PORT ADELAIDE has the longest current winning streak against Sydney: Five consecutive triumphs since 2017 - starting with back-to-back victories at the SCG followed by three in a row at Adelaide Oval.
Next best against a team admired across the AFL for being tough to beat, tough in its approach to contested, one-on-one football and superbly consistent in its work? Streaks of one by Brisbane, Carlton, Gold Coast, St Kilda and the Western Bulldogs.
"We have a great record against Sydney ... and, hopefully, we maintain that record against them," says Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley.
Extending the run to a club record six would say plenty of 12th-ranked Port Adelaide stepping up to the challenge of competing against the AFL's flagbearer on contested football. It also would address the most-pressing issue that Port Adelaide needs to get its win-loss count in the black during the second half of the home-and-away series if it is to play in September.
Port Adelaide returns to Adelaide Oval for the first time since May 29 when it closed the first half of the 2022 campaign with a 16-point win against Essendon. It is 5-7 today, three wins outside the AFL top eight (with a game in hand) - and needing at least seven wins from 10 games to advance to its third consecutive top-eight AFL finals series. Percentage (currently 103) also needs to be healthier considering there could be a massive jam in the race to eighth position at the end of the home-and-away series.
Sydney coach John Longmire is not underestimating Port Adelaide.
"Since Round 6 they’re five (wins) and two (losses)," Longmire said. "Their ability to be able to stop the opposition scoring, they’re the No.1 team in the competition at it. Their record really from that Round 6 moment onwards has been very good so we’ve looked at that and can see they’re doing a lot of things right."
OLD AND NEW
NTUA will end with a former Port Adelaide ruckman staring at a new Port Adelaide ruckman for the first centre bounce of this game that starts at 1.15pm.
In the red corner for Sydney will be 202-centimetre Peter Ladhams who played 32 AFL matches in three seasons for Port Adelaide before being traded at the end of last season.
In the teal corner for Port Adelaide will be 203-centimetre East Fremantle recruit Brynn Teakle wearing the No. 27 jumper just two weeks after being called from the WAFL in the AFL mid-season rookie draft.
Sydney could not call up Tom Hickey (turf toe) to support Ladhams.
Port Adelaide has key forwards Charlie Dixon, Jeremy Finlayson and Todd Marshall - plus half-forward Sam Powell-Pepper - ready to be the support act for 22-year-old Teakle.
Acutely aware of Port Adelaide's need to score more - and have more scoring options against a team noted for its defensive strengths - Hinkley is wary of the need to have his forwards working around the goalsquare rather than the centre square. Last week, against Richmond, Finlayson and Dixon delivered as a ruck duo to ensure Port Adelaide won the centre clearances on the MCG.
But the combined scoring of Finlayson and Dixon was 2.1 in a game decided by 12 points, against Port Adelaide.
"Brynn Teakle's selection allows us to play our forwards (Finlayson and Dixon) as dangerous players as much as we possibly can and score. We are trying to increase our scoring capacity with the players who are available to us at the moment."
This challenge is tougher by the absence of specialist forward Robbie Gray (knee) and former captain Travis Boak (COVID protocols) while goalsneak Orazio Fantasia remains on the comeback from a quad injury.
And Ladhams?
"(Playing against your former team) is an event most players want to get out of the way and move on," Hinkley notes. "Some play well ... some don't. He is an opposition player now ..."
STYLE COUNCIL
SYDNEY has changed from the team that built is reputation on one-on-one contests and dour defence - and had AFL boss Andrew Demetriou in 2005 describing to-be premiership coach Paul Roos' gameplan as boring.
Port Adelaide is trying to find the scoring edge that made it the AFL's best team for forward-half play.
In 2019, Sydney averaged 78 points - and conceded 79, albeit in a season of rare failure with an 8-14 win-loss record. Today, Sydney scores at a 93-point average and is still tight in defence conceding 78 points on average.
"One thing with your game plan," says Sydney assistant coach Dean Cox, "is you want to make sure you can do all three phases (defence, midfield and attack) well. You need to attack to be able to defend behind it.
"We still want to be a team that is hard to score against. Part of that is, how fast do you want to go with the ball, are you more composed, you have to take what the opposition give you but you need to make sure you are doing it in a manner that you can set up behind the ball as well."
The opposite has unfolded at Port Adelaide.
In 2019, Port Adelaide averaged 82 points; this is a club-low (in AFL matches) of 74 today. Defence is still sound with 71 points being conceded compared with 78 in 2019.
"We do need to put some scoreboard pressure on, particularly against a side like Sydney which is a great attacking side and have been really strong defensively," says Hinkley. "Your balance has to be right both ways."
The lead-up to the match has revealed a mutual admiration between the Harbor City and Alberton.
"They are a pretty good team - and club," said Hinkley. "They are the club I always seem to talk about that I like a lot in the way the club is run. You understand why they are such a great organisation.
"And we understand the challenge they will place upon us this week. It is a challenge we are more than capable of overcoming.
"They look like a pretty good team at their best, but everyone does at their best. We are going to be searching for those chinks in their armour. We have a good understanding of how they like to play. Hopefully, we can maximise our ability to play the game at our level."
Cox admires the Port Adelaide that delivered league-best forward-half pressure to dominate the inside-50 count.
"The best team in the competition (for defence by attack) has been Port Adelaide - and they are trying to get back to that," Cox said. "It worked well for so long by their ability to get the ball in their front half and set up to get repeat (forward-50) entries."
BAROMETER
EVERYONE now measures Port Adelaide on contested football, even if it has become a simplified barometer looking solely at contested possession (rather than including the contests that do not make it to the Champion Data statistics).
In the five consecutive wins Port Adelaide has had against Sydney, the barometer has read -
Round 15, last year (Port Adelaide won by 10 points) - 154-148 in Port Adelaide's favour.
Round 14, 2020 (Port Adelaide by 26 points) - 140-117 in Port Adelaide's favour.
Round 21, 2019 (Port Adelaide by 47 points) - 154-149 in Port Adelaide's favour.
Round 2, 2018 (Port Adelaide by 23 points) - 175-164 in Sydney's favour.
Round 1, 2017 (Port Adelaide by 28 points) - 161-139 in Port Adelaide's favour.
STRANGE THING
HINKLEY last week gave his thoughts on how to restructure the lopsided AFL fixture. If AFL executive Travis Auld picks up the telephone for more consultation, there might be reason to ask why the league fixture has become like a broken record in placing Port Adelaide-Sydney matches.
From 2015-2018, all four clashes between the two clubs were at the SCG.
Since 2019, every match has been at Adelaide Oval with today's encounter making it four in a row.
BUDDY FACTOR
HE'S back ... from suspension, refreshed and still posing a major threat as a power forward at the age of 35. Lance Franklin will play his 19th match against Port Adelaide (against whom he has a 9-9 win-loss record spread across Hawthorn and Sydney).
Franklin has kicked 60.39 (out of a career 1023.711) against Port Adelaide.
Franklin kicked 4.2 in the last Port Adelaide-Sydney match played at Adelaide Oval in round 15 last season. Tom Clurey and former Sydney defender Aliir Aliir - along with captain Tom Jonas - will not be short of massive tasks in dealing with Franklin and the other tall options in the Sydney attack that includes first-round draftee Logan McDonald and Sam Reid.
BY THE NUMBERS
IF Sydney carries the reputation (with Geelong) of being the AFL's most-competitive and consistent team, let the numbers from the past five seasons count:
HOME-AND-AWAY - Sydney, 50-45; Port Adelaide, 59-36.
FINALS - Sydney, 1-3; Port Adelaide, 2-2.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
BIRD SEED
(the little stuff that counts most)
Where: Adelaide Oval
When: Saturday, June 18, 2022
Time: 1.15pm (SA time)
Last time: Port Adelaide 12.9 (81) d Sydney 10.11 (71) at Adelaide Oval in round 15, June 26 last year.
Overall: Port Adelaide 12, Sydney 20.
Past five games (most recent first): W W W W W
Scoring average: Port Adelaide 80, Sydney 91.
Tightest winning margin - Port Adelaide by two points (94-92) at the SCG in round 15, July 14, 2002; Sydney by four points (98-94) at the SCG in round 13, June 14, 2014.
Biggest winning margin - Port Adelaide by 72 points (132-60) at Football Park in round 12, June 13, 2004; Sydney by 67 points (100-33) at the SCG in round 20, August 6, 2016.
By venues - Adelaide Oval (3-2), Football Park (4-7), SCG (5-11).
By States - South Australia (7-9), New South Wales (5-11).
