AMID all the chatter - in a game that was increasingly hard to watch - Fox Footy commentator Anthony Hudson delved into his notes. With a few words, he put a tougher brake on the minds of his viewers than Carlton had on Port Adelaide's momentum switch.
"Travis Boak," said Hudson, "played in an (AFL) grand final in his 14th match ..."
Sometimes you just wish John Cleese, as Basil Fawlty, would pop up whenever 2007 is mentioned to remind all to not mention the war and think they will get away with it.
"And," continued Hudson, "he will reach his 350th if Port Adelaide gets there again this year."
While the stomach was struggling to digest the unfolding result against Carlton, the mind needed even more time to understand the picture Hudson was casually presenting of Boak's long journey as an AFL player.
The Carlton encounter marked game No.341 for Boak - still well short of the club record (392) carried by legend Russell Ebert, but a perch clearly within reach of the 34-year-old wingman, who by his faultless commitment to fitness and preparation could be putting ink on new contracts for at least the next two seasons.
The top-of-the-table clash with Collingwood at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night will be No.342.
The Showdown at the Oval on Saturday week will have Boak match Darren Smith and Greg Phillips as the second-most capped player in Port Adelaide Football Club history with No.343.
How strange it is that destiny has Boak take second spot on the club records with No.344 on August 5 at Kardinia Park against the Geelong group that more than a decade ago marched into town with a come-home pitch that was rebuffed.
No.345 is against the recharged Greater Western Sydney at Adelaide Oval in the Sunday twilight zone on August 13; No.346 is in Perth against Fremantle and No.347 is the home-and-away season closer against Richmond at Adelaide Oval.
Everything after that is a mystery, although Hudson has assumed Port Adelaide takes the direct path the grand final with Boak's No.348 in a home qualifying final, No.349 in a home preliminary final and No.350 in the grand final at the MCG at the end of September.
There also is the assumption that Boak has no setback by injury - a concern that might require him to keep away from the McGovern brothers, particularly in marking contests. Mitch McGovern's knee into Boak's back on Saturday would have rekindled the painful memories of Jeremy from West Coast rattling and harming Boak's ribs during the pre-season encounter in Perth.
Boak was just 59 days on from his 19th birthday when he played No.14 in the 2007 grand final with the No.10 guernsey. He will be two months past his 35th birthday if Hudson's crystal ball is well calibrated.
There is a fair bit to unpack in Australian football history since Boak blew out 19 candles in 2007. The national AFL competition has expanded from 16 to 18 teams - with Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney - and the task of qualifying for a grand final is tougher with a bigger field of rivals.
And Port Adelaide has been to hell and back.
Boak's path back to the MCG for a more memorable AFL grand final experience requires an escape from purgatory. He has endured three preliminary finals since then - that painful loss to eventual premier Hawthorn at the MCG in 2014; the heartbreak at home to Richmond in 2020 and the nightmare at Adelaide Oval with the Western Bulldogs in 2021.
It is easy to say - as Hudson might have been scripting - that Boak deserves a grand final encore. But so did his fellow 2006 draft colleague Robbie Gray who played five games in 2007 but not that grand final. And beyond Port Adelaide, the same is said of Bobby Skilton and Robbie Flower. The game's hall of retired players is crowded with men who blessed the game but hung up their boots without the blessing of a premiership medal. Gray stands out.
The debate on whether a career is fulfilled or not without a premiership - and how a player's place in history is marked by the absence of a flag - is not easily settled in a sport overwhelmed by opinion.
Boak was part of a remarkable Port Adelaide team that overshot expectations in 2007 - and paid dearly for advancing to a grand final against Geelong, one of the greatest teams in the game's history. He is once again part of a Port Adelaide squad that is destined by so many predictions to finish second at the end of the home-and-away series, surpassing pre-season forecasts that put Ken Hinkley's crew in the battle for any of the spots from sixth to eighth.
In 2007, Boak made his AFL debut midway through the season - in round 12 against Essendon - and stayed on the team sheet for the next 13 weeks. From round 15 to the grand final, there was just one loss (eight points in a Showdown); a winning streak of six to that grand final and an epic five-point victory against Geelong at the sentinel at Kardinia Park.
In 2023, it is a different script but the storyline carries the same theme of opportunity being present - and Port Adelaide needs to grasp the moment. Boak's 16-year wait for redemption at the MCG on the final Saturday in September - from, as Hudson noted, game No.14 to No.350 - is longer than some current AFL players will have as careers.
The 50-point loss to Carlton at the west Docklands on Saturday evening is too easily pushed aside with those hackneyed themes of "the loss they needed to have" or "too many changes at selection".
Did anyone tell Pakistani squash legend Jahangir Khan that he needed to drop a game every so often while he went on a world record unbeaten run of 555 matches from 1981-1986?
Port Adelaide's line-up was still a promising team when put on paper on Thursday night.
It still managed 62 inside-50 entries ... and some of the most bewildering shots on goal.
It was able to beat Carlton for more first looks at the Sherrin at centre stoppages.
The two notable barometers - contested ball and tackles - were marginally against Port Adelaide, by minus two on each differential.
Yet the only statistic that matters - the 50 points on the margin tally from the scoreboard - says Port Adelaide was overwhelmed by Carlton.
The other hackneyed phrase - "you learn a lot from defeat" - would imply it is best to keep losing to become smarter. Again, Khan disproves this concept. Port Adelaide learned plenty during the so-called untenable run of 13 wins - the greatest lesson being just how powerful its pressure game is when working without the ball to dispossess the opposition. Carlton scored 9.5 (of its 18.14) from situations in open play that Port Adelaide had generally suffocated during the previous 13 weeks.
Boak will, as usual, prepare for his 21st encounter with Collingwood (9-11 win-loss so far) with his usual diligence and reputation of being the last off the training track.
Hudson's vision of a milestone game in this year's grand final will require many others at Alberton to be just as fastidious (very attentive and focused on detail).
ON (P)REVIEW: Port Adelaide and Collingwood commanded top and second spot of the final home-and-away ladder in 2003 - Port Adelaide with 18 wins and Collingwood with 15.
There was only one home-and-away clash between the two clubs that season - and in round 10 at Football Park. Port Adelaide entered that encounter ranked third; Collingwood was eighth and the Friday night clash at West Lakes was decided by Port Adelaide's seven-goal third term that set up the 25-point win.
In 2023, first-placed Collingwood visiting Adelaide Oval for a top-of-table clash with Port Adelaide in round 19 probably marks the most significant home-and-away clash between the two clubs in AFL battles since 1997.
