"WE will win."

Port Adelaide captain Tom Jonas could not have been more emphatic. He leads a football club that lives by the mantra of "expect to win". He expects Port Adelaide to win against West Coast in Saturday evening's Anzac clash at Adelaide Oval, snapping the 0-5 start to the AFL season.

Not since the third Super Bowl in 1969 - when New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath "guaranteed" his underdog team would win the biggest prize in American football - has there been such a bold declaration.

And 18th-ranked Port Adelaide does need to win.

Remarkably for a team that is placed last with a 0-5 win-loss record, Port Adelaide carries expectation even outside the clubhouse at Alberton. It is heavily favoured to beat West Coast for the first time at Adelaide Oval on Saturday evening.

Port Adelaide is coming off a nine-goal, second-half fightback against Carlton at the MCG on Easter Sunday. West Coast (1-4, 16th) had its own first-half horror show last weekend when it was scoreless in the first term and did not put a score against Sydney until Liam Ryan kicked a goal in the 18th minute of the second term.

Both teams have been significantly challenged by injury and/or COVID protocols. But there still is proven talent on each side to build a challenging - and winning - game plan.

Port Adelaide adds to its midfield with the return of Brownlow Medallist and vice-captain Ollie Wines and the speed and long kicking of wingman Kane Farrell, who returns for his first AFL game since having reconstructive knee surgery in early July last year.

West Coast still has the double threat of key forwards Josh Kennedy and Jack Darling, who have thrived in space at Adelaide Oval (most notably Kennedy with his seven of the team's 14 goals in 2016). This duo is still working to a midfield that ranks first for generating scores from centre clearances - the work of Elliott Yeo, Tim Kelly and Luke Shuey.

Both teams are working to new-look ruck units - Port Adelaide giving Sam Hayes his first AFL game on Adelaide Oval; West Coast calling up former Fremantle-listed ruckman Luke Strnadica to become the 11th club debutant of the season.

Jonas' confidence follows a week of intense scrutiny at review and feedback sessions at Alberton. There is no doubt the Port Adelaide players know where their once much-admired game - noted for the powerful rebound from half-back, league-best numbers for locking the ball in forward half and the ever-reliable barometer winning contested ball - has broken down this season.

Those once damaging chains from the defensive half have dried up to deliver a league-low average of 15 points in the past four matches; contested ball has made up only a third of Port Adelaide's possessions (ranked 16th of 18 in the league) - and until the third term against Carlton last week, Port Adelaide has struggled to keep the ball in its forward half.

This week Port Adelaide plays a West Coast line-up that has made hard work of getting the ball out of its defence - and for the past month West Coast has had the least inside-50s.

Port Adelaide's second half against Carlton was the stark contradiction to all the bad numbers on the Champion Data analysis sheets - figures (such as Port Adelaide averaging a league-high 40 disposals to score a goal) that were boiled down at Alberton this week while the players searched for answers on the triggers between their best and worst form.

 "You saw what we were capable of in the second half (against Carlton), but you also saw what we did in the first half," Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley said. "We can't do any more (analysis). It is now about taking the next opportunity."

Jonas says Port Adelaide will.

"He expects us to win," said Hinkley admiring Jonas' assertive prediction for this match. "We always expect to win at Port Adelaide."

Namath lived his guarantee in Super Bowl III leading the Jets to a 16-7 win against the more-favoured Baltimore Colts. It was the first time a team from the old AFL had beaten a rival from the supposedly superior NFL in the Super Bowl.

Port Adelaide needs some history in the making.

HOME, NOT SO SWEET

PORT Adelaide has called Adelaide Oval home again for nine AFL seasons now. And it is still waiting for the first win against West Coast at Adelaide Oval.

This is the first game between the clubs at Adelaide Oval since August 11, 2018 when West Coast won by four points. Before this, West Coast won the 2017 elimination final in extra time by two points; by 10 points in May 2017; eight points a year earlier and by 10 points in May 2015.

The other statistical note from these Adelaide Oval games is neither Port Adelaide nor West Coast has cracked the watershed 100-point barrier in these five games (with West Coast getting closest at 97 points in round 7, 2017).

West Coast premiership captain Shannon Hurn, a South Australian, suggests his team's favourable record at Adelaide Oval is from "matching up quite well with Port Adelaide".

"Everyone talks about finding familiarity with the ground," Hurn said, "and Adelaide Oval is roughly the same in dimension as to what we had at Subiaco Oval (in Perth). We have always wanted to play well when away (from Perth) and Adelaide Oval is a ground that suits the way we play. We've also matched up well with Port Adelaide."

FORM LINES

FIVE games makes for a decent sample. But in West Coast's case, the form question is complicated by COVID protocols that forced the West Australian club to delve into top-up players for the away clash with 2021 wooden spooner North Melbourne.

Port Adelaide is 0-5 with losses (in reverse order) to Carlton by three points, AFL premier Melbourne by 32, Adelaide by four points, Hawthorn by 64 and Brisbane by 11.

West Coast is 1-5 with the win by 13 points on the road against Collingwood. This followed losses to Gold Coast (27 points), North Melbourne (15) and Fremantle in the Western Derby (55). With no score in the first quarter and just two goals to half-time, West Coast fell by 63 points at home to Sydney at the weekend.

LEST WE FORGET

ANZAC traditions run deep, from the very start of the Anzac story in 1915, with the Port Adelaide Football Club. For the 18th time in 19 years (with 2020 being the exception with the COVID-enforced shut down of the AFL season), Port Adelaide will pay tribute to the Anzacs of yesteryear and the Australian Defence Forces of today with this home match at Adelaide Oval.

"We always honour and respect the day," Hinkley said. "We are really honoured as a football club that we have this game. We want to do the day proud.

"We have great history as a football club - as do so many clubs - with players and officials who became soldiers and some who paid the ultimate sacrifice. We want to make sure we represent the whole Anzac tradition in the way we should.

"We have so many (Anzac) stories we can reflect on. And now we have the words of (Military Medallist) Bob Quinn on our jumper. We acknowledge Anzac Day very well."

"Always give more than anyone else ..."

Bob Quinn.  

BIRD SEED

(the small stuff that counts most)

Port Adelaide v West Coast

Where: Adelaide Oval

When: Saturday, April 23, 2022

Time: Match starts 4.05pm (SA time), Anzac observance ceremony 3.50pm

Last time: Port Adelaide 11.5 (71) l West Coast 16.12 (108) at Perth Stadium, round 4, April 3 last year

Overall: Port Adelaide 20, West Coast 16

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

Scoring average: Port Adelaide 91, West Coast 84

Tightest margin - Port Adelaide by one point (61-60) at Football Park in round 20, 2010; West Coast by two points (57-55) at Football Park in round 11, 1998.

Biggest margin - Port Adelaide by 112 points (163-51) at Football Park in round 22, 2001; West Coast by 117 points (179-62) at Subiaco Oval in round 10, 2005.

By venues - Football Park: Port Adelaide 10-3; Adelaide Oval: 0-5; Subiaco Oval, Perth:  8-6; Perth Stadium: 1-2.

By States - SA: Port Adelaide 10-8; WA: 9-8; Queensland: 1-0.