PORT ADELAIDE is .... finish the sentence.
Long pause. Think. Re-think.
Last time Port Adelaide collapsed to a hefty defeat in a Showdown, the response made the 1-2 win-loss count on the AFL premiership table appear more catastrophic than the apocalypse. It wasn't after all the dust settled.
Lessons learnt, changes made, Port Adelaide responded to consecutive - and hefty - defeats with a 13-game winning streak.
This time, with the latest Showdown defeat apparent from the slow start rather than at the anchored finish that unfolded in April, the challenge remains the same: Ignore the emotional reactions from a game built on heart strings to find the springboard to another long winning streak.
Last time, there were still 20 home-and-away games to play in the longest minor round of AFL competition.
This time, says acting captain Ollie Wines, "there is month to go, four games of footy and we have a desire to make the most of the opportunity."
Geelong at Kardinia Park on Saturday. A finals-charged Greater Western Sydney at Adelaide Oval in round 22. Fremantle in Perth on Sunday, August 20. And the home-and-away series finale against Richmond at Adelaide Oval in round 24.
"There is challenge after challenge," says Wines of this demanding "home stretch" fixture. "That is the beauty of this AFL, everyone and every game is so competitive. We are left with four demanding matches.
"We will embrace them. We will move on from the Showdown needing to put aside our disappointment with the result to fully focus on what we learn from the review."
No-one was distracted from the big picture after the 31-point loss in Showdown LIII that followed the blitz from Collingwood with a season-high 71-point defeat at the MCG.
Wines wants the same approach to follow the 47-point loss in Showdown LIV that marks a three-game losing streak with defeats taken from Victorian pair Collingwood and Carlton by two and 50 points respectively.
"We have another reality check," says Wines. "It forces the group to ask again of ourselves about everything we do - how we prepare week to week; how we review our games ...
"Against Collingwood, we lost the match but gained a lot of positives by understanding how we play. Perhaps we overlooked some things because of that close (two-point) result.
"So, we need to review this (Showdown loss) pretty closely. Monday, Tuesday are to be our reality check at review. We get the chance from early in the week to review the game, review how the team played and find what did not work for us - and implement change so that we correct our form against Geelong at Kardinia Park."
Showdown LIII produced extraordinary reactions, more than usual from a derby that had been heavily loaded with emotional pangs by Port Adelaide wearing its traditional black-and-white bars.
Showdown LIV has to deliver an exceptional response to protect all that was achieved by the 13-game winning streak that gave substance to Port Adelaide being a premiership contender.
"Our fortune is we stay in second place," says Wines. "And now we play four really crucial games. We don't rest on our laurels. We understand we are - like every other team in this competition - vulnerable at times.
"We are in a different position this time; we have more runs on the board," added Wines with the 1-2 of April now 14-5 at the end of July. "Yes, losing any game - more so when it is a Showdown - leaves disappointment. This one is disappointing for the way we lost. That is the most-disappointing (thought from the game).
"We pride ourselves on tough, hard footy. We lowered our colours to a team that wanted it more."
And there is the toughest pill to swallow from Saturday night's result at Adelaide Oval - how can Port Adelaide fail in the battle above the shoulders when it always makes so much of the need to win Showdowns, twice a year?
Why Port Adelaide would fail twice this season in the games the club bills as "must-win" is more complicated to unravel than what actually happened at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night.
Put all three losses - to Carlton, Collingwood and in Showdown LIV - together and there is one constant theme.
The enterprise to create opportunities inside the forward-50 arc did not translate to the scoreboards at the Docklands in west Melbourne or at Adelaide Oval. Against Carlton, there were 62 inside-50s for 10 goals; against Collingwood, 12 goals from 57 entries and in Showdown LIV there were 65 inside-50s with only nine goals.
Grand total - 184 forward sorties, 31 goals ... 17 per cent efficiency.
