CONTINUITY. If there is a buzz word in the AFL language today it is "continuity" - the theme of keeping a group of players together to develop familiarity, to embed a system of play ...

Until recently, the simplest measure of such continuity was the "players used" count. The theory was: Less changes to a team line-up week by week, the more chance of success - more continuity, less disruption.

It is more complicated today with the constant need to rotate the substitute in a 23-man line-up. And then there is the sensible desire of AFL match committees to "manage" players to avoid burn-out and stress injuries in the marathon 23-game run to September's top-eight finals series.

The "players used" statistic is not as pure as it was before 2011 when the AFL first introduced the substitute in a green vest. Still, it can tell a critical story.

Port Adelaide reached the mid-season break this year with the following notes on "continuity" -

FIELDED more players than the league average - 35 compared with 33

FIELDED more players than the league average for first time in five years

NO unchanged line-up for any of the 11 games 

SEVEN league/club debutants across those 11 games 

THREE (club record) picks in the mid-season draft to maintain depth

The most-telling statistic at the end of the season will be the injury count - the games lost by the inevitable strain in a sport noted for collisions and soft-tissue setbacks. Port Adelaide has tumbled from one extreme (among the least in first half of 2024) to the other.

The critical losses have been in key position roles, particularly in attack. Key forwards Todd Marshall (Achilles in pre-season and now on the inactive list for the rest of the season) and Gold Coast recruit Jack Lukosius (fractured kneecap early in his second game) did not get to work a tandem as an answer to Port Adelaide's need to move on from Charlie Dixon.

Key defender Brandon Zerk-Thatcher (back injury in pre-season) has forced Port Adelaide to be creative in defence to support fellow tall defenders Aliir Aliir and Esava Ratugolea.

And there was elite midfielder Zak Butters' absence for three games (the first three when Port Adelaide started with a 1-2 win-loss record) with a knee injury.

Today, long-kicking defender Kane Farrell is returning from a knee injury, midfielder Jason Horne-Francis is recuperating from a hamstring injury and the seemingly unlucky Josh Sinn is back in the medical rooms with an impact injury to a hip.

This is a telling chapter in a long story of challenges that has tested Port Adelaide through the first half of the home-and-away series.

Not that injuries can be used as an excuse, of course. A squad's quality is measured by Alastair Clarkson's mantra of "one soldier down, another soldier up". 

Port Adelaide's lack of a winning last quarter during the first 11 games, the 4-7 win-loss count and the unusual collapses to heavy losses will merit more analysis than just the injury record at Alberton this year. Not all change to the team sheets this season has been forced by injury.

However, the transformation of the interchange bench to a medical ward during the round 10 loss to Geelong at Adelaide Oval does, as senior coach Ken Hinkley highlighted, the "break down of a team's system" by forcing players into unfamiliar roles. 

Continuity is the revealing measure of Port Adelaide in 2025. Only nine players have featured in all 11 games - captain Connor Rozee, Brownlow Medallist Ollie Wines (who needed to step out of one of these matches with his heart condition), Aliir Aliir, Miles Bergman, Jase Burgoyne, Willem Drew, leading goalkicker Mitch Georgiades, Jackson Mead and the comeback half-forward Sam Powell-Pepper.

Port Adelaide resumes from its mid-season break on Saturday night in Canberra against Greater Western Sydney, another team that has this season fielded more players (34) than the league average.

PLAYERS USED 2025
 
Geelong               29
Sydney                 31
Hawthorn             31
Collingwood         31
Adelaide                31
Gold Coast           31
Brisbane                32
North Melbourne  32
Western Bulldogs 32
West Coast            32
GWS                        34
Richmond               34
Carlton                    34
Fremantle               34
Melbourne              34
Essendon                35
PORT ADELAIDE    35
St Kilda                    36

AFL average            33
 
Past five years 
Port Adelaide count and league average 

Season 2025    35 (33)
Season 2024   34 (37)
Season 2023    37 (37)
Season 2022    37 (38)
Season 2021     35 (37)