PREPARE to work hard - harder than ever before. 

Port Adelaide is staring at the toughest hour it has known for more than a decade. The campaign to stay in the AFL finals race is on an edge, as it was for Brisbane at 4-1-6 before its premiership-winning run last season; and Sydney at 5-8 before it charged to the top eight in 2023.

But the rebound will not just happen by looking at history. It will require hard, hard work. History does not just repeat; it has to be made, as is well noted in the Port Adelaide club song.

Port Adelaide enters its mid-season break with the reasons (rather than excuses) for its failings and the current four-game losing streak very clear to all. The answers - that come with hard work - are just as clear. 

Port Adelaide has struggled to command the contest (a big barometer in the game, not just of Port Adelaide); it has grappled to defend behind the ball; and the seemingly makeshift attack has not delivered enough. 

The cause - rather than excuse - is reflected by the need to use 35 players in 11 home-and-away games. More often than not, the changes at selection have been forced by injury rather than just form lapses. But the injury count never makes for good reading, more so when the AFL lists offer enough players to cover injuries ... if you have balanced your reserve needs by wise selections along position by position, developed your players and prepared them to step up when needed.

Port Adelaide started the year with new edges - as noted with the playbook delivering an attacking-minded theme that required more (but not too much) handball. There needed to be a new look in attack as life goes on without Charlie Dixon. Two of the key pegs in this refit inside the forward 50 - Todd Marshall and Gold Coast recruit Jack Lukosius - have been consigned to the medical rooms with just 100 minutes of game time in the home-and-away series (all of those minutes chalked up by Lukosius).

There was enthusiasm with the return of half-forward Sam Powell-Pepper to the attack after a year on the sidelines with a knee injury. But the scoreboard has told the toll of this attack denied its best scoring options - an average score of 76, nine less than the league average this season.

The Champion Data sheets reveal rankings in key categories have fallen from top-four status in 2024 to bottom-four this season. Even the most-telling indicator of the Port Adelaide game - time inside forward half - has slipped from third to 11th.

Change can only come with hard work. There is certainly scope for improvement.

"(This season) has not been where we had hoped it would be ... That said, it doesn't mean the second half of the year can't be better."
Port Adelaide football chief Chris Davies

ON THE TABLE

It is 4-7 after 11 of 23 home-and-away games. The ranking is 15th. The percentage is a telling 79.1. There is no sugar-coating such numbers nor what they reflect. Port Adelaide has not been so far behind the count since round 11, 2015 when it was 5-6 and starting a three-game losing streak that took the win-loss ledger to 5-8 (before a rebound to 12-10).

There is no way to present any gloss to this season's start. What is left - as was the case in 2015 - is the challenge to remain relevant during the closing stages of the home-and-away series.

GOOD, BAD AND UGLY 

GOOD: Until last week, there was that rebound after big defeats - the response after taking a big hit from Collingwood in the season-opener; standing up to Hawthorn to avoid three losses in a row; and the Showdown performance after being bitten hard by the Western Bulldogs. But erratic form lines bouncing wildly from best to worst are not a good sign for any team needing consistency in a marathon run to the AFL finals. 

The individual good storylines come from captain Connor Rozee with his Showdown Medal-winning performance from half-back; the continued power of midfielder Zak Butters and the commitment of forward Mitch Georgiades when he has lacked support to draw away key defenders.

BAD: The finishes - no last quarter won in 11 matches this season. This will inevitably bring questions on the fitness of the squad, but the bigger issue might revolve around the inability to translate effort to the scoreboard. Port Adelaide spent 51 per cent of the match against Fremantle on Saturday night in its forward half for a 29 per cent return on the scoreboard while winning the inside-50 count by one. 

UGLY: The recent second-half collapses to Geelong and Fremantle make for the ugly count of 4.8 scored and 21.14 conceded.
But the true measure of Port Adelaide's woes are in that long-standing barometer at the contest, exposed to the fullest against Fremantle at Perth Stadium on Saturday night. Champion Data has Port Adelaide ranked 14th (down from fourth) on clearance differentials with its 11 opponents this season.

Port Adelaide has conceded 43.4 points from clearances this season, the biggest pain counter in the AFL this season and worst under Ken Hinkley's watch since 2013.

WHY
No AFL club wants to be excused from its results because it had a high injury count. It comes with the territory in game that promotes itself as the toughest in the world - and a competition that is very much designed to test squads rather than the best 23s (and yet still delivers just 23 premiership medals to the winning club on grand final day).

But ...

More than depth has been tested at Port Adelaide this season.

A team designed to play attacking football needs its best forward options on the park rather than in the medical rooms. More so when it is trying to move on after a decade of focus on Charlie Dixon. Key forward Todd Marshall was lost in the pre-season to an Achilles injury. Gold Coast recruit Jack Lukosius has played one game and a few minutes against Richmond before entering the medical rooms with a fracture knee cap.

Depth - and a need to review all of Port Adelaide's needs in the short and mid-term (and perhaps longer considering how the AFL draft will be hit by expansion from 2027 with Tasmania) - is a major review item at Alberton. 

BEST WIN
Round 6: Port Adelaide 18.13 (121) d Hawthorn 14.7 (91) at Adelaide Oval.
No-one needs a reminder of the build-up to the closer of Gather Round with 47,671 gathering at Adelaide Oval for a match built on a deep-seated grudge. Port Adelaide - that had won its two matches against Hawthorn last season by margins of one and three points - made it four in a row and six from the past seven against the Victorian club that draws the most limelight for being "different" with Hokball under the guidance of coach Sam Mitchell. There were three truly motivated men in this game - Zak Butters, Jason Horne-Francis and captain Connor Rozee who combined for 90 possessions. Six goals in each of the first and second terms set up a 59-point lead. It did get back to 21 just ahead of time-on of the last quarter before Sam Powell-Pepper and the "double goal" from Willie Rioli spared all of another dramatic finish between two teams that have created an intense rivalry on and off the field.

