AFL is described as big business, a multi-billion dollar sports entertainment industry.

In truth, it is just a game even if - as in business - it is a numbers game  ...  players are identified by their guernsey numbers, fans have membership numbers and matches are overloaded with numbers on statistic sheets and decided by the figures on the scoreboard.

And this game of Australian football - from AFL to the games on suburban and country fields - is loaded with emotion.

There has been overwhelming raw emotion surrounding the Port Adelaide Football Club this week. From the disappointment - and inevitable - anger from fans in watching a season of great promise fall short with an inexcusable 71-point loss to the Western Bulldogs in the preliminary final at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night.

The tears of former vice-captain Hamish Hartlett on leaving Port Adelaide as a player after 193 AFL games since 2009. Very few players have searched their souls as hard as Hartlett did to realise he wanted to be a Port Adelaide player while being courted by Richmond, Essendon, North Melbourne and St Kilda.

And there are the much-questioned emotions of the Port Adelaide players who will remain at Alberton to continue the agenda of "Chasing Greatness" while expectation is loaded with more and more challenging questions from those outside the clubhouse.

One of these players is Scott Lycett. He already has an AFL premiership medal from his time at West Coast. He is 28 ... and not keen on wasting time when his real dream is to win an AFL flag with his "home" club of Port Adelaide.

"I feel the older you get," says Lycett, "the more you realise how much effort you put in to get yourself in that position (of being one win for an AFL grand final). For us to get into that position (for the second consecutive year) and just squander it was pretty disappointing for everyone - fans, players, coaches ... everyone."

As the questions on Port Adelaide's preliminary final exit - and short-term future - pile up, the emotional responses from Lycett do refocus the searchlight lens thrust on Alberton this week.

Never one to speak with the new scripted language of the "big-business football industry", the lad from the bush was true to his emotions during his weekly radio spot on Wednesday. Lycett, as we used to say of AFL players, spoke from the heart - and a pained heart at that.

The Port Adelaide team described as "best prepared" for the preliminary final is now under heavy questioning - internally and externally - on its preparation, the players' mindset and the work of the coaching staff.

"To say we were tasting our own bath water is a step too far," Lycett said of the post-mortem of Port Adelaide's worst result of the season. "Personally, I felt we had a job to do ... a massive job to do against the Western Bulldogs.

"We worked so hard for nine to 10 months (for this moment). Unfortunately, there was a pattern during the year - we would not start games as we would have liked. And everyone knows if you go into a final not starting well you will get what happened at the weekend."

Lycett recalls no issue in the pre-game of the preliminary final while there was drama just before the start of the qualifying final win against Geelong at Adelaide Oval where the motivational music loop used in the warm-up failed.

Nor will Lycett have it said that senior coach Ken Hinkley misread the mood - and mindset - of the Port Adelaide players.

"Do people really think Kenny gets to a preliminary final and sits back thinking it is just going to happen?" Lycett said. "Kenny has been doing this job bloody well. Everyone has an opinion, but to say Kenny was not doing the right thing is a joke. What do they think he was trying to do?"

The chase for greatness begins again in 2022 from scratch - and with a new squad, new staff and more expectation. 

Hartlett will join those outside the inner sanctum watching Port Adelaide deal with doubt, as was the case during the "choker era" from 2001-2003 that spurred a breakthrough AFL premiership in 2004.

Lycett was one the first to encounter Hartlett after his exit meeting at Alberton on Monday.

"And I hugged him," said Lycett. "It is not a pretty sight to see a player who had been living his boyhood dream and playing at the club he loves hear that he won't be around next year. It is heart-breaking for such a great team leader and club man ..."

It is still an emotional game.