HERSTORY is made with Port Adelaide's first championship points in the AFLW - from a draw against Carlton.

"And it is a very odd feeling," says Port Adelaide AFLW captain Erin Phillips knowing no-one celebrates a tie, even if it delivers the landmark first AFLW premiership points in a team's story.

"It is an awkward feeling," added team-mate Jacqueline Yorston. "A draw is painful. You would rather win or lose."

Such remarks are from the disappointment of a team that worked so hard for its first win and fell short. But there is one point of celebration that will eventually sink in for Lauren Arnell's "Inaugurals" - the demanding early steps to that historic first win in AFLW certainly are taking Port Adelaide in the right direction.

"We keep building every week," said Phillips. "We are definitely making progress."

"We're playing more and more of our game," added the bullish Yorston.

There is no club song to blare out for the first time in victory. But there are signs of a team in the making, moment by moment.

Highly touted South Australian junior Hannah Ewings announced herself on the AFLW stage at Ikon Park.

Indy Tahau is emerging as a perceptive intercept defender who will not be pushed off the ball nor ever show fear in a contest.

And the Port Adelaide defence has a woman on a mission in Ebony O'Dea, who forced - with her assertive marking - Carlton to concede star Darcy Vescio from a forward role to the wing after watching its main scorer virtually shut down.

Maria Moloney and NAB Rising Star nominee Abbey Dowrick will torment rival midfielders with their sharp work around the clearances.

And when Port Adelaide needed a new target in attack, Jade De Melo put up her hand - and had the Sherrin stick.

As Phillips says, "We are definitely making progress."

Port Adelaide made this game turn in its favour with a four-goal blitz in the second term. It did not score another goal after the 17th minute of the second term. It added only one behind in the second half. A team that can outpoint the opposition on inside-50s - 33-24 in this game at Ikon Park in Melbourne - is not being rewarded on the scoreboard.

Port Adelaide's start - compared with Carlton's two-goal opening - did highlight the difference between the raw energy of a new team making its way in a new league and the well-worn system of a side in its seventh AFLW league. The same might be said of the finish in which Carlton ultimately pulled the contested game back to its terms and won territory.

Experience does count. Carlton has been in AFLW since the start. It had the team's "soul" Vescio playing their 50th AFLW game; one of three 50-game milestones for the Victorian team. And for all the list-management havoc created by expansion, the "connection" between the Carlton players remains at a level that defines the gap between an "experienced" team and an "inaugural" team.

To break these well-established chains and links in the Carlton side, Port Adelaide needed to take its pressure game to extremes. Manic tackling that finished with a 67 count for a Port Adelaide team that is becoming known for this critical feature of Arnell's playbook. The gameplan also demands hard running to close down space. And hardness where it counts most - at the contest.

At quarter-time, Port Adelaide was winning the clearances (by three). But it was overwhelmed by Carlton's dominance on disposal (+30) by being first at the football - and tellingly in contested plays off the ruck battles, particularly in the aerial game. It was Ewings setting the agenda at ground level with an extraordinary game that began with a seven-touch first term. She finished with a team-high 21.

No-one could question Port Adelaide's work ethic, as noted by the strong tackling numbers - and the hyper-enthusiasm to run down Carlton players, a theme that repeatedly was penalised with high-contact free kicks.

The measure of Port Adelaide's promise was in having more inside-50s ... but it could not make this advantage count, unlike Carlton which set up its two-goal start with a strong kicking game that was capitalised with three marks inside the forward-50 arc at Ikon Park.

Port Adelaide did move Phillips from midfield roles to work deep in an attack that has been denied the strength and go-to target of Gemma Houghton by ankle surgery and now gains the experience and leadership of an AFLW superstar.

But Port Adelaide's 0.1 start - and scoreless last term - is the signal that enthusiasm needed to be matched by system.

"We have to get the ball in more dangerous spots - and create the contest," Arnell said of the adjustments needed after a no-goal first quarter while Carlton was working two extra players in the defensive half.

Instructions were followed to the letter from the start of the second term with Port Adelaide's four goals of the term built with contested work to and at the goalsquare.

Phillips' handball from a behind post to basketball convert Olivia Levicki in the goalsquare gave Port Adelaide its first goal. Margin, six points in Carlton favour.

Debutante Jade Halfpenny's long kick to the goalsquare was finished with Fremantle recruit Jade De Melo's flat-footed, reactive snap from the goalsquare. Game level.

De Melo's goal from a set shot was built on Phillips winning a clearance and midfielder Maria Moloney's perfect pass inside-50. Margin, six points in Port Adelaide's favour.

Moloney put her name on the scoresheet with a set shot after winning a holding-the-ball free kick - at the end of Port Adelaide's most-promising play of pin-point passing from a defensive rebound. Margin, 12 points in Port Adelaide's favour.

"We've shown we have the fight in us," said Justin Mules at half-time when Port Adelaide had doubled Carlton's score, 26 to 13. "We are playing our style of footy."

Port Adelaide's style is contested football. It is the measure of the club's fortunes in the AFL. It defines the AFLW team as well.

After losing the contested numbers by eight in the first term, Port Adelaide dominated in this key category during the second term. At one stage, with a strong-tackling pressure game, there was a +26 surge in contested football from Arnell's Inaugurals. And, in contrast to the first term, it was translating to the scoreboard.

Port Adelaide scored 4.1, turning a 12-point deficit into a 13-point lead after its most-impressive quarter of 16 played in AFLW football.

Carlton stood still - and failed to score.

"Job still needs to be done," said Hammond. The lesson of Port Adelaide conceding a two-goal lead at three quarter-time to West Coast in the season-opener in Perth lingers...

As to be expected, Carlton responded matching Port Adelaide in the contest - but not finding the same power to set up a kicking game as it did in the first term.

And Port Adelaide stood firm, conceding one goal but failing to take advantage of its own rushes to the goalfront where it had put the Carlton defence to the test with 27 inside-50s.

De Melo had Port Adelaide's two chances to score in the third term.

Her first, from a push-in-the-back free kick on the boundary, finished out-of-bounds on the full with her checkside kick hitting the behind post.

Her second, after taking two bounces while running from outside 50 to the goalfront, would have created a perfect highlight to put on an endless loop on any social media site. The running kick, sadly, missed.

Port Adelaide's lead was gone with 8:53 to play in the last quarter after Carlton opened the last term with three consecutive behinds. Rather than become a team playing with haste and apprehension, the Port Adelaide players showed composure that is not associated with a new team with so many inexperienced players.

It was 27-27 entering the last minute.

Still 27-27 with 10 seconds to play with a stoppage at the top of Carlton's 50-metre arc - and a free kick conceded by Kate Surman to Carlton first-game Lily Goss with three seconds to play. The set-shot from 40 metres fell short ... and both Carlton and Port Adelaide will feel short changed for their efforts in a match that proved again that the contest decides so much.

On that front, contested possessions finished at 100-100. A draw. How the footy gods work!

CARLTON v PORT ADELAIDE

PORT ADELAIDE      0.1   4.2  4.3   4.3 (27)

CARLTON            2.1   2.1  3.1   4.3 (27)

BEST - Port Adelaide: Ewings, Tahau, O’Dea, Dowrick, Moloney, De Melo, Surman, Foley, Phillips.

GOALS - Port Adelaide: De Melo 2, Levicki, Moloney.

INJURY: Nil.

Played at Princes Park, Carlton, Melbourne.

NEXT: Sydney at Alberton Oval on Saturday, 12.40pm start.