WORST LOSS
Round 9: Port Adelaide 5.11 (41) lost to Western Bulldogs 20.11 (131) at Ballarat.

There are three contenders in this category (the others being the season-opener against Collingwood at the MCG and the home loss to Geelong in round 11). The loss to the Western Bulldogs in regional Victoria - where Port Adelaide previously had a 2-0 record against the old Footscray - exposed the cracks on a team struggling to put together four-quarter performances. There was no goal in the last term - and seven given up when the Western Bulldogs were working against the wind during the third quarter.

TOUGHEST RESULT
Round 10: Port Adelaide 12.12 (84) lost to Adelaide 13.11 (89) at Adelaide Oval.

As in tough to swallow ... the five-point defeat in Showdown LVII in round 10 when Port Adelaide dominated on the Champion Data sheets but failed to put the stoic effort onto the scoreboard at Adelaide Oval. The revealing statistic was the "one percenters" - 69-31 - that told of a team wanting to play as a solid, united group and win as a team. A 62 inside-50 count generated just 12.12 on the scoreboard.

THE NUMBERS

ATTACK: Average score in 11 games is 75 points, down 10 points on last season and the lowest since the truncated games of 2020 during the pandemic (68 points). It is the lowest average score by Port Adelaide in full-length games since joining the AFL in 1997 (falling below the 77 of 2012).
Only twice has Port Adelaide posted more than 100 points this season - against Richmond (140 points) in round two and against Hawthorn (121) in round six. 

The loss of key targets Todd Marshall (Achilles in pre-season) and Jack Lukosius (fractured knee cap) has put a heavy focus on Mitch Georgiades who has delivered 24.18 in 11 games. He is No.8 in the AFL race for the Coleman Medal as the league's leading goalkicker. Next best in the Port Adelaide count? Darcy Byrne-Jones at 11.4. Next? Jason Horne-Francis at 8.8. Then Ollie Lord at 7.5 from eight matches.

The numbers tell a clear story .... and it is not the one Port Adelaide planned for during the off-season when it needed to find new method, new system and a new look while moving on from Charlie Dixon.

DEFENCE: Has conceded an average of 96 points in 11 games this season, up almost three goals on last year. This is the highest leakage since the 97-point average of 2012.

The early injury hits to key backs Esava Ratugolea (knee) and Brandon Zerk-Thatcher (back, in pre-season) continue the painful tale of Port Adelaide's season but do not fully explain the collapse of a team defence system that was among the league's most prudent.

MIDFIELD POWER: Two rucks - Jordon Sweet followed by Dante Visentini. Captain Connor Rozee moves from midfield rotations to half-back. Former captain Travis Boak is lost from a wing with back issues. And Zak Butters has another knee injury - but maintains his disposal average (27) on last year's figures and improves his disposal efficiency (to 74 per cent from 71). His contested ball numbers are at career-high averages (13.8). Almost half his touches (48.7) are contested possessions. The strongest division of the Port Adelaide squad has hardly had a smooth run this season.

WHO'S NEW
Opportunity certainly has not been lacking. Port Adelaide so far has introduced to its AFL story this season: 

Round 1: Joe Berry for his AFL debut and Jack Lukosius and Joe Richards

Round 2: Christian Moraes for his AFL debut

Round 3: Tom Cochrane for his AFL debut

Round 6: Rory Atkins

Round 11: Hugh Jackson for his AFL debut.

Cochrane, the son of former player Stuart, made history as the first player with Tourette's syndrome to reach AFL ranks - and then was derailed by a foot injury.

Moraes, the No.38 pick in the 2024 national draft, probably sent the digital world in meltdown after his emotional responses in detailing his AFL debut against Richmond at Adelaide Oval in round two when former captain Travis Boak rewrote the club record for senior games at 393 matches.

FROM HERE
Port Adelaide started the season with the analysts declaring it had the league's second-toughest fixture. The "double-up" games appear in the second half of the home-and-away season. There are seven games to play at Adelaide Oval, including three in a row across rounds 14-16.

GWS (in Canberra)
Melbourne (Adelaide Oval)
Sydney (Adelaide Oval)
Carlton (Adelaide Oval)
Brisbane (at the Gabba)
West Coast (Adelaide Oval)
Hawthorn (at Launceston)
Adelaide (away team at Adelaide Oval)
Geelong (at Kardinia Park)
Fremantle (at Adelaide Oval)
Carlton (at Melbourne Docklands)
Gold Coast (at Adelaide Oval)

PROJECTED FINISH: Who would be brave enough to look at the fixture with the task of predicting where Port Adelaide is to rank at the end of the home-and-away season? The current projection is 14 wins are needed to make the top eight - demanding Port Adelaide find at least 10 wins across the next 12 remaining matches? It is an enormous task. Where man is not brave to walk there is a computer crunching AFL data and predicting Port Adelaide will stay in the third tier of teams ranked 9-14.

Anyone want to look up what the machines were predicting of Brisbane and Sydney at the mid-season break last year and the season before?

"We don't concede. We challenge ourselves to be better than we have in the first half (of the season)," said Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley.