SAM POWELL-PEPPER is physically in the best condition of his 25 years. He looks his leanest and strongest since he became an AFL footballer at the age of 19.
Mentally, "SPP" also is in his strongest - and least volatile - place since his pre-teenage years when he was not certain where he could call "home" in Western Australia while he moved from parents to grandparents to guardians at Wesley College in Perth.
And emotionally, the Perth-born Powell-Pepper is in his happiest place at his football home at Port Adelaide. Here, he has met the challenges of the "tough love" directed at him at the end of the 2021 season - and at his new home in Adelaide's western suburbs he has the true love of his partner Brya Waghorn and 11-month-old daughter Frankie who have changed his life.
So, since he returned from his self-exile from football at the start of 2021, the physically sounder and mentally tougher Powell-Pepper has played 44 consecutive AFL matches. He has become a key part of Port Adelaide's game. More importantly, he has triumphed over his own demons - and those thrust in his way, sometimes most unfairly, by others in a football landscape that can often resemble a circus.
"I have learned a lot along the way," says Powell-Pepper of his tough education in football and life and everything that clashes between a highly scrutinised game and a not-so-private life.
"I have learnt a lot about myself ... and I have had to learn quickly, often on the go. I have definitely come out the other side as a better person and as more of a leader."
Powell-Pepper today can reflect with the wisdom of experience and hindsight of an AFL landscape that tests all. The make-or-break way of a professional sporting career is not always about how you perform on the field. But that chase for a regular AFL berth is a character test.
"It is tough," says Powell-Pepper. "You can build confidence so quickly by getting a couple of games in a row ... and once you have one bad game, everyone goes against you. It does knock your confidence around a bit and your belief. But with time, you trust the process and it all falls into place as you build new confidence and belief.
"If you have Kenny as a coach and these boys supporting you, it is easier to get through. Everyone will go through that little (bad) patch. You just have to push through it."
Powell-Pepper's call to Port Adelaide as the No. 18 pick in the 2016 AFL national draft came while list-management decisions at Alberton were focused (but not exclusively) on snaring experienced recruits such as Jack Watts, Tom Rockliff and Steven Motlop in the 2017 trade period. Senior coach Ken Hinkley did not stray from his long-standing philosophy of giving elite young talent an early look at the big boys on the national stage.
"It's been long (since that start in November 2016)," says Powell-Pepper of his seven years at Port Adelaide. "But it also has been quick ... "
Some scars have healed quickly too. And the memory does not fade amid all the mind-numbing moment Powell-Pepper has endured. He still carries a vivid recollection of his first training session in the 2016-17 summer at Grange Oval and the inspiring challenge (or opportunity) Hinkley put to him.
"I met Ken for the first time when I came back to the club ... he welcomed me with open arms," says Powell-Pepper, "and I remember exactly what he said:
'Do you want to play round one?'
Powell-Pepper did not blink nor hesitate at such an invitation to live his dream at the first chance. It is just as many fans would expect from the kid who confidently threw his weight around the football field as one of the so-called "Bash Brothers" with Ollie Wines.
"I said, 'Yep'," recalls Powell-Pepper.
"Ken then asked, 'Can you play tough?'
"I said, 'Yeah'.
"And Ken (finished the challenge) with, 'That's all you have to do'."
Powell-Pepper played that season-opener at the SCG notably kicking two goals in the 28-point win against Sydney. He had the AFL Rising Star nomination after that game ... but he was not always glowing under stellar skies across the next three years leading up to his 100-game milestone in round eight last season.
Powell-Pepper dug some of the pot holes himself. Some eagerly wanted to bury him, as noted during his AFL-imposed exit from the big stage for a long Saturday night on Hindley Street after a day game won by five points against Brisbane at Adelaide Oval early in the 2018 season.
Powell-Pepper could play tough on the football field - and deal with the consequences of ruffling feathers among bigger and older opponents. But when it became rough off the field, Powell-Pepper did become lost. He stepped away from Alberton at the start of the 2021 season. He was on the edge.
"It is hard when you are thrown into the spotlight," Powell-Pepper said. "I have had to learn on the job from my mistakes. Not everyone is perfect. There has been a few hiccups along the journey. But I feel there have been more positives than negatives.
But they have not always been kind at Alberton where Port Adelaide football chief Chris Davies closed the 2021 season with the public declaration Powell-Pepper needed to present for pre-season training in ideal shape - physically and mentally - or his time would be cut short as an AFL player at Port Adelaide. More confronting headlines stared at SPP.
Sometimes you do need to be cruel to be kind.
"I like people being straight and honest with me," Powell-Pepper said. "It does not bother me. I know I had to change a few things in my life. It was nothing I had not heard before. There were some harsh truths. I took them head-on. I feel I came back to have a good year.
"I love that 'tough love'. That is when you know people care for you. They actually love you. It was a good wake-up call."
Powell-Pepper has a much different life off the field today. He has stepped away from the edge. His life is complete.
"I have my own little family outside of footy now " he says, "and I feel that has helped me with my footy ... and as a leader.
"When I did not have a partner or a little one, I cruised along. Brya has been the rock for me for the past two or so years. She has really helped me become the person I am now. And Frankie coming along has been a big help as well. It grounds you. It gives you a purpose and meaning in life."
Today, Powell-Pepper's headline acts are as a decisive half-forward who can apply attacking and defensive pressure.
"With a bigger body," says the 187-centimetre tall Powell-Pepper, "I like to bash and crash as an inside midfielder. But running capacity and my fitness has built up across the past three or four years. I feel that works well with the half-forward role I play. I can burst out and get back and I feel my goal sense is pretty good too.
"I have worked quite a bit on my goalkicking," adds Powell-Pepper who has scored 79.94 in his 120 AFL matches. "I worked with Nathan Bassett when he was the forwards coach and he helped me a lot to understand the half-forward role. I feel I am pretty much all over it now and have become a key part of the forward line."
Clubs - and their changerooms - change too, particularly in an AFL systems that demands delistings and sets up temptation at the trade table each October.
"We have a new culture, with younger, strongly driven players such as Connor Rozee," Powell-Pepper notes of the new generation picking up the rope coiled by Travis Boak and Co. a decade ago. "Me, Todd Marshall, Willem Drew - lads who were in the same draft - we have been through a lot along the way. But those coming behind us have made a big shift in how the club looks."
Players in a professional code also get tempted to change clubs, particularly if there is a go-home factor attached to the money and the promise of more opportunity. West Coast was strongly linked to a trade play for Powell-Pepper at the end of 2021 ... or maybe not.
"West Coast might have shown a little bit of interest, but at my end I was not interested," Powell-Pepper said. "I have always loved Port Adelaide and I would have never left. I was mad about West Coast when growing up in Perth, but they passed on me in the draft and I am even happier to be where I am now - at Port Adelaide."
