SHOWDOWNS, they say, defy form. That is a relief considering Port Adelaide is 0-2 (as is the opposition) and coming off a damaging 64-point loss at home six days ago.

Showdowns, they add, ignore the rankings on the AFL premiership table. Port Adelaide has never entered a derby from a lower position, 18th. But the derby history written since 1997 is loaded with memorable Showdown triumphs against a higher-ranked Adelaide.

Showdowns, we all know, are determined by what happens on the day - or the night with this being the first Friday night AFL derby in Adelaide. So the last-quarter loss under duress at the Gabba in round one and the dismay from last Saturday's home defeat from Hawthorn should not cast doubts on what Port Adelaide must do in Showdown LI.

"The Showdown is always motivating," says Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley.

Usually, it is about bragging rights - the status of the best AFL team in town as Port Adelaide has stood for the past four Showdowns to command a 26-24 lead on the ledger.

"But this is more than the Showdown for us," adds Hinkley of an agenda built on extraordinary reactions to a 0-2 start to the home-and-away season, despite Port Adelaide having claimed minor premierships in 2002 and 2003 after the same false starts.

"We are motivated by the need to respond for what happened last week."

ATTACK, ATTACK

For the second time in less than a year, Port Adelaide has to be creative with its forward set-up.

In round 18 last season, Port Adelaide was short of small forwards - no Robbie Gray, no Orazio Fantasia, no Zak Butters, no Connor Rozee - for the away clash with St Kilda at the Docklands in west Melbourne. A new-look attack built on talls and spearheaded by the four-goal Mitch Georgiades won this match by 13 points.

Now there is no All-Australian key forward Charlie Dixon (ankle), again no Gray (COVID protocols) nor Fantasia (knee) and the lack of goals from the new triple tandem of Georgiades, Todd Marshall and Greater Western Sydney recruit Jeremy Finlayson has forced a refit in the forward-50 arc.

Marshall and Georgiades remain - and Sam Mayes and Jed McEntee return to the line-up. The last time McEntee was in the Port Adelaide AFL team was that round 18 clash last year when necessity demanded an inventive approach to attack.

DEFEND, DEFEND

Team defence was betrayed last week when Port Adelaide conceded 9.1 from its forward 50 to a Hawthorn team that played Adelaide Oval as if the ground was a vast expanse.

Hawthorn also scored 24 points from regaining possession from Port Adelaide kick-ins after opposition behinds - a figure that is not true to Port Adelaide's defensive work of recent seasons.

"Team defence," says Port Adelaide defence coach Chad Cornes, "has for the past three to four years been really, really good ... at a higher level (than most in the AFL).

"But for the first two games it has not been at the level we need.

"The contest - what is happening forward of the (defence) - must be better. We must be better at holding the ball inside our forward 50.

"And if we do lose the ball in that forward 50, the intensity and energy to find an opponent has to be there so we get back to that strong forward half football that we have been known for."

Port Adelaide is without All-Australian defender Aliir Aliir who, with his strength of intercept marking, has been a thorn in Adelaide's search for effective entries. His absence while he recovers from ankle surgery - and as fellow key defender Tom Clurey recuperates from knee surgery - demands team defence be restored to the maximum while Adelaide deals with its own issues of poor scoring.

CONTEST, CONTEST

And do it with clean hands will be a critical theme taken from the Monday review at Alberton where Port Adelaide noted the usual barometers of winning clearances and contested ball was betrayed by simple ball-handling errors.

Statistics proved to be meaningless numbers.

So the challenge is with the Port Adelaide midfielder - Brownlow Medallist Ollie Wines, former captain Travis Boak and Karl Amon - to make their possessions count against an Adelaide unit that is drilled to be manic at the contest and is inclined to slow games by clogging space in the centre corridor.

Adelaide might - as its club legend Mark Ricciuto says - struggle to kick, handball and score goals. But Showdowns do ignore form, premiership ranks and recent games to leave coaches stoking a competitive tone from the competitors on both sides of the great derby divide.

BELIEVE, BELIEVE

Port Adelaide captain Tom Jonas is a pragmatic leader. As a defender he certainly - and at times to his detriment - plays without compromise.

At half-time of last Saturday's home opener against Hawthorn, Jonas walked to the Geof Motley race at Adelaide Oval - jeers echoing across the city ground while Port Adelaide stared at a 28-point deficit - with one clear focus:

"At half-time, there are still 60 minutes of footy to be played ... (our thoughts) are about how to rectify (the result); how to get yourself back in the contest."

Port Adelaide has 1600 minutes plus time-on to play in the 2022 home-and-away season. Eighty 20-minute quarters, starting with the first of Showdown LI in the premiere Friday night AFL derby played in Adelaide.

Catch-up football always is exhausting. But Port Adelaide has been here before - in 2002 and 2003 when 0-2 starts were converted to 18-4 finishes with minor premierships.

"When we walked off at full time (with a 64-point defeat) we knew we had disappointed a lot of the Port Adelaide supporters. We shoulder that disappointment ... it should burn with us as players.

"And it will drive us to be better."

Port Adelaide has never entered a Showdown from a lower ranking or with a poorer form line (0-2 equalling the winless start before the first derby of 2008) ... or with more questions of its own making. And yet it is the hot favourite to win Showdown LI.

This is not to say Port Adelaide has not been in a darker spot before a derby - like that record losing streak of 10 matches before upsetting the in-form Adelaide by 19 points at Football Park in round 17, 2010.

"We believe in this group," says Hinkley, "and we believe it will respond."

Showdown LI can make the start of a promising home-and-away campaign. But with at least 1600 minutes (plus time-on) still to play in Season 2022, the derby cannot make the end of the marathon to September.

THE BIRD SEED

(the small details that count)

Showdown LI

Adelaide v Port Adelaide, Adelaide Oval

When: Friday, April 1, 2022

Time: 7.50pm

Last time: Port Adelaide 7.13 (55) d Adelaide 7.9 (51) at Adelaide Oval, round 21, August 7 last year.

Overall: Port Adelaide 26, Adelaide 24.

Past five games: From the most recent, W W W W L

Scoring averages: Port Adelaide 87, Adelaide 90

Tightest margin: Three points, twice (Adelaide wins in Showdowns 39 and 45).

Biggest margin: Port Adelaide by 75 points in Showdown 48; Adelaide by 84 points in Showdown 43.

By the venue: Adelaide Oval, Port Adelaide 7, Adelaide 8; Football Park, Port Adelaide 19, Adelaide 16.