DO you believe now?

Port Adelaide has spent much of this AFL season dismissing the doubts. No victory in the pre-season foreshadowed just five of the 17 rival AFL captains predicting Port Adelaide would return to finals action in September.

And then there was Port Adelaide's opening - against a demanding fixture - with a 1-2 win-loss count which included that Showdown defeat that could draw comparisons with Armageddon. 

Today, as Port Adelaide prepares to resume from the mid-season bye, the spoils from a club AFL record 11-game winning streak flips the storyline from despair to promise:

ONE win from qualifying for the top-eight finals series after the longest home-and-away season in the game's history,

FOUR victories from locking a top-four berth to the finals for the third time in the past four years,

SIX wins from securing a top-two ranking - and a home qualifying final.

"And," says Port Adelaide football chief Chris Davies, "we still have growth within us."

Port Adelaide's 12-2 lead-up to the bye - that ends with Saturday's trip to the MCG to play Essendon in another "double-up" match - marks the club's best opening to an AFL season since rising to the national league in 1997.

It is better than anything produced during the premiership-building years under Mark Williams when Port Adelaide had a phenomenal four-season run in the home-and-away series - 2001 (9-5 after 14 matches for a 16-6 finish); 2002 (11-3, 18-4); 2003 (10-4, 18-4); 2004 (10-4, 17-5).

It surpasses the 11-3 of the COVID-trampled and shortened season of 2020 when Port Adelaide last won the minor premiership with a 14-3 win-loss count. Or the 10-4 of 2021 when Port Adelaide closed at 17-5 and last played finals, reaching the final-four preliminary finals.

And then there are those who will note Port Adelaide was 11-4 in 2018 ... and how with just one win from the remaining seven home-and-away games the team slid from fifth to 10th.

It all comes down to belief - true belief. It is the key theme to Port Adelaide's season so far. It is the concept that ultimately will define Port Adelaide's ambitions during the second half of the home-and-away season and beyond.

After the pre-season losses to West Coast and Fremantle in Perth the doubters started taking their perches - and senior coach Ken Hinkley was insisting the scoreboard was telling a false story.

"You get," says Davies, "two pre-season games to show the judges what has come from five months of work. 

"But what we saw - and believed in - was what happened from Day One of the pre-season: Players in outstanding physical condition from the start. Guys who had bought into the program - and, critically, what we were going to stand for in 2023. This was an engaged group."

Opening the premiership campaign at Adelaide Oval with a 54-point win - built on an eight-goal third quarter - against 2022 preliminary finalist Brisbane (a rival that had built up a five-game winning streak from 2019) might have started some re-assessment externally.

"That win was more like us than any of the pre-season games," Davies says.

Losing by 71 points to Collingwood at the MCG and failing to finish Showdown LIII at Adelaide Oval in consecutive weeks certainly forced some serious reflection internally.

"Against Collingwood," says Davies, "we did not defend well enough. That game certainly got away from us - and quickly.

"The Showdown ... for most of the game, we were the better team. But we did not show that when it mattered most.

"And - after that period of 'mourning' that we all understand from losing a Showdown, one we built up by wearing our club's traditional jumper - the players and the coaching group came back to work ready to go. They cleared their emotions and went to work."

Seven days later, Port Adelaide started an 11-game winning streak ... off the fingernails of key defender Aliir Aliir in the Sydney goalsquare while the final siren was echoing across the SCG.

Had it become 1-3 rather than 2-2 on the premiership table - after the 0-5 of last season - Davies would have expected Port Adelaide to have held firm on its belief on the team's power and prospects.

"With that fixture," says Davies of the hand delivered to Port Adelaide with a Showdown, match-ups against two of last year's preliminary finalists (Brisbane and Collingwood) and one of the grand finalists (Sydney) for the first four games, "it could have been 1-3 ... and we would have needed to stay calm."

Such an image of tranquility inside the four walls at Alberton marks a strong and stark contrast to all that was being said of Port Adelaide externally.

So what did happen at Alberton after Showdown LIII to launch the club's longest - and still continuing - winning sequence in AFL ranks? As simple as Australian football should be, the difference in winning and losing cannot be simply senior mentor Ken Hinkley's move from an elevated coach's box to the interchange bench?

"First," says Davies, "we dismissed the emotion from the Showdown loss.

"And then we identified the areas in which we needed to get better.

"The players needed support - and extra belief. That was the key question asked: 'What do the players need?'

"By Wednesday we decided the answer to that question involved giving the players instant feedback - and belief. That is why Ken is on the bench. He can look the players in the eyes - and he can give them instant feedback, be it praise or how he expects more."

Hinkley's move to the bench also has closed the gap from the vastly different look the game has taken on match day from ground level and from the stands.

