FINALS are different, we are always told.
Pitting the best against the best in a series that involves just eight of the 18 teams that start the annual race for the AFL premiership should bring greater intensity to the contest. More so with top-four contenders. Even more with teams that have "history" with an understated rivalry that has existed between Port Adelaide and Brisbane since 1997.
Filling every seat in concrete-and-steel bowls with loud fans will certainly create an "energy" that enthuses the home team ... and mentally challenges the visitors. The Gabba in Brisbane - where visiting teams have won just eight of the past 59 games against Brisbane - is now drawing comparisons to the advantages Geelong has at Kardinia Park.
Umpires, we notice, "let more go" than they would in the home-and-away series. The rule book, however, does not change for finals; the goal posts do not move nor is the space between them reduced from nine metres.
But finals are different ... particularly above the shoulders, to define teams by their leadership and mental strength rather than just talent.
And yet they are lost in just the same way as any other game between late March and August.
Missing set shots (with four behinds from four set shots in the first term of the qualifying final) is just as punishing in September as in June. It became even more painful at the start of the second term when Port Adelaide was testing (and worrying) Brisbane with speed but not scoreboard pressure.
Failing to maximise opportunities will always come with a heavy price. Port Adelaide had impressive final head-to-head numbers with Brisbane on Saturday night. It won contested football (a once-reliable barometer for Port Adelaide) by three; hit-outs by four with lead ruckman Scott Lycett making an impressive return from injury with 38 of his team's 39 taps; and all clearances by three.
Yet, Brisbane did much more with less. The team that has been questioned for not converting its centre clearance work (won 15-12 by Brisbane) scored 13.1 from centre stoppages. And this was without the usual torment created by Brownlow Medallist Lachie Neale who is finding Port Adelaide shadow man Willem Drew is ready to create the sequel to the Josh Carr-Michael Voss duels from the first chapter of this club rivalry.
"Brisbane," noted former Port Adelaide captain and coach Matthew Primus, "played at that very high level for longer - too long."
Port Adelaide defender Miles Bergman agrees: "We need to focus on playing a full game."
Injuries always hurt, particularly in defence when - as Primus noted - "the (less efficient but busier) Brisbane forwards are on top - that's where the game was" with Brisbane winning the territory battle with an inside-50 count of 64-48. And this was with Brisbane threat, Charlie Cameron in his 200th game, not terrorising the Port Adelaide defence until the party had reached full swing at the Gabba.
This is no different to any game in late March, as Port Adelaide well remembers injuries turning the game in the previous visit to the Gabba for the season-opener last year.
Where AFL finals do become different to every other game played by Port Adelaide this season is the prospect of "no tomorrow". The premiership race is down to six with all of the five remaining finals marked with elimination of the losers.
Port Adelaide's path to greatness is now via Adelaide Oval with a Saturday night semi-final against Greater Western Sydney leading to a preliminary final against minor premier Collingwood at the MCG with the reward of a grand final duel with any of Brisbane, Melbourne or Carlton.
There is the immediate storyline - "We," says Dan Houston, "need to find energy and the spark for another good test (against Greater Western Sydney)."
There is the never-ending story in sport (and life) - "We," adds Bergman, "know there is a lot to improve. We were not at our best (against Brisbane). We learned quite a bit from this - like needing to be better with our finishing early in a game. We know we can be better than we showed (in the qualifying final). We need to learn from this.
"It is a tough, hard loss. But with the right attitude, we get to work on what we need to improve on."
There is the long-term view - "We," says Bergman, "know how good we can be."
The arduous task of building a list that achieves long-term sustainable success gained with the four-goal performance of young key forward Ollie Lord in his first AFL final - against proven Brisbane key defender Harris Andrews. It is an achievement that equals Stuart Dew's four goals in his and Port Adelaide's first AFL final in 1999 against North Melbourne that ended in defeat at the MCG. But that final pointed to a list that was growing to achieve a breakthrough premiership.
"This group," notes Primus, "already has changed significantly from the Port Adelaide teams that played finals in 2020 and 2021. The age demographic is younger than other teams playing finals today.
"The way this group plays - and works - should have you confident it can beat Greater Western Sydney this week."
ON REVIEW: WHEN the AFL last year debated the need to revamp the four-man interchange bench, the league coaches were finally offered two options to consider - more players on the bench (taking the reserves to five or even six) or a single "tactical" substitute. Richmond premiership coach Damian Hardwick had finally won his long-running battle to clear away the vested "medical" substitute who could only be activated for a player suffering a serious injury that would put him out of action for even the next game.
