Port Adelaide is graded with the second toughest draw in the 2022 AFL fixture - and arguably the toughest opening assignment of the home-and-away season.
It is Brisbane, a top-four rival Port Adelaide has not beaten since early April 2018.
It is on the road, at the Gabba where Port Adelaide has not won against Brisbane since late April 2017.
It is a match-up - and occasion - that demands Port Adelaide find its best from the opening bounce at 7.40pm on Saturday ... a challenge senior coach Ken Hinkley has embraced while every pundit and critic prepares to have his team defined by its first game of the home-and-away season.
"Every game allows you to consolidate who you are - and what you want to be," Hinkley said at Adelaide Airport while loading a 26-man travel squad to Brisbane. "We have to make sure we are at our absolute best because, clearly, we are playing a very strong side.
"Brisbane has been that good side for a lot of years under Chris Fagan. Brisbane in Brisbane is a tough task for any club - and look forward to that task and we are excited by that challenge."
Port Adelaide is pressed to end a four-game losing streak - with three defeats at the Gabba - to Brisbane. And there is the question of the team's slow starts that have been costly against Brisbane in the past four encounters that have been decided by 49 points last year, 37 points in 2020 and 48 and 17 points in 2019.
"Brisbane has been able to dominate us around the footy a little bit," acknowledged Hinkley. "They have had power in their front half. None of this is new to us. None of (Brisbane's strong suits) are unexpected.
"So our challenge is to respond with our absolute best. We need to play at our best.
"At our best, we can challenge any side in the competition - not just Brisbane."
At selection, Port Adelaide has called up father-son draftee Jackson Mead for his AFL debut and forward Jeremy Finlayson for his club debut after his 66 league games at Greater Western Sydney.
Finlayson, as the most experienced key forward among the trio that includes Mitch Georgiades and Todd Marshall, will lead an attack that could not include All-Australian Charlie Dixon (ankle) and opportunist forward Orazio Fantasia (knee) who have a combined record of 272 AFL games and 433 goals.
Finlayson and Marshall also will support lead ruckman Scott Lycett, a change up to last year's model that involved Peter Ladhams (traded to Sydney).
"We are very optimistic with what we have in our front half," Hinkley said. "We still have Robbie Gray. Finlayson comes in (to work) with Georgiades and Marshall. There is plenty of talent there.
"Kicking winning scores is not always about (individuals). And to have one or two (regular) players missing from a line-up will be - more than ever - quite usual this season (with COVID close-contact health protocols)," added Hinkley reinforcing the squad theme still rules at Alberton.
Port Adelaide has flown to Brisbane with all four emergencies - the versatile Sam Mayes, untried ruckman Sam Hayes, midfielder-forward Steven Motlop and former Brisbane defender Sam Skinner.
Motlop falls out of the 22 after playing 19 senior games last season with Hinkley saying the 31-year-old needs "to play with consistent form".
"Steven was unfortunate that he was away for our last trial game (against Adelaide at Richmond Oval) and that made it more challenging for him," Hinkley said of Motlop who was signed to a one-year deal during the off-season. "He knows where he is at and exactly what is expected of him. He has been a high-class performer for us over the journey and we expect he will be able to do that again for us this year."
Hinkley declared the extended travel party was to cover the unexpected - particularly with COVID protocols - rather than any injury concern with the selected 22.
"We are settled and ready to go," Hinkley said. "But who knows in this world. It is unusual for us to take all four emergencies. But with the COVID pandemic - and the case numbers rising - you never know."
All four emergencies are in sound form to sit on the bench as the medical substitute. The telling call at selection is the faith being shown in 24-year-old Skinner who played three games in four seasons at Brisbane (2017-2020) - and endured three knee reconstructions.
"Sam is right in the mix," Hinkley said of the athletic, 198cm defender. "Sam has done himself no harm by the way he has performed during the pre-season. But to be fair, Trent McKenzie (who joins captain Tom Jonas and All-Australian Aliir Aliir in the key defensive roles) has had pretty consistent form in that position himself."
Hinkley dismissed doubts on Finlayson's health.
"He had a little incident yesterday with his back," Hinkley said. "He has pulled up fine (on Friday morning). Everything is okay. The team doctor rang me this morning to say there is no problem and Jeremy is ready to go.
"It would have been disappointing for Jeremy (had there been a late setback after a sound pre-season)."
After two difficult seasons with a serious pre-season injury and no chance to play in the SANFL State league in 2020 by the COVID protocols, Mead follows his father Darren into the Port Adelaide AFL line-up. The midfielder-forward carries the same reputation as his defender father who was Port Adelaide's inaugural club champion in 1997.
"Jackson is a tough, hard insider who can use the ball really cleanly on both sides of his body," Hinkley said. "He is quite unique in today's game by being so talented on both sides of his body. What I love the most is he competes, he competes really hard and is fierce at the contest.
"He can play midfield, forward, inside, outside, on the wing. And last year, when he got back from his injury, he was playing on a half-back flank. He has lots of flexibility.
"He has come back from a big injury, sometimes a life-threatening injury (a ruptured spleen in a trial game at Noarlunga Oval during last year's pre-season). That was not his only challenge (such as being denied football with the COVID lockdown in 2020). As a developing player, the opportunity to play was not always there."
"It is a fantastic story because Darren played in the first of our AFL teams," added Hinkley of the accomplished centre half-back who became the first Port Adelaide player to achieve the 100-game milestone with the club in both the SANFL and AFL. "To be our first father-son from the AFL era (following Brett Ebert from SANFL legend Russell Ebert) is a really important moment for our football club. It is a great story and I am pleased for him - and his family.
"It is a special moment for a coach (to tell a player of his debut)," added Hinkley of Thursday's pre-training team meeting at Alberton. "There are plenty of difficult moments as a coach, but the special ones are telling players of their first game. Unfortunately, there is not enough of them ..."
Port Adelaide's top draftee from the 2021 recruiting calls - teenager Josh Sinn (No.12 pick in the national draft) - did have his name on the selection whiteboard at match committee this week.
"He was really close, 100 per cent (for his AFL debut)," Hinkley said. "Josh has just missed this week. And it will not be long before Josh Sinn plays AFL for Port Adelaide. He is travelling with us that tells you he is close (to selection)."
Port Adelaide's record in season-openers under Hinkley since 2013 is eight wins and just one loss (to 2015 minor premier Fremantle by seven points at Subiaco Oval).
But Hinkley knows a season is measured across 22 rounds rather than the first match of a new season that has as many as 14 of the 18 teams considered contenders for the top-eight finals in September.
"To draw too many conclusions in round one is dangerous," Hinkley said. "Everyone wants to start well. Everyone expects to start well. I have said forever since I have been in the game that you have to let a few rounds unfold before you get carried away with what is going on.
"Everyone wants to see their best pre-season training transfer (to wins for premiership points). We are no different."
