NO-ONE has battled as long as Travis Boak to chase Port Adelaide's second AFL premiership - and his first. No-one would know better of how Port Adelaide has set itself for a successful tilt at that long-wanted flag after securing a top-four finish for the fourth time in five seasons.

For Boak it will be his eighth AFL finals series - and perhaps the most promising since his first in 2007 when the first-year midfielder played in the grand final in just his 14th senior game soon after his 19th birthday.

"That is 17 years ago ...," says Boak finding the task of tracking through his club record (for AFL games) of 368 matches a demanding test of his memory.

"Seventeen years ago ... we beat Geelong at Geelong," adds Boak of the seemingly watershed moment from the 2007 home-and-away series. With Dom Cassisi's match-winning goal in the final 10 seconds, Port Adelaide defied Geelong - one of the greatest teams in the AFL story - on its home deck at Kardinia Park where Mark Thompson's record-breaking team had won 15 consecutive games.

Port Adelaide - just as today - left Corio Bay in second spot on percentage and with a top-four berth secure in the first year of a major list reset that had brought Travis Boak and Robbie Gray, among others, to Alberton in a memorable draft.

Seventeen years later Boak can reflect on the lead-in to the 2013, 2014, 2017, 2020, 2021, last year's and this season's major rounds ... and answer the critical question of whether Port Adelaide is better prepared for September than in previous seasons.

Since standing on the cliff's edge - with that nightmare that became a 79-point loss to Brisbane at Adelaide Oval during the 2004 AFL premiership reunion - Port Adelaide has won seven of eight games, some demanding the most from Boak and his team-mates. There are wins against top-eight sides - including the 112-point thrashing of  league leader Sydney - to dismiss the image of a team that lives off triumphs against also-rans. There are gritty wins against Melbourne and Adelaide when Port Adelaide has had to prove its gamestyle can handle September-like pressure or when injuries force a refit of the line-up, particularly in attack.

Since 2007, only in 2020 - that pandemic-affected season - has Port Adelaide entered September with such a strong sequence of wins (eight of nine, plus five in a row to close the season with the minor premiership).

Only Boak can reflect on every run to September since 2007 to judge how Port Adelaide is placed. While this tests his memory, the more obvious note from Port Adelaide's rebound after the Brisbane collapse is the "identity" of the 2024 squad. This may tell more of Port Adelaide in September than what has emerged on the scoreboard during the past eight weeks.

"As a group," says Boak, "we are starting to understand who we are; that is the most important thing.

"Match results are out of our total control (while an opponent has a say in how games play out). How far we go in finals is out of our total control.

"What is in our full control - and what we are really dialled in - is, who we are as a playing group. We have a real understanding of our identity. If you can really nail that and believe that and have confidence in that, it (that understanding among team-mates) is good enough, then it will hold you in good stead for what comes in finals.

"We have continued to build that (identity) - not just this year, but over the past few years. It comes through lessons, through heartache, through challenges, through pain - and we will continue to work to get better. We still have a long way to go."

So what is this Port Adelaide identity - the so-called DNA that so many AFL teams describe as their trademark?

"It is about connection, team work, being able to play your role and understanding your role ... and Port Adelaide tradition," says Boak. "That is - hard work, hard football, contested football, defence first and brave offence off the back of that. We are really getting to understand that and believe that, knowing it is good enough and that it will hold us in good stead."

Since falling into a three-game losing streak that was completed with the belting from Brisbane at Adelaide Oval, Port Adelaide has beaten fellow finalists Sydney, Western Bulldogs and Carlton and stood up in big scraps with Melbourne at the MCG and in the Showdown at the weekend.

"We are well positioned," says Boak of the second-ranked Port Adelaide that has a 15-7 win-loss count. "We also still have a lot to improve and work on ..."

But, in a season that has a very open premiership race, is Port Adelaide tracking better than in previous seasons when it has had a top-four entry to September's top-eight finals?

"This is the time of year when you want to play your best footy," says Boak. "We are tracking towards that.

"We still have work to do. But we have given ourselves a good chance to finish off the year strong. The games we have played over the past month and a half have put us in a good stead. Showdown was an absolute scrap, a fight - same as the week before against Melbourne at the MCG. That puts us in a good position to play that style of footy in the finals."

Comparisons of seasons clearly are difficult. Squads change. 

"We have a great group," says Boak of his 2024 team-mates. "The belief of this group is what is very similar (to previous squads in prime positions to play on the last Saturday in September). We understand that we are good enough. And now putting it out there week in, week out is the challenge.

"I have no doubt we are better placed in terms of the personnel we have, the understanding we have of each other's game. For us, right now we have some great opposition to come up against. It is going to be a good test."

The next challenge - in the last game of the home-and-away series - is Fremantle in Perth on Sunday when Port Adelaide will know its equation to keep second spot from Greater Western Sydney so as to earn a home qualifying final. Fremantle will know if it is in the race to return the top eight after falling to ninth, half a win behind the Western Bulldogs, Hawthorn and Carlton.

The match could again be an ideal preparation for September.

"Fremantle are going to be fighting for their finals position; it is a massive game again," says Boak. "And that is perfect. We go to Perth knowing Fremantle is a quality side; we had a really close game the last time we played them (for a three-point win at Adelaide Oval in round six). We are going over there to win the game, to finish off the year strong and give ourselves the best chance in finals."

While every team has had horror results this season, the Brisbane loss did test Port Adelaide - as noted with senior coach Ken Hinkley's emotional reaction immediately after the away win against St Kilda that started the rebound. In 2007, Boak watched a grand final team carve up itself in the aftermath of a massive loss to Geelong at the MCG. In 2024, to quote Boak, "a lot is different".

"Players in this group are different," adds Boak. "One thing that stands true is when we represent the Port Adelaide Football Club we want to do the club proud, the members, everyone involved in the footy club. We will do everything we can to be proud of ourselves and proud to represent the jumper. 

"Everyone has been tested this year by a bad result. That is footy. When you have a loss like that, don't get too low. Same with the wins - you can't get too high. The Sydney win is still a moment to take as a lesson - what did we learn from that game? How do we get better? We don't shame each other walking into the club or point at each other for something that was bad.

"The approach after every loss, every game is - what did we learn; how do we get better? It is the same when we win. How do we keep understanding each other? How do we get better at our game? How do we improve? That is how we present each other in the making of this footy club."

Boak enters this year's finals series with so much to draw from his previous seven runs in September. Heartache, as he notes, is loading Boak with inspiration rather than regret.

"A lot ... a lot," says Boak. "I have lost four preliminary finals ... and I don't know how much I have left. I can't control that. I just have to enjoy it, enjoy the ride and that is what I am trying to share with the rest of the playing group - just enjoy these moments. And go out there and be present; bring your best self and let that do the talking. Results will take care of themselves."