A player, argued Hardwick, should not be stuck on the bench in a high-glare green vest collecting an official game to his name even if he did not take the field. A "fresh" player could be thrust into the fray late in a game to, hopefully, bring back the tactical themes of the past with a "super sub" to change momentum.
The coaches baulked at having more interchange players who would be free to work through the capped rotations - 75 a match for each team. Managing four players at an average of 18 interchanges a quarter is challenging enough - ask North Melbourne (penalised for using more than 75 rotations against Sydney this season).
So, the coaches opted for the "tactical substitute" with the 23rd man taking Australian football back to the pre-interchange days (any match from 1930 to 1978 when there was first a 19th man from 1930 and then the 20th man from 1946, reserves who could be sent from the bench to the field to permanently replace any of the first 18 for injury or form.
Champion Data pioneer Ted Hopkins is the most famous of these 19th and 20th men for his four goals in the second half of Carlton's remarkable comeback in the 1970 grand final at the MCG where he replaced Bert Thornley at half-time).The return of the "tactical substitute" has not been a smooth operation.
Too often, most inexplicably, a player - such as former Port Adelaide captain Travis Boak at the weekend - is said to have been dropped (or now the polite term of "omitted") when he is actually being shuffled from the 22 to the fifth seat on the interchange bench as the 23rd man.
The AFL's new-look football operations team - that includes Port Adelaide premiership forward Josh Mahoney - certainly needs the inevitable review (at the end of the season) of the tactical substitute to reconsider how team sheets are published on Thursday nights.
The public review of the tactical substitute is on already after Boak was called into action with 10 minutes to play in the third term of the qualifying final against Brisbane at the Gabba on Saturday night. As soon as Boak had started to work up a sweat while the player he replaced, forward Darcy Byrne-Jones, caught his breath on the bench, Port Adelaide's medical crew was dealing with a double blow in defence. Rebounding defender Dylan Williams was holding his strained left hamstring; key defender Trent McKenzie was in the hands of the trainers after having his right leg (the one that has had the recent posterior cruciate ligament issue to the knee) tangled in a marking contest with Brisbane forward Cam Rayner.
Had the coaches - and AFL Commission in December - endorsed the fifth and sixth interchange players, Byrne-Jones would have been back on the field, probably rediscovering his memories of being a defender.
Instead, the Port Adelaide deputy vice-captain was an uneasy spectator - watching Brisbane in those 10 minutes do as it had done all night, punish Port Adelaide with heavy scoring surges in "red time", the time-on period.
Australian football has for decades watched games decided by injuries - hence the introduction of the 19th man reserve in 1930. Injuries have even created heroic stories in the pre-interchange era, as Port Adelaide knows with Ivan Eckermann carrying a heavily bandaged thigh while kicking three match-winning goals in the 1977 SANFL grand final against Glenelg at Football Park.
Mahoney has an interesting debate to take to the 18 national league coaches at the end of the season.
The public theme - with no scientific data but by post-match reaction on Saturday night - is to leave the "tactical" substitute as a roll of the dice. If it goes wrong, bad luck.
Mahoney might have to factor into the debate the "duty of care" question, ensuring players are not subjected to more risk when forced back to the field under an injury cloud. McKenzie resumed during the last term; Williams did not and the fit and able Byrne-Jones certainly could not.
The coaches' view a year on shall be intriguing.
ON PREVIEW: A MONTH has passed since Port Adelaide and Greater Western Sydney last met at Adelaide Oval, then with high stakes. Port Adelaide needed to snap a three-game losing streak to stay in the chase for a top-two finish after slipping to fourth; Greater Western Sydney wanting to extend its winning streak to strengthen its hold on eighth spot (while fuelling an interesting social media campaign with St Kilda and Sydney).
Port Adelaide won by 51 points to rise to third; Greater Western Sydney fell to 10th ... and there was no thought the two teams would definitely meet again in September.
Now it is a return to Adelaide Oval for a must-win semi-final - the first major round clash between the clubs, 11 years after the rivalry began with Greater Western Sydney winning the first league encounter by 34 points at the Sydney Showgrounds in a match that became the final straw to break Port Adelaide's back during the dark chapter that was 2010-2012.
Since then, Port Adelaide has won eight of the 13 contests between the clubs - three of six at Adelaide Oval including the past two by 55 and 51 points respectively.
Of course, finals are different ....
