EIGHT is the magic number. Some will say this Port Adelaide-Richmond encounter is the classic "eight-point game"; that this round 13 match is effectively worth eight AFL premiership points to the winner while both clubs are chasing the same objective - a place in the top eight in September.
The winner only gets four premiership points to bank on the AFL ladder. But the loser would then need to find eight to restore its pre-game ambitions against the rival.
After resting at the weekend with the AFL mid-season bye, Richmond is 10th with 24 points; Port Adelaide is 12th with 20. The winner at the MCG under Thursday night lights will take a significant step towards recovering ground lost by poor starts to the home-and-away season (Port Adelaide 0-5, Richmond 1-3).
Richmond could widen the gap on Port Adelaide to eight premiership points.
Port Adelaide could finally square the ledger at 6-6 ... and become more than just a mathematical contender for the top eight. It would have the meaningful scalp of a team that might be considered "the most dangerous outside the top eight" today.
There are in fact eight premiership points - that will shape the final top eight - on the line in two Port Adelaide-Richmond clashes that will be played out across an eight-week gap. The first at the MCG on Thursday night; the second at Adelaide Oval in round 21 (with date and time still to be confirmed by the AFL working a floating fixture).
Eight is indeed the magic number.
THE RE-START
PHYSICALLY and mentally refreshed by the mid-season break, Port Adelaide resumes with 11 home-and-away games to play - and at least seven wins (plus some percentage) needed to be in the conversation for a top-eight finals berth.
Finding that momentum carries a big agenda for how Port Adelaide builds on the 5-1 win-loss record that followed the 0-5 start to the home-and-away season.
"For us, there are key areas (of focus)," says Port Adelaide midfielder Zak Butters. "Our contest work. The pressure we put on the opposition. When we have lost, it is because we have not brought a consistently high level of work at the contest.
"For our group, that contest work is the biggest thing - and that is what we are focusing on going into the back half of the year. We let it slip in the Essendon game (before the bye) and that runs the risk of putting ourselves in bad positions.
"Our group is on edge about that. We know we need to bring (the contest) every week. That starts with training at a high level."
For the record, Richmond ranks 13th of 18 for contested football this season (averaging 134.9 contested possessions) and Port Adelaide is 14th (134.7). It is a marginal difference by the statistics, but a major issue is deciding AFL games today even if the numbers are not always easy to read.
"It is a pretty accurate statistic (on a team's fortunes), even if there is more to contested possession than just a groundball fight," says Hinkley. "It is a lot more than that."
THE DUEL
PORT ADELAIDE has averaged 74 points in 11 games this season - down on last year's average of 84 and the club's lowest since entering the AFL. Having to rebuild the attack while waiting for All-Australian key forward Charlie Dixon to recover from two rounds of ankle surgery partly explains this.
Richmond is averaging 98 points this season, significantly up on last year's mark of 79. But now Richmond has to refashion its forward zone while dealing with the loss through injury of prime goalkicker Tom Lynch.
Dixon will play his second AFL game of the season - and there is the question of how his commanding presence in attack changes the dymanics for a midfield that had come to understand the differing ways to present opportunity to key forwards Todd Marshall and recently recruited Jeremy Finlayson.
"We have Charlie in the side for one game and there is the question, 'Are we too Charlie focused?'," Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley said. "That second half against Essendon was wet and slippery and the ball was kicked in deep - for both teams. That is the way the game is played (in the wet).
"We have worked hard to become more than Charlie. But if you think we are going away from Charlie too often, we're probably not. It is the way we like to play. It is the way we expect to play."
THE MATCH-UPS
OR is it THE match-up?
Richmond does test its rival with the puzzle of the extraordinary Dustin Martin, the Brownlow Medal-winning midfielder and Norm Smith Medal-winning opportunist forward.
If the once-in-a-generation 'Dusty" is in the midfield, there is the prospect of Brownlow Medallist v Brownlow Medallist, bull against bull with Port Adelaide vice-captain Ollie Wines.
And if Martin slips - as he does - to the space he finds inside-50, Port Adelaide has captain Tom Jonas, this week recognised with All-Australian premiership defender Steven May as the top-two backmen in one-on-one match-ups.
"Tom Jonas, Ryan Burton, Dan Houston ... we have good flexibility with our backs," Hinkley said of his options to deal with Martin.
