FOR all of his 95 AFL games as Port Adelaide captain, Tom Jonas has taken to the field with conviction - a sense of authority, true confidence and certainty. For the first time, he has left Adelaide Oval with doubt.
Will he play here again? Maybe - there is certainly to be one final at Adelaide Oval next month.
Will he lead his team again in an AFL match? Perhaps. Physically, his usually battered body is sound for the biggest tests presented in AFL major rounds.
Will he get the dream ending at the MCG on September 30? No-one can be sure.
A man who is more black-and-white than Port Adelaide's traditional jumper now lives on the edge, but in a very different way to the theme that repeatedly motivated the 16th call from the 2011 AFL rookie draft to survive in a cut-throat professional game for more than a decade.
Five days after announcing he would clear out his No.1 locker at the end of the season, Jonas left Adelaide Oval on Sunday afternoon after the 31-point win against Richmond with only one certainty: This was his last home-and-away game for Port Adelaide.
"I rocked up, with the announcement during the week making me feel liberated," said Jonas, who for the past two seasons has endured physical pain from a long list of injuries (many he played through) and the mental challenge of being sent to the SANFL to earn his place in defence with the senior side.
"I had great clarity around my game," added Jonas who now is in the "mystery time" of his career. "I just wanted to go out there and put up my hand in a really strong team performance.
"But that last quarter ....
"Particularly when we were up by a couple of goals ...
"I tried to soak it in a little bit. I started to think about it a little bit more. This - potentially - could be the last time I am playing in front of our supporters.
"I wasn't reflecting on what has gone before me. I was soaking up what was happening at the time," added Jonas knowing he cannot count on an encore. "Even in the warm-up today, for a little bit, I was thinking ... yeah, it could be the last time. You can get a little emotional when you start to think about it."
Emotionally, Jonas was fine even while he surveyed the city ground where he was playing his 98th AFL game since Port Adelaide returned "home" in 2014. And then ....
"A couple of the boys said, 'If this is the last game we play together, it was a good one'," Jonas said. "And that set me off a little bit. I am trying to keep a lid on it because I still feel - potentially - there is going to be another opportunity ... the first final (the qualifying final against Brisbane at the Gabba) or if something else happens.
"It is a bit of a tough balancing act between feeling like you are winding up ... and staying ready for what could be a great opportunity that comes."
Port Adelaide enters its third finals series of the past four years from a different angle than in 2020 and 2021 when it was minor premier and second to Melbourne respectively, thereby earning a home qualifying final at Adelaide Oval. This time it is third, called to Brisbane where the second-ranked home team is unbeaten at the Gabba this season.
Port Adelaide's mission - score three more victories after a 17-win home-and-away campaign that included a run of 13 consecutive triumphs - is clear cut. However, Jonas, after 216 senior matches, is as uncertain as he was a decade ago of leading Port Adelaide onto the field or of commanding an agenda at Alberton from Monday to Friday during an era when AFL captains have far more to do than ever before.
It is a tough hand that has been dealt to Jonas after all he has endured to establish himself as an AFL player. Even those with hard exteriors would feel for Jonas.
"It is not a card I play; I am privileged to be standing in these shoes with an opportunity," said Jonas. "There are a million other people out there who would love to play one game for Port Adelaide. I am pretty lucky to be in this position. I will be contributing in the best way possible, on or off the field.
"(And) we have a lot of work left to do," adds Jonas of a campaign that will get tougher week by week - in a year when few believed Port Adelaide would be a major player in September. "We have done a lot of work to get to this point. But we also have been here a couple of times before recently and don't have anything to show for it.
"Today, it was not the prettiest day. Sometimes you do need to win 'ugly'. More often than not, finals are won ugly. That is not a bad thing. We have 14 days now to fine tune, to find ways to get better. We want to win the grand final ... it is as simple as that."
Such ambition is to the extreme of where the Port Adelaide Football Club stood when Tom Jonas arrived at Alberton in 2011 with its AFL licence in jeopardy. When his rookie contract expired at the end of 2012, Jonas had savoured just two wins in his 13 AFL matches. There have been 120 in the 11 seasons since ... and the Port Adelaide Football Club has been transformed from despair to a solid platform on and off the field.
"There has been significant change," notes Jonas. "Clubs have changed regardless. There has been a cultural shift during my 13 years. There is a new generation of players coming through. There are personality shifts.
"But the change at Port Adelaide (since 2011) it makes the comparison of the club I joined and the club as it is today being poles apart.
"The connection - the care - has created a selfless attitude and a collective will to achieve something. There is no-one out there playing for himself."
There also is the change in Jonas.
"Some days," he says, "I feel I have not changed very much. Some days, I think there has been a fair bit (of change), be it on field or off. I was pretty fortunate to have a strong foundation of values that I built my game on. That has held me in pretty good stead. I have not had to do much different in that space. Athletically, I have slowed a little bit which leaves me wishing I could get more of the footy and take a few more marks. That doesn't necessarily happen.
"But, as a person (coach) Ken (Hinkley) and Chris Davies have challenged me to grow and be a better leader and a better person. So have the rest of the boys to give them consistency as a leader."
Jonas can leave the clubhouse knowing he has inspired the growth of a stronger leadership base at Alberton. There are many leaders without titles next to their name on the team sheet.
"That is testament to the entire football department and program," said Jonas. "The recruiting team has put a focus on bringing good people to the football club - good people first, good footballers second. The coaches have developed leaders - and our (football) chief Chris Davies drives that. And having some wise old heads who lead the way through their actions, on and off the field. It will hold the club in good stead for some time."
Jonas will probably mark his now well-noted game review with one word again.
"Just ... solid," said Jonas.
It is a good way to remember your last, well last home-and-away game before the true believers at home.
ON REVIEW: If any timeslot can be defined as the most unpopular in sport, it is noon on Sunday. And still 39,860 made their way to Adelaide Oval for a game that did not change Port Adelaide's destiny.
This puts the season total - with 12 home games rather than the usual 11 with the extra match from Gather Round - at 455,807. The average is just under 38,000 - the best since 2018. The damage from the pandemic years might just be past the game.
ON (P)REVIEW: Port Adelaide started the home-and-away season with the challenge of beating Brisbane at any venue for the first time in five years.
Port Adelaide will start the major round with the task of beating Brisbane for the first time in a final at the Gabba - and for the first time at the Gabba since the 83-point win in round 6, 2017.
The qualifying final will be the third major-round encounter between Port Adelaide and Brisbane at the Gabba after the preliminary final in 2002 and qualifying final in 2001.
