FOOTBALL clubs ultimately are measured at differing extremes. When their teams are successful, everyone judges a club by its humility. When their teams fail, the test is of the club's unity and strength amid adversity.

Port Adelaide on Thursday night measures itself against the defending and unbeaten AFL premier Melbourne at Adelaide Oval. Not since 2008 has Port Adelaide started an AFL campaign with a 0-4 win-loss count.

While the team searches for its first win after three differing losses to Brisbane, Hawthorn and Adelaide in the home-and-away series, there also will be a watch for how the club - internally and externally - deals with the challenge and the result, win, draw or loss. There will be a national free-to-air television audience this time.

Will Port Adelaide be admired for being calm and purposeful while working through a test that is far more than a judgment moment of senior coach Ken Hinkley? There is a vast difference between being ruthless and reckless.

In every decade since the 1940s, Port Adelaide has been worked over by a significant moment that - after putting its people through a dark tunnel - has made for a better and stronger football club. The winter of 1990 that dramatically changed (or confirmed the ambition of) the Port Adelaide Football Club - and South Australian and national football - quickly comes to mind.

As an anthem or mantra - Never Tear Us Apart - carries greater significance on Thursday night.  

So there is more than a football match to be played out at Adelaide Oval against Australia's oldest football club, the grand ol' Melbourne that last season ended a 57-year drought (or curse) to be champions again.

After an eight-year refit - and a few hiccups along the most-demanding path in Australian football - Melbourne has built a formidable line-up with almost perfect balance. The key pillars are among the game's best - defenders Steven May and Jake Lever; the ruck tandem of Max Gawn and Luke Jackson; the midfield engine that draws the Rolls Royce label with Christian Petracca, Clayton Oliver and Jack Viney and a firing attack with Tom McDonald, the opportunist Bailey Fritsch and the option of either Sam Weideman or Ben Brown.

Melbourne is an ultimate measuring stick.  

CHARACTER TEST

MANY statistics are on offer to stand in judgment of Port Adelaide today. A genuine litmus test for any ambitious team is the AFL premier.

Since the Hinkley era began in 2013, Port Adelaide has put itself to the test against the defending AFL premier 10 times in home-and-away contests. It has triumphed in nine of these significant on-field moments - and all of the past five.

Port Adelaide has stood up against AFL premiership units that were not in hangover mode - such as Hawthorn during its three-peat from 2013-2015. While Alastair Clarkson’s empire was standing on top of the mountain in 2015, Hinkley engineered two significant wins against Hawthorn at Adelaide Oval and at the Docklands in west Melbourne while the pressure was on at Alberton.

Port Adelaide worked a match-appropriate game plan - the "dirty ball" tactics in the wet - to defuse the proven West Coast defence led by Shannon Hurn and the intercept master Jeremy McGovern in the new Perth Stadium when the West Australian powerhouse was defending its premiership in 2019.

History calls again.

"It would be a great result if we could do it again," says Hinkley as Port Adelaide prepares to seek its 10th win against a defending AFL premier under his watch. "We are an honest team. If we can call on history, we would like to call on that record ..."

AGAINST THE CHAMPS

Port Adelaide's record in home-and-away matches against the AFL defending premier since Ken Hinkley was senior coach from 2013.

2021 - Richmond

Beaten by Port Adelaide by two points at Adelaide Oval

2020 - Richmond

Beaten by Port Adelaide by 21 points at Adelaide Oval

2019 - West Coast

Beaten by Port Adelaide by 42 points at Perth Stadium

2018 - Richmond

Beaten by Port Adelaide by 14 points at Adelaide Oval

2017 - Western Bulldogs

Beaten by Port Adelaide by 17 points at Ballarat

2016 - Hawthorn

Defeated Port Adelaide by 22 points at Adelaide Oval

2015 - Hawthorn

Beaten by Port Adelaide by eight points at Adelaide Oval and 22 points at the Docklands

2014 - Hawthorn

Beaten by Port Adelaide by 14 points at Adelaide Oval

2013 - Sydney

Beaten by Port Adelaide by 18 points at Football Park

10 tests against the premier - nine wins, one loss

IN THE MIDDLE

AFTER the misleading numbers from the round 2 clash with Hawthorn at Adelaide Oval, the barometer became trustworthy in Showdown LI. The most-watched again is "contested possession" (lost 134-140 to Adelaide in the derby).

Every stoppage number - ruck hit-outs and hit-outs to advantage with Scott Lycett and Todd Marshall against Max Gawn and Luke Jackson, clearances, centre clearances, all clearances - will be red flags for Port Adelaide's test against the Melbourne midfield that challenges the Western Bulldogs for the best engine room in the 18-team league.

So how do Hinkley and his midfield coach Brett Montgomery deal with Petracca, Oliver, Viney and James Harmes - along with the ground covered or gained Ed Langdon and Angus Brayshaw?

If every Port Adelaide midfielder is acting as a shadow on a Melbourne rival, the game falls into a stalemate waiting for a mismatch, an injury or cracks.

"We are going to take them on," Hinkley said. "And we understand the size of the challenge. We also have good midfield depth to mix and match through there.

 "We have great faith in the people we have around the ball. They will give us an even look at the ball when we get our chance to play.

"The best teams in the competition have more than one midfielder (to watch as a game-breaking threat). And if you (lock down or tag) one, the others gets you. And, hopefully, it is the same for them (in dealing with Brownlow Medallist) Ollie Wines and Travis Boak. And Zak Butters. And Connor Rozee. And Willem Drew.

"We are not frightened by the names of the Melbourne midfielders."

Every contested ball denied to Melbourne, every stoppage taken from Melbourne has to be measured by an accurate score on entering the new-look forward-50 - and sounder team defence if spilled on the way to the goalfront where Port Adelaide will again work the Mitch Georgiades-Todd Marshall tandem. But there will not be experienced forward Robbie Gray nor All-Australian key forward Charlie Dixon forcing Port Adelaide to again be creative with its set-ups to work against the May-Lever partnership in the Melbourne defence.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK

FOR those who thought - and still think - Port Adelaide was too ambitious when it put up its "Chasing Greatness" aspirations that includes the want for three premierships in five years, the final word goes to Liverpool Football Club legend Bill Shankly:

"Aim for the sky and you'll reach the ceiling. Aim for the ceiling and you'll stay on the floor."

BIRD SEED

(the little stuff that counts most)

Where: Adelaide Oval

When: Thursday, April 7

Time: 7.10pm (SA time)

Last time: Port Adelaide 8.7 (55) lost to Melbourne 12.14 (86) at Adelaide Oval, round 17, July 8 last year

Overall: Port Adelaide 22, Melbourne 14

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

Scoring average: Port Adelaide 94, Melbourne 82

Tightest margin - Port Adelaide by three points (72-69) at Adelaide Oval, round 18, July 20, 2014; Melbourne by one point (111-110) at Marrrara Oval, Darwin, round 9, May 22, 2010.

Biggest margin - Port Adelaide by 89 points (163-74) at Football Park, round 17, July 29, 2007; Melbourne by 53 points (124-71) at the MCG, round 4, April 17, 2004.

By venues - Adelaide Oval (3-2); Football Park (11-2); MCG (3-8); Marrara Oval, Darwin (1-2); Traeger Park, Alice Springs (3-0); Gabba (1-0).

By States and territories - SA: 14-4; Victoria: 3-8; Northern Territory: 4-2; Queensland: 1-0.