Patience is a lost virtue in the AFL. Premiership teams are not decided in June, but many are written off - as Port Adelaide was during the mid-season break at round 12.

Mounting injuries, no win against a top-four side after telling losses to West Coast, Brisbane and Geelong, the "flat-track bully" tag and even Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley conceding his team was good but not great had many losing patience with the club that boldly put its eyes on three of the next five AFL premierships.

"I said 10 or 12 weeks ago," recalls Hinkley, "wait until the end of the year; wait and judge us (at the end of the home-and-away series). Wait and judge us when we can get all our people who we need in the team playing well together.

"Give us some continuity back together and we can play at a high level," added Hinkley of a team that was 8-3 when the pundits lost patience. Port Adelaide finished at 17-5 (for the first time since the breakthrough premiership season of 2004) and with six consecutive wins to rank second.

"I said we were playing as a good team; we weren't playing as a great team at that stage. But we still believed we had some room to move - and we now have got to get better again to maximise our opportunity.

"The reality is we have got our squad together."

Port Adelaide is - after exhausting the "squad mentality" with its selections to hold together a campaign during the second half of the season - unchanged for the preliminary final against the battered but feisty Western Bulldogs.

Less than a month ago, Port Adelaide beat the Western Bulldogs by two points at the Docklands in west Melbourne to signal that - with patience, albeit under duress by injuries - Hinkley had regathered a team ready to find greatness.

Now the moment comes to prove such.

Port Adelaide holds an advantage by the ruck pairings - Scott Lycett and Peter Ladhams against the young and talented Tim English and experienced Stefan Martin who has played just one game in the past 19 weeks while battling foot, shoulder, hip and groin injuries.

But, as the Western Bulldogs highlighted in round nine with a 19-point win at Adelaide Oval after being blitzed in ruck by Ladhams, the real game is at the end of the hit-outs.

"They have got two good ruckmen in their team, we have got two good ruckmen in our team," Hinkley said. "It's going to be a great match-up because we know the supply is going to be really important to the midfield (crews). We have got a really strong midfield, they have got a really strong midfield and the game is often won around the ball."

The true barometer of Port Adelaide games - contested ball - has decided both Port Adelaide-Western Bulldogs matches this season. The critical difference from round nine to 23 is Port Adelaide having more midfield options - and the confidence to assign Willem Drew to deal with the Western Bulldogs barometer Tom Liberatore, as he did in round 23 when Liberatore had just 17 touches.

The notable advantage of the "squad mentality" - and the demand for players to be comfortable in playing at least two roles - is evident on the wings where Port Adelaide can roll Xavier Duursma, Karl Amon, Steven Motlop, Miles Bergman ...

"We have trained all our blokes for a long period of time now to be able to be flexible in different roles," Hinkley said. "We have (as the medical subsistute) Sam Powell-Pepper who can come on to play midfield, he can play forward, he can even play back. You  just need a flexible person because you can't predict what might or what might not happen in an injury sense; you have just got to be ready for it."

Port Adelaide's defence is sounder 11 months after the preliminary final loss to eventual premiers Richmond that thrived with tall forwards. All-Australian Aliir Aliir is a key part of that difference with his aerial strength and sound decisions in rebounding the play.

Port Adelaide's attack has more variety - and seemingly less need to focus on key forward Charlie Dixon - 11 months on. Opportunist Orazio Fantasia adds to the dangerous mix at the goalfront.

"We have a massive game to play against a great opponent," says Hinkley, "but we are a really well prepared team."

Better prepared than in 2020, if only by the experience of playing in a demanding preliminary final as the clash with Richmond became while the rain tumbled at Adelaide Oval.

That six-point loss has left many great lessons at Alberton while the Port Adelaide players have patiently built their latest climb of football's toughest summit to the AFL grand final.

"If you look back to last year," says Port Adelaide midfielder Zak Butters, "it was the first finals experience for a lot of us younger guys. Probably half the team was in that way of first finals. There is more experience now. We know what to expect. 

"We are more ready as well. After copping that loss last year, it hurt a lot and it became emotional after that. But we got back to work and used that pain a s motivation to keep going ...

"You look back to 12 months ago and think this (campaign) started then."

And patiently it has built to Port Adelaide's chance for a return to the AFL grand final for the first time since 2007.

BIRD SEED

(the little stuff that counts most)

Where: Adelaide Oval

When: Saturday, September 11, 2021

Time: 7.10pm (SA time)

Last time: Port Adelaide 9.12 (66) d Western Bulldogs 10.4 (64) at the Docklands, round 23, August 20 this year 

First meeting in an AFL final

Overall: Port Adelaide 18, Western Bulldogs 15

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

Scoring average: Port Adelaide 95, Western Bulldogs 94

Tightest margin - Port Adelaide by two points (66-64) at the Docklands, round 23, August 20 this year; Western Bulldogs by three points (100-97) at Adelaide Oval, round 12, June 11, 2016.

Biggest margin - Port Adelaide by 86 points (147-61) at Marrara Oval, Darwin round 20, August 14, 2004; Western Bulldogs by 93 points (137-44) at Marrara Oval, round 12, June 13, 2009.

By venues - Adelaide Oval (4-3), Football Park (6-3), Princes Park (1-1), Dockands (3-4), Eureka Stadium, Ballarat (2-0), Marrara Oval (2-4).

By States and Territories - South Australia (10-6), Victoria (6-5), Northern Territory (2-4).