EVERYONE knows how Port Adelaide plays ... the "Port Adelaide way". And everybody also is aware of how the Port Adelaide AFLW team pays dearly for straying in patches from this trademark.

Port Adelaide's disappearing act - particularly during the third term when senior coach Lauren Arnell noted her team's failing to stand firm on the Port Adelaide way - is the key note from the two-point loss to St Kilda at Moorabbin in suburban Melbourne on Sunday afternoon.

Despite holding St Kilda scoreless in the last term, Port Adelaide could not bridge the four-point gap created after giving up a 12-point lead at half-time.

There were chances late in the game to set up the first win on the road in AFLW company, starting with Kate Surman's set shot - albeit from a fair distance after winning a free kick for her tackling - with six minutes to play.

There was the "dream script" finish on the cards when captain Erin Phillips took a phenomenal one-handed mark under enormous pressure at the top of the 50-metre arc. Her "team first" pass to key forward Gemma Houghton gave the All-Australian a set shot to be the match hero with three minutes to play. The Fremantle recruit's kick was touched on the line, denying Phillips and Houghton the winning play to secure Port Adelaide's second win in the AFLW ... and the perfect finish to Houghton's 50th national league game.

Port Adelaide's review of this match will be another of those painful learning experiences that were inevitable in the team's inaugural season.

Lauren Arnell's "Inaugurals" found a way to impose themselves after being caught on the back foot in the first term. They fought until the end, as demanded in the "Port Adelaide way".

But the third term - in which St Kilda repeatedly locked the ball in its forward half - was the 17-minute period that consigned the Port Adelaide to its seventh loss in nine matches while St Kilda broke a six-game losing streak.   

Port Adelaide is now 1-1-7 with the inaugural campaign closing next Sunday with a home clash against fellow league newcomer Essendon at Alberton.

Port Adelaide started this Round 9 clash as the favourites. But St Kilda began with the scoreboard ascendancy.

The chess game between two coaches - Lauren Arnell at Port Adelaide and Nick Dal Santo at St Kilda - was as fascinating in its unfolding and its twists and turns while each team worked to differing themes to create momentum.

St Kilda built a wall in defence, yet started the game with offensive power and the goalscoring yips.

Port Adelaide opened with eagerness to play physical, contested football - and the well-known need to be smarter in how the Sherrin moves from the contest to a goalscoring opportunity inside-50. It will hurt the players' pride in their review this week to note that St Kilda won the contested count 100-89 ... and made it known with a lippy tone late in the game at Moorabbin.

Port Adelaide gave up three scores (1.2) from St Kilda's first three inside-50 entries as Alex Ballard's defensive unit was put under early (and constant) pressure from St Kilda's hot start. St Kilda scored from all of its first eight inside-50 entries - for a far-from-efficient 2.6 (with two hit posts) that spared Port Adelaide from being blitzed on the scoreboard. By contrast, Port Adelaide had just four inside-50 entries during the first term - and the need to get captain Erin Phillips out of attack and around the contest to stop St Kilda winning the territory battle.

The scoreboard had Port Adelaide staring at just a five-point deficit at quarter-time after spending most of the term in the back half of the field at Moorabbin.

Midfielder Hannah Ewings, the biggest ballwinner in the first term, opened Port Adelaide's scoring with a set-shot goal after winning a holding-the-ball free kick while forward Jade de Melo converted with a banana kick after being sent on the run by a sharp handpass from Kate Surman late in the term.

Defence dictated after the opening term - until Port Adelaide dismantled St Kilda's defensive wall with a faster, longer game.

"St Kilda flooded our forward 50," noted Port Adelaide midfielder Jacqui Yorston. "They sent a couple of mids, a couple of wingers behind the ball. We need to be clever in looking for our scoring options."

Port Adelaide broke the vice with three goals in the final three minutes by playing long and fast - before the spares could move into their defensive roles.

Facing a six-point deficit, Port Adelaide changed the game in a blink to lead by 12 points at half-time. Kate Surman took the spoils off a pack and went to goal without thinking twice. Just 21 seconds later, second-game forward Lily Johnson had her second goal, this time on the run after being set up with a neat handpass from vice-captain Ange Foley while the Port Adelaide forwards found imposing links with each other - greater connection, as the team has craved. And in the last minute, All-Australian forward Gemma Houghton stood firm in a marking contest for a trade-like mark-and-kick set shot.

"We started on the back foot - but once our mids won the ball, the forwards got to work," said Houghton, who marked her 50th AFLW milestone with 1.1, six disposals, two marks and the understanding the Port Adelaide attack cannot be solely about her talents as a beacon forward.

Half-time did not serve Port Adelaide well as a stop on the telling momentum the "Inaugurals" found late in the second term.

In a repeat of the first term, St Kilda dominated territory - with 99 per cent of the play in the St Kilda forward half in the first 10 minutes of the third term when Port Adelaide's lead was wiped out quickly. St Kilda had the game level at 31-31 with the early third-term goals from Darcy Guttridge and Hannah Stuart ... and then followed up with that first-quarter inefficiency by scoring three behinds, the first from Port Adelaide defender Indy Tahau making a timely touch on the goal line.

Unlike the first term, there was no scoring from Port Adelaide this time ... feast turned into famine very quickly again. No score - and a four-point deficit after St Kilda dominated in every key performance indicator. Arnell's notes at three quarter-time were loaded with red ink for alarms on the statistic sheets - none more concerning than St Kilda having an 81-67 lead in contested possession.

"We needed to get back to our brand of footy; we went away from that," said Arnell. "Winning stoppages is where it counts."

Port Adelaide did win the clearance count in the end, 27-24 after it was locked at 19-19 at three quarter-time.

Port Adelaide dominated the inside-50s during the last term, 6-3. But this counter was lost 23-25 during the match with Arnell again watching opposition teams prefer to play spares in defence to take advantage of the slightest breakdown in play inside Port Adelaide's forward-50 arc. This is a significant "take-out" note for Port Adelaide's coaching staff to assess in the lead-up to next season.

Olivia Levicki's conversion from elite basketball to Australian football continues to rise to stronger levels each week. Her dominance of front position in field ruck contests with St Kilda rival Simone Nalder. Levicki again chalked up big hit-out numbers - 39 of Port Adelaide's 40 hit-outs (the 40th claimed by Phillips in a ruck contest near goal late in the match).

Phillips was again a dominant team player working under duress in this match. She played with her left knee strapped and was off the field late in the third term with concern for the same knee. She started the match as a forward, in a telling match-up with Nicola Stevens. As has been the way of recent weeks, Phillips was moving into the midfield in stages - and making a difference in Port Adelaide's movement from stoppages. She did play out the match, finishing with 21 disposals and still with the watch continuing for her first goal in Port Adelaide colours.

ST KILDA v PORT ADELAIDE

PORT ADELAIDE   2.1      5.1    5.1    5.3  (33)

ST KILDA        2.6      2.7    4.11   4.11 (35)

BEST - Port Adelaide: Phillips, Ewings, Levicki, Moloney, Tahau, Surman, Yorston.

GOALS - Port Adelaide: De Melo, Ewings, Houghton, Johnson, Surman. 

INJURY - Phillips (left knee).

NEXT: Home-and-away season-closer v Essendon at Alberton Oval on Sunday.