"Ken now has a different perspective on what the players need once they come off the ground," Davies said. "There is a new understanding of how hard this game is to play - and to see at ground level."

At Collingwood, where novice coach Craig McRae also is at ground level, the answer to why his team has repeatedly won in tight finishes is based on the belief his players have in their system. The same theme has emerged at Port Adelaide during the 11-game winning streak.

"Diagnose the problem. Work on the solution. Implement the answer," says Davies of the process that has driven Port Adelaide to victory since round three. "And the most important part? Belief in that process - that coaches and players do it week after week.

"You will see even if we fall three or four goals behind, we are not 'spinning wheels' (in a mode of panic). That is not our mindset. We will clearly diagnose the issue. We will do something about it.

"And that can lead to our scoring heavily in short bursts. That builds belief.

During the past 12 weeks this playing group has become more solid and found more belief in their performance. The connection between the coaching group and the players is stronger than we have seen in previous years."

The real change - signalled by Davies in his end-of-season review in September - unfolded during the off-season when Port Adelaide restructured the football department ... and not during the fall-out from Showdown LIII. While Chad Cornes and Nathan Bassett remained as assistant coaches, they changed portfolios with Cornes commanding the forwards and Bassett mentoring the defenders. Josh Carr returned to Alberton to manage the midfield. And the development program in the SANFL was reshaped with Tyson Goldsack and Matthew Lobbe.

These steps in adjusting the football program are more relevant than where Hinkley works on match day today.

Port Adelaide's campaign resumes Saturday with the challenge of recapturing momentum - against an Essendon team that remained in action with its away clash with Fremantle.

Before Saturday's match-simulation training session at Alberton, the Port Adelaide players took one concept from their team meeting - the next challenge is the next game. That cliche - "one week at a time" - is sometimes real and appropriate.

"We 'lower our eyes' when we are not performing well and challenged to change," Davies said. "Equally, we should keep our eyes lowered when we are performing."

Today, belief is the key theme internally at Port Adelaide.

"And we are not going to start saying people were wrong," adds Davies. "We're not motivated to prove people wrong. We do like to prove we were right in our own thinking. We do believe we had it in us to be a contender."

External noise is inevitable in an AFL system that dominates the media cycle. Port Adelaide has at least two - maybe three - storylines that will unfold across the next three months.

Captain Tom Jonas has not played an AFL game since being cited by the AFL match review officer Michael Christian during the round 10 clash with Melbourne at Adelaide Oval on May 19.

"That is one of the toughest decisions the coaching group has made in not recalling Tom after his suspension," Davies said. "He and Ken are mature enough to discuss how the next moment comes for Tom in our side. Until then, Tom remains to everyone in the team the best team-mate - and captain - he can be."

Port Adelaide is renowned for re-signing players to new deals, but has been silent in this space recently.

"We wanted to give the playing group clean air (to concentrate on the season)," Davies said. "We will now work on that ... and it is not just Miles Bergman, Mitch Georgiades and Orazio Fantasia. 

"Reassuring for us is our record of providing an environment where players become the best they can be ... and they help the team become better. History says we keep the vast majority of the players we want."

While this season moves to a conclusion, Davies and the list-management team led by Jason Cripps need to plan for other campaigns.

"We will never be backwards in coming forwards in managing our list - we are aggressive in our approach," Davies said. "We hit the draft hard - and we do find the players we need with late picks.

"Our list profile is clear. We need to find tall defenders as part of our long-term strategy. We noted the need for players who would help us score as high forwards - and have added Junior Rioli (from West Coast), Francis Evans (from Geelong) and Quinton Narkle (mid-season draftee from Essendon) while Jed McEntee has grown from within our club.

"Our midfield is young ... and dynamic."

And all combined, it is a Port Adelaide squad loaded with belief. 

RUN HOME 

The road to September - Port Adelaide's remaining home-and-away matches:

Round 16 (July 1) v Essendon at the MCG

Round 17 (July 8) v Gold Coast at Adelaide Oval

Round 18 (July 15) v Carlton at Docklands

Round 19 (July 22) v Collingwood at Adelaide Oval

Round 20 (July 29) v Adelaide at Adelaide Oval

Round 21 (August 5) v Geelong at Kardinia Park

Round 22 (August 13) v GWS at Adelaide Oval

Round 23 (August 20) v Fremantle at Perth Stadium

Round 24 (date tbc) v Richmond at Adelaide Oval 

Double-up games against Collingwood (last time lost by 71 points), Adelaide (lost by 31), Essendon (won by five), Richmond (won by 10) and Geelong (won by 38).

Projection by AFL commentators - Port Adelaide to have 18-5 finish to rank first at the end of home-and-away series. Expected to host home qualifying final against Brisbane or Melbourne.