With the conclusion of Port Adelaide's inaugural AFLW season, the club has closed out the 2022 chapters across three different leagues for the first time in its history. Image: Matt Sampson.

PORT ADELAIDE's longest season in Australian football is done and dusted. From the club's AFL season-opener against Brisbane at the Gabba on Saturday, March 19 to the AFLW season-closer against Essendon at Alberton Oval on Sunday, October 30 the Port Adelaide name was on scoreboards in three leagues chasing premiership points in 50 matches across 225 days.

In total, 16 wins (10 in the AFL, five in the SANFL and one in the AFLW), plus a draw ...

On field, the challenge to chase greatness remains - and Season 2022 came and went with considerable frustrations.

In the AFL, the 0-5 win-loss count at the start of the home-and-away campaign tested the merit and strength of the football program. The ability to adapt, put the team back in the equation for AFL finals through the middle stages of the season and finish with a Showdown victory as the farewell to the legendary Robbie Gray suggests the program is sound.

The continued rising star of Connor Rozee in the midfield, the confirmation of Todd Marshall as a critical piece in the Port Adelaide attack and the versatility of Greater Western Sydney recruit Jeremy Finlayson were the major success stories of the individuals in a squad tested to the limits by injury. 

Jeremy Finlayson's emergence as an effective ruckman was a strong positive out of Port Adelaide's 2022 AFL campaign. Image: AFL Photos.

In the SANFL, the balance between winning and development has changed the context of Port Adelaide's place in the State league. The debate on where Port Adelaide fits in the second-tier of Australian football continues.

In the AFLW, the challenge of establishing a new squad in record time - while W's Season 7 was advanced from early 2023 to late August 2022 - proved too much for a new Port Adelaide team that never lacked for effort and commitment. The AFLW program also gave new spirit with old traditions on match day at Alberton Oval. No-one wants to live in the past, but the occasional visit to the ways of Port Adelaide football before the AFL era does no harm. In fact, it ensures the club does not lose its true meaning to its fans.

If there is no premiership to crown the season, the measure of any year with Port Adelaide is answered by noting if there is a better football club at Alberton.

Port Adelaide is complete with the advent of the AFLW team. Lauren Arnell's "Inaugurals" quickly embraced and appreciated all that has been before them at Port Adelaide since 1870 and at Alberton Oval since 1880. They have made Port Adelaide a bigger and stronger football club.

The Port Adelaide faithful sing 'Never Tear Us Apart' at Alberton for the first time in Port Adelaide's historic first AFLW match at Alberton. Image: Matt Sampson.

Port Adelaide is - after the COVID pandemic reinforced the need for stronger connections with the fan base - answering the call for a modern social base with the redevelopment of the so-called Precinct. And the bulldozers are busy clearing the eastern flank of Alberton Oval to advance and enhance the training facility and the Port Adelaide Football Club's deeper connection with the local community with new infrastructure.

It is just the beginning.

The frustration within sections of the supporter base while a team that qualified for consecutive AFL preliminary finals in 2020 and 2021 to become an also-ran in 2022 is understandable - and to be expected at a club that exists to win premierships.

The hope demanded for this anxious membership certainly was delivered in the recent AFL trade period with the arrival at Alberton of 2021 No. 1 draftee Jason Horne-Francis from North Melbourne and livewire forward Junior Rioli from West Coast after the squad lost Gray and Steven Motlop to retirement.

Jason Horne-Francis and Junior Rioli come into the 2023 side after losing Robbie Gray and Steven Motlop to retirement. Image: Matt Sampson.

There is the general impression Port Adelaide has a better chance to contend in 2023 in an AFL competition that is more and more competitive each season.

The SANFL squad will work to new recruiting rules, allowing for more progress in the challenge of mixing an agenda built on development with the historic demand to succeed in the State league.

And there is no doubt the experiences from the inaugural campaign in the AFLW - and the extra time to work on the issues highlighted in 10 games this season, in particular the need for conversion to the scoreboard - will be critical in advancing the women's program, along with the longer lead-in to W Season 8.

Port Adelaide's inaugural AFLW side has embraced both the new and the traditional ways of the club. Image: Matt Sampson.

But there is no guarantee in a game that presents the challenge of winning premierships to equate with scaling Mount Everest.

Ken Hinkley starts his 11th season as Port Adelaide AFL senior coach needing his squad to rise from "good" to "great". The style of football Port Adelaide plays next season will create much anticipation and generate much debate, particularly in how the team defends. Its attacking power should not be in question.

Lauren Arnell will prepare for her second year as Port Adelaide AFLW senior coach needing her squad to change from always trying to win to actually winning. She has a squad designed for sustained success. The names of Ewings, Dowrick, Tahau, Yorston and Surman will carry Port Adelaide to the top of the mountain in the same way Tredrea, Wilson, Burgoyne, Cornes and Lade became the spirit of Port Adelaide's rise to the breakthrough AFL premiership in 2004. ‘Herstory’ is definitely in the making.

It was a long and challenging year in 2022. It tested everyone's patience and faith. It demanded so much of so many when AFL clubs are still settling the base after the cuts imposed during the pandemic.

The mission statement in 2023 remains to chase greatness.

Port Adelaide is a better football club today. It is still not the football club everyone at Alberton wants, but it is better placed to be that club in 2023.

And now for 100-or-so-days waiting for the chase of greatness to play out on the fields of the AFL, SANFL and AFLW again.