EVERYTHING about Port Adelaide's inaugural AFLW season has been rushed. Earlier than expected pre-season that started in July. A 10-game home-and-away season that has gone in a blink - and ended on Sunday with a tough 27-point home loss to fellow W newcomer Essendon at Alberton Oval.

And there was all that hasty - but unproductive - repetitive movement to attack that again left Port Adelaide with little emerging on the scoreboard.

Now there is a chance to take stock. And to breathe ...

Lauren Arnell's "Inaugurals" closed their first W season with a 1-1-8 win-draw-loss record that fell short of original hope and far from the appropriate reward for all the first 30-player Port Adelaide squad put into their chase for "herstory".

The story of Port Adelaide's first W season repeatedly centred on a team that did not translate its work on the field to the scoreboard. The first chapter ends with an exclamation mark on this crushing note from a high-energy but low-scoring team.

Port Adelaide avoided a no-goal game with Cheyenne Hammond clearing the zero in the goal column on the scoreboard with her opportunist goal late in the final term after Essendon had taken a commanding 33-point lead.

It was not the game to reward Rising Star nominee, teenage midfielder Abbey Dowrick for her 21 disposals (16 contested) and five clearances. Nor fellow Rising Star nominee Hannah Ewings for setting up five inside-50 entries. And certainly the game did not reward Jacqui Yorston for her strong tackling, all 10 of them. 

It was not the closing result needed to build hope for next season - nor to honour vice-captain Ange Foley in her 50th AFLW milestone game or for her commanding leadership in a new group.

Port Adelaide had started W Season 7 as the team most likely to finish highest among the four new entries that took the national women's league to the full house of 18 clubs. This honour will stay with Essendon that finished with four wins - and the hat-trick against fellow newcomers Hawthorn, Sydney and Port Adelaide.

It was a demanding day for all at Alberton, on and off the field where 2096 put their spirit into the contest while the Port Adelaide players won the valued key performance indicator of contested ball. 

By the calendar, this game was played on October 30 - a date that draws the expectation of a sunny Sunday afternoon at Alberton.

Instead, as Arnell noted, "we have a cake of soap in wet and windy conditions" that eased (at least with the rain) just before half-time. In dry conditions the game opened up with Essendon finding meaningful speed in space - and the reward of three goals during the drier second half.

Port Adelaide's attacking power was tellingly denied the go-to target of All-Australian forward Gemma Houghton who withdrew from the selected line-up out of concern with an upper leg muscle. Another West Australian, Julia Teakle, came into the game for her sixth match of the season - and first since the round 5 clash with Gold Coast in south-east Queensland.

Houghton's absence made Phillips' presence in the forward-50 arc more critical. The Port Adelaide captain had the first chance to put her team on the scoreboard - and perhaps score her much-awaited first goal in teal - early in the first term. She juggled and spilled a mark while diving forward, leaving the ball ultimately to fall to novice forward Lily Johnson for a rushed shot that veered right of the Tim Evans goalfront at the northern end. That behind was Port Adelaide's only score while Essendon had three shots on goal - two from free kicks with the first taken from the top of the 50-metre arc to the goalsquare on a seemingly hasty 50-metre penalty.

Port Adelaide won the territory battle, had more of the contested possessions (albeit by one) and was winning the clearances (6-4) in a game that demanded uncompromising commitment to Arnell's playbook. The coach was not pleased with the mix of 26 kicks and 14 handpasses in the first term saying "we overhandballed ... we need to be more direct".

The search for a kicking game was made difficult in the second term by Essendon's strong tackling at the contest where senior coach Natalie Wood put her most-assertive players. The Champion Data statisticians counted Port Adelaide relying on more handpassing than during the first term - 36 of them against 25 kicks.

The vast difference in the fortunes of the two teams - that gave Essendon an 11-point lead at half-time - is easily framed in the way they scored with contrasting ease and efficiency. Essendon was blessed - as noted with Daria Bannister's stunning snap from the boundary early during the second term and her equally impressive snap on on step from a marking contest at the start of the last term. Port Adelaide was cursed, or perhaps, punished for its own rushed stabs at the goalfront or poor calls to load up the forwards. Essendon's methods were neat; Port Adelaide was messy.

Port Adelaide dominated possession during the second term (61-35). It had the Sherrin repeatedly inside-50 (six times compared with Essendon's two). But where Essendon was quick and direct, Port Adelaide was hasty and far from threatening in loading up its forwards.

Essendon led by 11 points at half-time - and deserved its win for an assertive and effective game during the second half.

Phillips - yet again - was Port Adelaide's spirit and soul. She was the team's leading possession winner (six) in the first term when she drew the heavy shadow of the disciplined Ashleigh van Loon. She finished with 20 touches (15 contested), all influential and hard-earned.

The Olympian again went into ruck to ease the workload on fellow basketball convert Olivia Levicki who again won the hit-out count with 26 of Port Adelaide's 30.

Phillips again went into the midfield rotations with more minutes during the third term when Essendon was charged by the dominant play of Maddy Prespakis

And that week-by-week watch for Phillips' first goal as a Port Adelaide player seemed destined to end in the 11th minute of the last term when Jacqui Yorston set up the skipper with a set shot from the south-eastern pocket ... until her kick crashed into far goal post at the southern end. Some dream scripts never unfold.

Phillips started the year tested by the knee injury suffered early in the first game against West Coast at Leederville Oval in Perth. She finishes having played a dominant season with a team emphasis.

There will be more time to plan and prepare ... and perhaps less haste will deliver more for a team that is owed more than it collected in Season One.

PORT ADELAIDE v ESSENDON

PORT ADELAIDE   0.1    0.3    0.3   1.4 (10)

ESSENDON        1.2    2.2    3.6   5.7 (37)

BEST - Port Adelaide: Dowrick, Yorston, Phillips, O'Dea, Ewings, Levicki.

GOAL - Port Adelaide: Hammond.

INJURY - Gemma Houghton (quad) replaced in selected side by Julia Teakle.

CROWD: 2096 at Alberton Oval.

SEASON RECORD: 1-1-8 to rank 17th.