"We were beaten at our own game," says Wines of a derby that reaffirmed the difference in the placid Port Adelaide of Showdown LIV and the Port Adelaide that wins repeatedly when it builds its game on pressure. Those who downplay tackle statistics ignore how this number truly reflects the work a team is prepared to do when the opposition has the ball.
"We understood how they play - it relies on effort, outnumbering at the contest, pressure ... and they took that to a higher level, in all areas. We were not able to handle it. We were not able to get our game going. Full credit to them ..."
The team that refused to lose for 13 weeks suddenly seems incapable of winning.
"We have lost three in a row now. It has reached the point where we don't want to lose any more," said Wines. "We have to regain the momentum we have had for so much of this year. We need to get to September (the top-eight final series) with momentum.
"The Collingwood game is the outlier to the Carlton loss and the Showdown. We played pretty well in that game (against the league leader). But against Carlton and in the Showdown we went away from what our game has revolved around - pressure. Our pressure was not there and the opposition had their pressure game at elite levels. We were not able to cope with that.
"That is the big key indicator that we rely on and look very closely at. The Carlton loss and this Showdown tell of an important KPI that has dropped off - and what happens when we don't play with a high pressure level at our opponents."
Port Adelaide's lack of efficiency in attack was highlighted during the third term of Showdown LIV - the territory battle was won with 17 inside-50s (while conceding just six). The Sherrin was in Port Adelaide's half for 65 per cent of the term. The scoreboard noted only a one-point difference from the half-time margin of 29 points.
"In any game, there will be shifts in momentum. The challenge is to stop the opposition when they have their moment and make sure your own momentum surge lasts longer," Wines said.
"We think we have things in place to counter opposition momentum. Sometimes they work; sometimes they don't.
"But for all that, you will always comeback to what you do at the contest - and what pressure you bring to the contest and the game."
ON REVIEW: It was the round of upsets. Tenth beats first. Then the 15th-placed also-ran from Western Australia stuns the eighth-ranked defending champion on its home park at Geelong. Seventh beats fifth. The 14th-placed team with an interim coach stuns its third-ranked neighbour in Queensland. Twelfth beats 11th. And - as if the Showdown needed any more tales of how the premiership table is irrelevant in a derby - 13th topples second ...
Beware teams that still want to make AFL finals, Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley warned a fortnight ago.
The most-interesting assessment of how the mind can have more power than the body in sport was delivered by Australian Football Hall of Fame inductee and former Western Bulldogs and Richmond coach Terry Wallace after 10th-ranked Carlton collected its brace of wins second-placed Port Adelaide three weeks ago and now top-ranked Collingwood in Friday Night Football.
Wallace said: "As a coach, I loved taking on a top team who had played their match of the year the week before.
That club spends all week with family and fans talking about last week not the next game - and this was Collingwood this week. They still do the same homework, but every discussion outside is about last week. Carlton was ready for that and took full advantage."
ON (P)REVIEW: And this week Port Adelaide has a different mental hurdle - a smarting Geelong at the AFL premier's fortress known as Kardinia Park. Do you play the ground - with its peculiar skinny shape - or the opponent?
"It is above the shoulders," says Wines catching the theme of the moment.
Port Adelaide last played at Kardinia Park on May 21 last season, losing by 35 points to the eventual AFL champion that has won 13 of its 15 matches between the two clubs at Corio Bay.
Port Adelaide's first win - by 46 points - was in 2001.
Pot Adelaide's last triumph - by five points - was in 2007 with captain Dom Cassisi's match-winning goal.
And there is all that is made of Kardinia Park with its dimensions of 170 metres in length and the tight 115-metre width.
"Yes, Kardinia Park is a bit narrower than Adelaide Oval (184 by 134)," says Wines. "It has a unique shape. More so than anything, it is the psychological barrier of going to Geelong. We have been good at facing those challenges head-on across the past two-three years with COVID forcing us to deal with travelling on the day of games, going to new places for games, hubs etcetera. So we embrace the challenge of going to Geelong ..."
