of the code and her team's games.

Goddard today is proud of the spirit that is growing within her new group.

"They are such a resilient young group of players," Goddard says. "(They deserve credit for) their desire and their fight to win."

Hawthorn has found its way to attack - and to the scoreboard - with greater efficiency in the past two games scoring five goals against Sydney and six against West Coast.

Hawthorn's midfield has an emerging star - another teenager giving the AFLW a promising vision of the next generation of female Australian footballers: 17-year-old Jasmine Fleming.

"She just runs the full length of the ground and she is one hell of a player," says Goddard. "She is going to be an absolute superstar of the competition."

Hawthorn plays its home games at Frankston Park, 41 kilometres south-east of Melbourne along the Nepean Highway and well exposed to the winds that come off Port Phillip Bay. Knowing local conditions was critical to Hawthorn's win against West Coast last week, even after losing the toss.

“We felt like we didn’t deviate from our plan even when West Coast won the toss; we knew they were going to score but we stayed calm and got on with it,” says Goddard of the calmness in her coaching box and the faith of her players when they were compelled to hold off Plan A for a quarter.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"It is outstanding ... I don't have a bad word to say. It is so outstanding ... the coaches, the players, the facilities, everything is just incredible."

Port Adelaide defender Ebony O'Dea - who has experienced the AFLW at Greater Western Sydney and Collingwood - on the women's program at Alberton.

BIRD SEED

(little stuff that means most)

HAWTHORN v PORT ADELAIDE

When: Saturday, October 8, 2022

Time: 6.40pm SA time

Where: Frankston

First meeting of the teams

On the ladder - Port Adelaide 1-1-4, ranked 16th. Hawthorn, 2-4, ranked 15th.

HAWTHORN entered the AFLW as one of the four new teams - with Port Adelaide, Essendon and Sydney - for Season 7 this year.

When the AFL opened bids for AFLW licences, Hawthorn abstained from seeking a place in the national women's league. There was a submission made after Season 1, but the licence was not confirmed until August 12, 2021.

Before the entry to the AFLW was confirmed, Hawthorn notably appointed the AFLW's first premiership coach Bec Goddard.

Last weekend: Port Adelaide suffered its biggest defeat - 60 points - and was without a goal for the first time while leaving AFLW Showdown I with a very clear image on how much ground needs to be made up on a foundation team such as Adelaide. Hawthorn made it two wins in a row with a three-point victory against West Coast at Frankston.

Form lines - Port Adelaide, LLDWLL (losing to West Coast by 12 points, losing to the Western Bulldogs by 19 points, tie with Carlton, beating Sydney by 66 points, losing to Gold Coast by 14 points on the road and falling to Adelaide by 60 points in the first AFLW Showdown); Hawthorn, LLLLWW (losing the grudge match with fellow expansion team Essendon by 26 points, losing to St Kilda by 53 points, losing to Richmond by 35 points, losing to the Western Bulldogs by 30 points, scoring first win by beating Sydney by four points and following up with a three-point win against West Coast at the weekend).