IT begins just as it started ... needing to defy the doubters.

"Has not beaten Brisbane in five matches dating back to April 6, 2019," they noted of Port Adelaide at the start of the 2023 home-and-away season. The response was a season-opening 54-point win against Brisbane at Adelaide Oval.

"Has not beaten Brisbane at the Gabba since 2017," they will say of Port Adelaide in the build-up to Saturday night's AFL qualifying final at Woollongabba where the second-ranked Brisbane has not lost in 12 matches - including a final - since August 19 last year.

It begins as it started ... taking on the external doubters with powerful internal belief.

"At the start of the year we had great confidence ... not everyone (outside the inner sanctum) shared that confidence ...," notes Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley.

The pre-season - with two losses in Perth in trial games against West Coast and Fremantle - left the pundits wondering how Port Adelaide would rebound from a disappointing and difficult 2022 campaign to be a finals contender again.

The 1-2 start to the AFL's longest home-and-away series (23 rather than 22) became famously tagged as "untenable" after the drought-breaking win against Brisbane was followed with hefty and challenging losses to eventual minor premier Collingwood at the MCG and in the first Showdown that was laced with the emotional return to black-and-white bars at Adelaide Oval.

" ... not everyone shared that confidence ...," said Hinkley reflecting on the long road to September after closing the home-and-away campaign with 17 wins that includes the club record (for AFL games) of 13 consecutive wins.

For the third time in four seasons, Port Adelaide has a top-four finish to the home-and-away series - after the minor premiership in 2020, second placing in 2021 and now third.

"Equal second," says Hinkley of how Brisbane and Port Adelaide were placed in the finals seeding by percentage (112.7 for Port Adelaide falling behind 123.1 at Brisbane).

The question posed at the half-way mark of the season - "Do you believe?" - remains for the "new" competition that begins this week with eight rather than 18.

Port Adelaide enters the top-eight finals series knowing it is still challenged to rediscover its best form, injuries that reinforce a premiership is won by a squad and the year-long task of dismissing external doubt. Now that internal confidence becomes critical to success.

COMPARE THE PAIR (OR TRIO)

EACH of the three top-four finishes of the past four season is different. In 2020, the season was truncated and complicated by the COVID pandemic.

In 2021 it was back to the traditional 22-game home-and-away series.

In 2023 the introduction of "Gather Round" made it a record 23 games in the minor round and a minimum of 13 wins - of which Port Adelaide mowed down in one sequence from rounds 4-17 - to qualify for September.

The comparison between 2021 and this season reaffirms no team can stand still if it wants to achieve success - and 2023 has highlighted a two-speed drive at Alberton: One for today, one for sustained success. Port Adelaide started the season with the age profile of its list ranking ninth of 18 (average age 24.4) and eighth on the experience counter (average game count at 68). It is marginally a younger and less-experienced squad than the Port Adelaide group of 2021.

Port Adelaide averaged 93 points this season - nine better than in 2021.

Port Adelaide has conceded an average of 83 points this season - it was 69 in 2021.

The significant note in attack is double-sided - every dark cloud has a silver lining. Key forward Charlie Dixon has played 13 matches this season (24 in 2021) and contributed 22 goals (48 in 2021). Half-forward Sam Powell-Pepper has tripled his output (29 goals this season after 10 in 2021) to mask the gap - and maintained a consuming edge with his pressure acts on defenders. Young forward Mitch Georgiades was lost to a season-ending knee injury in the SANFL; 2020 draftee Ollie Lord gets 11 AFL games in his debut season and leaves a strong impression on what could be from 2026 after Dixon leaves the goalsquare.

The need to replace the seemingly irreplaceable Robbie Gray (20 goals and 18 goal assists in 2021) has been met by Willie Rioli's 27 goals and 15 goal assists.

The critical observation in defence is how Port Adelaide has adjusted when pushed by that oft-mentioned challenge of being short of tall defenders. Between rounds 4-17 (during the 13-game winning streak), with Aliir Aliir and Trent McKenzie being the key pairing of tall defenders, Port Adelaide kept the opposition from reaching the breakthrough 100-point barrier. In 2021, the same task was achieved across 11 games - and with more options in defensive match-ups while tall defender Tom Clurey played 11 games (and only one this season).

In 2023, Dan Houston has become an All-Australian in this new-look defence; Miles Bergman has stood up in big match-ups that have included Geelong key forward Jeremy Cameron and Dylan Williams has found his calling in saving goals rather than scoring.

But the key theme - that will have even greater relevance in the qualifying final against Brisbane - is team defence.

"Team defence is huge," says Houston. "At the start of the year we identified we would be a bit smaller (in defence) and we would need to generate an 'outnumber' at contests, be it in the air or on the ground, to help our defenders with team defence. That extra number definitely helps us.

"But add the competitive nature of Ryan Burton, Lachie Jones and Miles Bergman - who are not the tallest players - reading the game so well, they can run and jump and are so clean on the ground.

MIDFIELD, MIDFIELD, MIDFIELD

WHAT could be with Zak Butters, Connor Rozee and Jason Horne-Francis across the next decade? And they get to work alongside the Brownlow Medallist Ollie Wines, who this year has been forced to build his form through the challenges of a limited pre-season after corrective knee surgery during the summer. His timing to peak form in September is perfect.

In 2021, the ruck battery was led by Scott Lycett in 20 matches. In 2023, the on-ballers have had to read every hand of every Port Adelaide-listed ruckman - Lycett in 12 matches, Sam Hayes and Brynn Teakle for four each, Dante Visentini for three and with forwards Jeremy Finlayson and Charlie Dixon pinch-hitting and more.

Regardless of the uncertainty in ruck, the vision of Butters, Rozee and Horne-Francis using elite class, power and speed as a defining edge for Port Adelaide during this decade should inspire all that the "Chasing Greatness" manifesto demands at Alberton.

NEW SEASON

FROM 18 it becomes eight. It is another season altogether in September.

Port Adelaide has a 2-2 win-loss record against its top-four rivals Collingwood, Brisbane and Melbourne - the two losses both to Collingwood.

Port Adelaide has a 3-1 record against the other finalists - Carlton (loss), St Kilda (win), Greater Western Sydney (win) and Sydney (win).

In 2021, Port Adelaide entered the finals with a 0-3 record against fellow top-four sides (losing to Melbourne, Geelong and Brisbane during the home-and-away series) and 4-1 against the other finalists (Western Bulldogs, Sydney, Greater Western Sydney and Essendon).

ROAD IN SEPTEMBER

IT all begins again for Port Adelaide with a qualifying final against the second-ranked Brisbane in Brisbane on Saturday night.

Brisbane has its own doubts to clear away in its fifth consecutive finals series in which it has a 3-6 win-loss record.

The qualifying final is followed by -

WIN: PRELIMINARY FINAL at Adelaide Oval against any of Collingwood, Melbourne, Carlton or Sydney.

LOSS: SEMI-FINAL at Adelaide Oval against the winner of the St Kilda-Greater Western Sydney elimination final. This leads to a preliminary final at the MCG against the winner of the Collingwood-Melbourne qualifying final.

There will be just one final at Adelaide Oval.

In 2020 and 2021 there were home qualifying finals won against Geelong followed by home preliminary finals against Richmond and the Western Bulldogs respectively

TRADEMARK

AFTER the 13-game winning streak, Port Adelaide lost four in row (with epic clashes against Collingwood at Adelaide Oval and Geelong at Kardinia Park) and finished the home-and-away series with three consecutive wins.

There was little consistency in team selection while injury and illness forced changes that repeatedly reached six each week.

But this seven-week period challenged Port Adelaide to find ways to win when the game did not go to its agenda.

"We have matured ...," Hinkley says. "We can turn our 'not-best' performances into strong wins."