PORT ADELAIDE can start the 2022 AFL home-and-away series with less doubts - and less doubters - after working its way through a first-half maze for a reassuring 37-point win against Adelaide in the pre-season closer at Richmond Oval on Saturday.

More than doubling Adelaide's score during the second half (82-40), Port Adelaide shook off rust, a determined rival's shackles and those asking at half-time if Ken Hinkley's team was vulnerable with a commanding eight-goal third term.

Brownlow Medallist Ollie Wines continued to underline his elite status with a game-high 37 disposals. Second-best on the Champion Data statistical count is the tyro wanting to step up alongside Wines in the midfield - and making his case very strongly: Zak Butters (32 disposals).

And the rising star of young forward Mitch Georgiades is glowing even brighter from his game-breaking four-goal performance. If it was not his perfect kicking, it was his eagerness to command the air battles. His mark above the pack in front of a goalpost at the southern end - and at the end of midfielder Willem Drew's long set shot in the sixth minute of the last term - adds to the highlight reel of a teenager with so much to achieve.

True to AFL premiership coach David Parkin's theme that the third term is the "premiership quarter", Port Adelaide found its best after working through some major issues - some of its own making - at half-time.

By imposing itself with greater strength in the contest - and with more dare by speed and length with its ball movement - Port Adelaide built the decisive eight-goal third term on dominance of possessions and, most importantly, territory as measured by a 2:1 advantage in inside-50s (18-9).

For those keeping count, Port Adelaide is now 973 days without defeat to derby rival Adelaide with wins in four home-and-away matches and three pre-season games.

Last year, two trial games against a rebuilding Adelaide team coming off an AFL wooden spoon were relatively easy strolls to wins at Alberton and Noarlunga ovals with a combined margin of 123 points.  This time, a more-advanced Adelaide was not easily nor as quickly swept away. Nor did the intown rival allow Port Adelaide to slice quick pathways to the goalfront ... until that critical third term.

It would be far too simplistic to say Port Adelaide was struggling to put its imprint on the  summer derby when Adelaide was living up to its promise of "making opponents feel they have been in a game".

Port Adelaide started each of the first three quarter with small leads: By seven points in the opening term off Georgiades' first goal after five minutes; by four points from Xavier Duursma's goal in the second minute of the second quarter; and by seven points with the pair of goals from set shots by Zak Butters and Jeremy Finlayson in the first six minutes of the third term.

But they were not always momentum-building starts. Adelaide always responded and took the lead, except in the third term when Port Adelaide stepped away from a slower and short-kicking game to maximise the advantage of the southerly wind.

The third quarter was different. The very sharp-moving Connor Rozee was on the end of three lightning plays inside-50 (for  two goals and a very narrow miss on a snap). Jed McEntee made Adelaide pay for a defensive error in the goalsquare. Former captain Travis Boak was perfectly placed at the gateway to goal for a set shot in time-on. Momentum was on - and the lead became 33 points (12.7 to 7.4). For the first time, the match seemed of Port Adelaide's making and for Port Adelaide's sure taking.

So much is noted of Port Adelaide's starts - or false starts, such as last week's failure to match Gold Coast's early intensity at the rain-soaked Metricon Stadium. Intent from the first bounce certainly was not in question this time; nor was Port Adelaide's eagerness for the contest (with a 38-33 advantage in contested possession at quarter-time).

But again the lack of quality finishing at the goalfront - and the challenge of moving through the stacked centre corridor guarded by Adelaide - did deny Port Adelaide any wind-assisted scoreboard advantage at quarter-time.  The six scores from 11 inside-50 entries - for 1.5 - came from four set shots, including Zak Butters' bold attempt from outside 50 after the siren; and two rushed behinds.

Adelaide also had 11 inside-50s and six scoring attempts during the term for 2.1 - and a two-point lead at quarter-time.

Structurally, Port Adelaide's most significant change to the team set-up used against Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium eight days earlier was in defence. With key defender Trent McKenzie working a full SANFL trial game at Alberton earlier in the day, Port Adelaide opted to work Tom Clurey in the key roles with captain Tom Jonas and Aliir Aliir.

In ruck, Port Adelaide paired the experienced Scott Lycett and SANFL club champion Sam Hayes - and again advanced Butters' development as a midfielder by having the eager 21-year-old at the first centre bounce. And defender Dan Houston's move to the midfield unit continues with his sharing the wings with Duursma.

The defence vacated by Houston is now the must-watch work zone of strong-bodied second-year half-back Lachie Jones. Be it by his eagerness to tackle opponents, his calmness in hot marking contests or the time he has to measure his kicks from defence, Jones is advancing his cult image by his football more so than his mullet hairstyle.

In attack, where Charlie Dixon remained unavailable while recuperating from ankle surgery, the new mix of tall targets was Georgiades, Greater Western Sydney recruit Finlayson and Todd Marshall. All three are on the goalscorers' list for a combined total of eight - Georgiades with four, Finlayson three and Marshall with a timely goal at the start of time-on in the last term when Adelaide had grafted to within 18 points of the lead.

Just as in the summer Showdown at Noarlunga Oval a year earlier, Aliir was the constant road block to Adelaide's sorties with a team-high five marks in the first term - including a courageous intercept on the outer side during the 17th minute.

Aliir's mark against oncoming rivals was followed with the first 50-metre penalty of a match that did have the umpires reaffirm they will be "hot" with their whistles this season. Only one goal - from Adelaide ruckman Reilly O'Brien in the second term - was scored from a 50-metre penalty suggesting the players on both sides have taken note of the crackdown on delaying tactics and umpire dissent.

The costly note from this closer to the pre-season is the early benching of experienced forward Robbie Gray, who felt his right hamstring while running in a play along the grandstand wing late in the first term.

The premiership-season opener is against Brisbane at the Gabba on March 19. Port Adelaide expects Dixon and midfielder-forward Sam Powell-Pepper (hamstring) to push for selection.

Port Adelaide    1.5       4.5     12.7   17.9 (111)

Adelaide              2.1      5.4       8.5    11.8 (74)

BEST - Port Adelaide: Butters, Wines, Georgiades, Rozee, Boak, Burton, Amon.

GOALS - Port Adelaide: Georgiades 4, Finlayson 3, Boak, Rozee 2, Amon, Butters, Duursma, Houston, Marshall, McEntee.

INJURY - Gray (right hamstring).