PORT Adelaide has had many faces this season.
Some have been worth admiring in the mirror, such as the appetite for contested football in the first three terms against Brisbane at the Gabba in the AFL home-and-away season-opener; and the nine-goal, second-half fightback against Carlton at the MCG; and the second-term blitz against West Coast at home at the weekend.
Some have been downright awful, such as the first half against Carlton; the goal-less first and last terms against Hawthorn and goal-less first half against AFL premier Melbourne, both at Adelaide Oval.
Others have been painful, such as the four-point loss in Showdown LI when Port Adelaide put 13.14 on the old scoreboard at Adelaide Oval - 4.7 in the second half.
After six rounds, with a 1-5 win-loss record, Port Adelaide is a tough team to read. Even this week's opposition, St Kilda, is struggling to make sense of the numbers collated so far this season.
"They are a hard team to scout at the moment," says St Kilda senior assistant coach Brendon Lade, a member of the Port Adelaide 2004 premiership unit.
"They've done a lot of things right, but their finishing inside-50 ... that is where they have let themselves down. That has changed recently with how they are going inside-50 - not bombing (to absent All-Australian key forward) Charlie Dixon and lowering the ball for Finlayson, Georgiades and Marshall.
"And they definitely have their forward-half game back."
Port Adelaide today needs consistency.
"The trick is to be consistent," Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley said on Thursday when he maintained the same 22-man line-up that beat West Coast by 84 points.
Port Adelaide returns to Queensland for this round seven match - for its first AFL home-and-away game at Cazaly's Stadium in tropical Cairns - with the need to find that consistent, contested football that defined the team in the first three terms against Brisbane at the Gabba (until the weight of injuries overwhelmed the team).
Consistency in contested football. Consistency in forward-half play. Consistency in team defence. Consistency full stop. Port Adelaide has worn many masks this season, but the template for its best football is well defined.
OPPO WATCH
ST KILDA is 5-1. There is consistency in that record.
The transformation of a St Kilda team that has worn the "erratic" badge for the past 18 months came from a solid pre-season in which senior coach Brett Ratten and his coaching team clearly defined - and simplified - each player's role in the team.
Champion Data notes there is much of the Port Adelaide trademarks in the St Kilda game this season:
St Kilda is ranked second in the league for forward-half intercepts (generating 35 points a match).
St Kilda is best in the league for turning inside-50 forward entries to a score (50.7 per cent productivity).
St Kilda is No. 1 - just in front of Port Adelaide - for scoring from forward-half chains (54 points a match).
St Kilda is ranked second for driving play from defence to inside-50 (completing the plays at a 47.9 per cent rate).
St Kilda will know it has changed if it can overcome its Port Adelaide block. The past 11 games have fallen 10-1 to Port Adelaide.
St Kilda's numbers in 2022 reflecting Port Adelaide tones might not be so surprising. Lade. Patrick Ryder. Dougal Howard. Jarrod Lienert. The path from Alberton to St Kilda is starting to resemble the one that made Port Adelaide-Essendon matches more interesting in the early 2000s.
BIG MEN
TROPICAL Queensland - with heat and humidity - can test big men when the ball is repeatedly falling to ground and slipping its way from contest to contest.
So what does Port Adelaide do with its three-tall combination in attack of Mitch Georgiades, Jeremy Finlayson and Todd Marshall? Georgiades, who has been close to the goalsquare for much of this season, played more outside the forward-50 against West Coast to help direct play to Finlayson and Marshall, who each finished with five goals. The conditions at Cazaly's might demand more of the same.
The most-absorbing battle of the game will be among the big men setting up the contests for the midfielders - three-game Port Adelaide ruckman Sam Hayes against the experienced Patrick Ryder (without Rowan Marshall as support while the St Kilda ruckman deals with a corked quad).
Lade, a member of the successful Port Adelaide ruck battery in the first 2000 decade, has taken particular note of Hayes. The Port Adelaide SANFL club champion ranks No. 2 in the AFL for hit-outs to advantage (average 28).
"(Injured lead ruckman) Scott Lycett averages 24 hit-outs a game; Sam Hayes, 33," Lade said. "I know Sam Hayes is a 'kid' as a 23-year-old ruckman who has been through a bit.
"But he can win hit-outs and he has a soft touch (with his taps). We're not taking him lightly ... we don't want Sam Hayes giving Ollie Wines and Travis Boak a good look at the ball."
SMALL MEN
PORT Adelaide's midfield is changing, just as intended and planned. More of Connor Rozee, who in the past fortnight against Carlton and West Coast has rewritten his personal bests with 21 and 31 disposals.
More aggressive counters to opposition midfields with Port Adelaide during the past month ranking as the league's best team for tackling opponents seeking to clear the ball from stoppages. The turnover game is hot again.
Port Adelaide last week started the game with the opening-bounce battery of Hayes, Rozee, Zak Butters and Brownlow Medallist Ollie Wines (who chalked up 36 touches in each of his games against St Kilda last season). Hinkley says this combination is built for today more so than offering a vision of the future.
"We are optimistic - as we always have been - around the younger group of midfielders we have coming through," Hinkley said.
"The team has not been absolutely flying and we have needed to use him (Rozee) in different spots (in attack) rather than our preferred spot. In the past couple of weeks we have been able to get him around the ball and Connor has added to us as a team."
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
ERIN Phillips returned to her family club this week to become Port Adelaide's first signing (for the second time, after doing such in December 2015) for the club's inaugural AFLW squad. Her vision of how Port Adelaide will present on the AFLW football fields is true to the theme expected of Port Adelaide at Cairns this weekend:
"... a team that takes the field that will compete hard and play the Port Adelaide way."
BIRD SEED
(the little stuff that counts most)
Where: Cazalys Stadium Cairns
When: Saturday, April 30, 2022
Time: 6.55pm (SA time)
Last time: Port Adelaide 10.14 (74) d St Kilda 8.13 (61) at the Docklands, Melbourne in round 18, July 17 last year
Overall: Port Adelaide 22, St Kilda 11
Past five games (most recent first): W W L W W
Scoring average: Port Adelaide 87, St Kilda 80
Tightest margin - Port Adelaide by two points (63-61) at Adelaide Oval, round 19, July 29, 2017; St Kilda by four points (64-60) at York Park, Launceston, round 16, July 23, 2006.
Biggest margin - Port Adelaide by 83 points (139-56) at the Docklands, Melbourne, round 3, April 14, 2002; St Kilda by 94 points (151-57) at the Docklands, Melbourne, round 19, August 8, 2010.
By venues - Adelaide Oval (Port Adelaide 6-1); Football Park (8-3); Docklands (4-3); Waverley Park (0-3); York Park (3-1); Jiangwan Stadium (1-0). First meeting at Cazalys Stadium.
By States - South Australia (14-4); Victoria (4-6); Tasmania (3-1); China (1-0).