"But 'Dusty' is a unique challenge; very much a unique challenge ..."
THE RIVALRY
TENSIONS - built on competitive spirits at both clubs - have bubbled between Port Adelaide and Richmond for some time off the field. There have been so many Port Adelaide people - from recruiting (Blair Hartley) to coaching (Damien Hardwick and Adam Kingsley) - at Punt Road, Richmond that there was to be an inevitable edge to the club's on-field contests.
And the past seven, from 2017 to today, have created some classic clashes decided:
BY seven points or less three times (one in favour of Port Adelaide)
BY three goals or less five times (two in favour of Port Adelaide)
BY four goals or less six times (three in favour of Port Adelaide)
BY more than six goals just once (by 38 points in favour of Richmond during the club's last encounter at the MCG in 2019).
The rundown of the past seven games, by margins, reads: two points (Port Adelaide), six points (Richmond in the 2021 preliminary final), 21 points (Port Adelaide), 38 points (Richmond), seven points (Richmond), 14 points (Port Adelaide) and 13 points (Richmond).
It is almost comparable to the Showdown rivalry.
"Definitely in the past few years with both teams up there on the (top of the AFL) ladder - and playing finals (the preliminary final at Adelaide Oval in 2020)," says Port Adelaide midfielder Zak Butters. "The games have been close.
"Richmond definitely is a good team - and with any good team comes a bit of a rivalry when you play against each other in big games that mean a lot.
"There is definitely some tension there. You don't like teams that knock you over in a final.
"This one is a big game - Thursday night ... and both teams need to win. We know it is a really important game for us."
THE 'G
IN the 26th season of Port Adelaide-Richmond encounters in the AFL, the battleground is the MCG for just the seventh time.
"Richmond are a scary proposition at the MCG," says Hinkley with the record books detailing Richmond has a 5-2 win-loss record at the 'G this season and a 51-2-14 win-draw-loss record since the start of its premiership run in 2017 (a phenomenal 76 per cent strike rate).
"Your best is the only way you have a chance."
Port Adelaide has two wins against Richmond on its home ground - and the cradle of Australian football - plus a draw that marked the final game of the "dark chapter" era concluded in 2012.
Port Adelaide last won against Richmond at the MCG - by 35 points - on April 30, 2016 with the survivors of that game being former captain Travis Boak, Brownlow Medallist Ollie Wines, defender Darcy Byrne-Jones, key forward Charlie Dixon and captain Tom Jonas.
For the record, Port Adelaide lost the contested-possession count 145-161 that Saturday night yet dominated the scoreboard, 13.16 (94) to 8.11 (59).
Of the 35 Port Adelaide-Richmond matches played for the AFL premiership since 1997, none has been decided by eight points. There always is a first time ...
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"This is one year when anything can happen."
Port Adelaide midfielder Connor Rozee on the wild ride to the 2022 AFL premiership.
BIRD SEED
(the little stuff that counts most)
Where: MCG
When: Thursday, June 9, 2022
Time: 6.50pm (SA time)
Last time: Port Adelaide 11.13 (79) d Richmond 11.11 (77) at Adelaide Oval, round 4, April 9, 2021
Overall: Port Adelaide 20, Richmond 14, one drawn
Past five games (most recent first): W L W L L
Scoring average: Port Adelaide 89, Richmond 84
Drawn game: Port Adelaide 16.10 (106) drew with Richmond 16.10 (106) at the MCG in round 23, September 2, 2012
Tightest winning margin - Port Adelaide by two points (32-30) at Football Park in round 11, June 12, 1999 and (79-77) at Adelaide Oval in round 4, April 9, las year; Richmond by four points (127-123) at Football Park in round 13, June 21, 2008
Biggest margin - Port Adelaide by 84 points (154-70) at Football Park in round 12, June 23, 2002; Richmond by 85 points (146-81) at the MCG in round 21, August 24, 1997
By venues: Adelaide Oval (5-4), Football Park (10-5), MCG (2-1-3), Docklands (2-2), Marrara Oval, Darwin (1-0)
By States and territories - South Australia (15-9), Victoria (4-1-5), Northern Territory (1-0).
Post-Match Function
Join fellow Port Adelaide supporters at our official post-match function after the final siren in the Ponsford Atrium. Access via level 2 of the Ponsford Stand.
Players will be in attendance for interviews.
