Ngadlu Yartapuulti. We are Port Adelaide ... and the team that refused to lose belief at 0-5 is now 5-6 and has more reason to believe the best is still to come.
At the very least, there is the thought that Ken Hinkley has a team that is up for the fight when the script gets messy ... as it did at Adelaide Oval once the rain arrived for Sunday twilight football at the end of the Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous round.
Port Adelaide closed the first half of the home-and-away series keeping itself in the conversation as a potential AFL top-eight finalist by beating Essendon by 16 points in a game that went from "safe" with a 31-point lead at half-time to "complicated".
It became more complicated when the goalscoring accuracy of 8.4 in the first half was followed up by a wasteful 1.8 on a damp Adelaide Oval where no goal was scored by either team in the last term. Sam Powell-Pepper came closest by hitting the post at the northern end.
Port Adelaide takes home four invaluable premiership points - and the reassuring thoughts its willingness to be resilient holds up in difficult circumstances. There also is another example of how the contested-ball barometer is so decisive in Port Adelaide games with this key performance indicator swinging during the game.
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Port Adelaide ultimately won this count 140-129 with Brownlow Medallist and vice-captain Ollie Wines showing the way with 18 contested possessions - 10 in the first half when the agenda had to be set.
The chase for at least 12 wins to be a finals qualifier would seem to carry greater optimism for a team that is regaining key players - and that has never lost focus nor the want to work harder to clear away the mess of the 0-5 start.
Port Adelaide showed some of its best ball movement of the season in the dry first half. It kicked with precision to players finding the right spots. It was accurate on the scoreboard. It had crisp plays - none sharper than those of defender Dan Houston's whose kicking to advantage and to a team-mate remains at an extraordinary efficiency rate of 82 per cent.
However, the rain that had the Port Adelaide coaching staff concerned from Monday did change so much after half-time. It made for a game that would be decided on the ground - and further complicated by that contentious rule on "insufficient intent" with plays that finished out of bounds. The chase for territory with a rushed kick off the ground became a risky play.
Port Adelaide was challenged in the wet after half-time by Essendon scoring the first three goals of the third term. Essendon later had the margin at just eight points as a reward for winning the territory battle under rain until time-on. No surprise that Essendon won the contested barometer 43-26 in this drenched quarter.
The new-look attack featuring the return of All-Australian key forward Charlie Dixon did not crowd the stage for fellow tall forwards Todd Marshall nor Jeremy Finlayson. The second-half rain did challenge this theme, however.
Marshall is more and more interesting to watch, even when a kick away from the play - either looking for the hole in a zone defence or to mark a defender. And with Dixon back in command of the goalsquare and the pockets, Marshall is starting to show that Justin Westhoff theme of covering more territory.
As a new combination, this trio delivered four of Port Adelaide's nine goals. They had 4.1 on the scoreboard in the first half. They managed no score during the second half.
Dixon's return for his first AFL game - after two rounds of ankle surgery from a pre-season training accident and two recent SANFL matches - finished with 2.0. Finlayson and Marshall scored a goal each.
It took 15 minutes for Dixon to remind all why he can lead the AFL for contested marks. He held off Essendon defender Jake Kelly to grab the long pass from Connor Rozee just outside the goalsquare - and kick his first AFL goal since last year's preliminary final. His second goal, from a free kick after being pushed in the back by Essendon opponent Jayden Laverde, also was from a set shot at close range to open the scoring for the second term.
Dixon went to the bench late in the second quarter as his minutes were managed. He was there for more time during the second half when it was tougher for Port Adelaide to move the ball to his domain at the goalsquare.
After the most-watched round of weather forecasts - "I have (monitored the forecasts) since Monday this week ... wondering what is it going to look like," Hinkley said in the pre-game - the match started at 4.10pm under a tame sky. There was even sunshine. No rain, no gusty winds from the north with the flags at the Oval's northern end moving gently ...
Port Adelaide captain Tom Jonas was left, after losing the toss, to have his team start by attacking the southern end - leaving Essendon with the last-quarter advantage of the anticipated pick up in wind speed.
The conditions certainly played no part in the strange opening. The weather gods left it to the football gods - and 44 men with differing playbooks. They left the field at half-time - with Port Adelaide leading by five goals - with a dry track. They returned at 5.30pm with Adelaide Oval being drenched.
In the dry, the attacking paths of the two teams could not have been at greater extremes at the opening. Port Adelaide worked to finding its forwards and they delivered four goals from six shots; Essendon left its forwards facing very hard work with misguided delivery - and worked their first "goal" with six consecutive behinds.
Essendon's first three forward sorties ended with kicks that went twice out-of-bounds on the full and once bounced out of bounds. Port Adelaide's first four had the usually accurate Todd Marshall miss his set shot from 20 metres, Connor Rozee scored the opening goal from 35 metres, Charlie Dixon not hold a mark on the fringe of the goalsquare and Jeremy Finlayson nail his set shot.
Port Adelaide had seven goals from six players before Essendon had its first goal, 12 minutes into the second term with Andrew Phillips finishing a set shot after being found inside-50 by Archie Perkins. At that stage, Port Adelaide led by 30 points (7.2 to 1.8).
In the wet, Essendon adjusted better - and Port Adelaide developed the scoring yips. Essendon significantly changed the tone of the game with its four-goal third term while Port Adelaide achieved only 1.4 from its six attempts to score - and a moment for the blooper reel when ruckman Sam Hayes celebrated an opportunistic kick at the goalfront thinking he had scored a goal when the ball had previously crossed the goal line before Dixon tapped it to Hayes.
Port Adelaide's start - that delivered four goals - was to be judged as a response to last week's key issues from the 35-point loss to Geelong at Kardinia Park, particularly in the contested numbers. The 22-point lead was achieved without winning a centre clearance (0-5) despite Sam Hayes setting up a win on hit-outs (6-5), losing the clearances 3-12 overall but winning the contested possessions by three, 33-30.
The contested pendulum turned to Port Adelaide favour at half-time when the home team had extended its lead to 31 points despite Essendon having the advantage on inside-50 entries (26-20). Remarkably, Essendon had missed every shot from close range and scored its two first-half goals from opportunities near the top of the 50-metre arc.
For all the talls to support Sam Hayes in the ruck duels, half-forward Sam Powell-Pepper remained in the ruck rotations while having to battle Essendon captain Dyson Heppell when inside-50.
Powell-Pepper had three shots on goal in three minutes during the second term, scoring 1.2 but showing the enthusiasm that has underwritten his return to top form after a challenging 2021 season. He even survived - probably won - the head-on collision with strongly built Essendon ruckman Sam Draper midway through the third term.
Port Adelaide enters the bye ranked 11th - a win outside the top eight - and with Richmond next on the agenda at the MCG on Thursday week.
PORT ADELAIDE v ESSENDON
PORT ADELAIDE 4.2 8.4 9.8 9.12 (66)
ESSENDON 0.6 2.9 6.12 6.14 (50)
BEST - Port Adelaide: Wines, Rozee, Butters, Houston, Powell-Pepper, Amon, Marshall.
GOALS - Port Adelaide: Dixon 2, Butters, Dumont, Finlayson, Marshall, Motlop, Powell-Pepper, Rozee.
INJURY - None.
MEDICAL SUBSTITUTE: Lachie Jones (not activated).
CROWD: 25,877 at Adelaide Oval.
NEXT: After the bye, Richmond at the MCG on Thursday week.
