Port Adelaide were not able to progress to the Grand Final, falling to Sydney at the penultimate hurdle. Image: AFL Photos.

GOOD, actually, very good. But not great.

A total of 74 wins from 117 home-and-away game since 2020 (63 per cent winning record) tells of a sound football program at Alberton. But there is no escaping - nor should there be - the contrasting count of just three wins from nine hard-earned finals during this period. There has not been consecutive wins in the major round since 2014.

Three preliminary finals in the past five seasons is an achievement ... but, as every pundit and frustrated fan is noting, there is no grand final appearance. None since 2007.

Greatness continues to elude Port Adelaide.

Season after season, list adjustment after list adjustment, Port Adelaide more often than not (seven times during the past 12 years) knocks on the door to September greatness but cannot get past the threshold of the preliminary final (2014, 2020, 2021 and now this year).

Port Adelaide's lost the opportunity to make its first Grand Final since 2007 on Friday night. Image: AFL Photos.

Why? There will be no shortage of theories - and finger pointing - on why Port Adelaide is good, very good actually, but not great. 

Last season, Port Adelaide "limped into September" and hobbled out with a straight-sets exit from two home finals. This year, Port Adelaide carried a makeshift attack through much of the last two months of the campaign - and the rubber band truly broke in the preliminary final against Sydney at the SCG on Friday night. Having Sam Powell-Pepper, Todd Marshall and Jeremy Finlayson in the stands denied Port Adelaide goalscoring power, intensity inside-50 and flexibility in the playbook.

Last year, the list-management team addressed two pressing needs - tall defenders and ruck. Next month, Port Adelaide is expected to make significant plays in the free-agent market and the trade period to again prove it has the image of a "destination club" rather than a dead end.

But, amid the frustration of a final series that again fell short of many dreams, there will be this agitating theme: When does all this planning, all these sharp off-field ploys and hard work deliver a grand final appearance and a much-wanted second AFL premiership trophy? 

Port Adelaide missed Sam Powell-Pepper's intensity and the target he provides inside-50. Image: AFL Photos.

Opinions will differ, even within the four walls of Alberton. Ultimately, much more is achieved in unity than with division - the Never Tear Us Apart anthem should echo just as much within Port Adelaide's inner circle as it does externally to repel the barbarians at the club's gates.

More will accomplished by a united collective than any inspired individual.

"No one person is going to do it on his own," noted Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley on Friday night. "You need the whole club."

There is no escaping the reality that Port Adelaide's ambitions in September were tested - even ruined - by losing two critical rebound players from defence (All-Australian Dan Houston by suspension and Kane Farrell by a hamstring strain); the lack of stability in attack (that ultimately required a hand-picked defender in Esava Ratugolea to play as a key forward); and the question of what was lacking above the shoulders at the start of the home qualifying final against Geelong.

Those structural hits each side of centre certainly limited how Port Adelaide could be creative with its playbook during September. The "backs to the wall" approach against Hawthorn in the home semi-final gave an invaluable insight to what can be achieved by the playing group - but that bravado was never to be enough when challenged by more complete units such as Sydney.

Port Adelaide fielded one of the youngest and least experienced squads in the finals series. Image: AFL Photos.

On the flip side of the debate, there is the profiling of the Port Adelaide squad to note it is younger than the Hawthorn squad that draws rave expectations for the future - and that fell twice to Port Adelaide in epic encounters at Adelaide Oval this season.

Port Adelaide started the season with probably the sixth-best list of 18 - and made the final four. It ends the campaign with confirmation of the need for more depth - an issue clearly on the list-management agenda long ago - and affirmation of the demand for change on the development front where Port Adelaide works with an arm tied behind its back when compared with eastern rivals benefitting from academies and other advantages at the second-tier VFL competition.

There is no arguing Port Adelaide has fallen short in advancing from good, very good to great. The blueprint from those who have crossed the threshold - such as Sydney, Geelong and Brisbane - is easy for all to read but difficult to replicate if everyone runs in different directions.

The "secret" to success is not beyond Port Adelaide's comprehension - it is the theme that took the club from suburbia to the national stage: Stability, unity, hard work.