AFTER months of training, simulated games and the hard yards in-house at Alberton Oval, Port Adelaide finally got the chance to put its work into practice. Some would argue that's exactly what the NAB Challenge is - practice - but both the Power and Eagles played aggressive, hard-hitting footy on Sunday (thankfully, not too close to the wall of Norwood's western grandstand) and gave an entertaining spectacle to more than 8,000 fans in Adelaide's east. 

Here's what we took away from the game...

1. Not many Gray areas
When you're finishing a NAB Challenge game with 24 effective disposals from 28, and slot three goals on the back of your best ever season... well ... you leave a lot of people excited.

Robbie Gray was in a class of his own on Sunday arvo and social media, forums and external media were buzzing about his performance. So too was stand-in coach Matthew Nicks, whose wry questioning of whether Gray had in fact played a good game ("Oh? Did he go OK?") was proof enough the highly-rated mid did plenty to impress the coaches' box as well. It's just one game, and obviously one in the pre-season comp, but Robbie is showing he hasn't lost much of his trademark ball use and freakish manoeuvrability in traffic - a testament to two years of hard work following one of the ugliest ACL injuries in recent years. Nicks:

"There's a lot of areas where he [Gray] can get better again. He's got some incredible talent and he's now learned how to work hard so you're seeing results. He's had an outstanding pre-season and off-season. It's just now flowed into the first game."

2. The grunt kicks into gear
While Gray, Travis Boak, Kane Cornes and Brad Ebert shone in the middle, less obvious were the performances of a number of second-tier players - those who have mixed AFL and SANFL selection over the past few years. Andrew Moore kicked a supergoal (see our PTV video higher up the page), was exciting and looked to move freely and ambitiously through the middle of the ground, Kane Mitchell and Paul Stewart also played well throughout the day, while Jasper Pittard was strong before being subbed out of the game. It's those lower-profile players - the grunt in the machine that don't draw as much external hype - who showed their craft on Sunday and that bodes well for a list wanting to elevate this tier to a more permanent level this year. Nicks again:

"We want as many AFL-ready players as we can for Round 1. Because things can happen. If you go through the whole pre-season without injury [then] you're doing really well."

"As many AFL-ready players as we can have because that puts pressure on the guys playing at the top level. It's amazing how you perform at a high level when there's pressure from below. That's our aim."

3. Subs under the radar

Karl Amon and Nathan Krakouer showed they've got something to offer when playing as substitutes on Sunday. In Amon's case, it was just his second AFL-sanctioned match after playing in the corresponding fixture at Richmond Oval last year. After a good first season in the SANFL and a strong pre-season this year, Amon came on for Hamish Hartlett and accrued 15 touches in three quarters of football. He also kicked 1.1, although it could easily have been two goals if not for hitting the woodwork. Importantly, it was a performance without any obvious shortcomings, so he's one of those midfielders who will look to keep pushing his credentials this year.

The Krak? Well he looked like a guy comfortable with this level of the game. You'd hope so given his experience with the Power and Suns previously, but in this first hitout he was composed, effective and attacked hard. While he's only on the rookie list and will need to be upgraded to play at AFL level in-season, Krakouer's first showing was positive nonetheless, and bodes well for his continuing attempt at career resurrection. Krak told AFL.com.au after the game he was happy to be back out there:

"Being back out on the field is actually pretty fun."

"It's been a while, obviously, but I had some fun out there and after a long pre-season of playing against one another it's actually good to play against an opposing team."

4. And it's not all 'hands off' for Kenny...
Nicksy enjoyed his first day in charge of the Power, but admitted there were a couple of occasions when the regular chief stepped in. Short of kicking the plug that supplied power to all the computers in the box, Nicks quite enjoyed his first stint in charge, but noted the Port coaches' box isn't a one-man dictatorship.

"Other than kicking the plug out and the whole computer system [going] down when we went up in there, nothing."

"I actually really enjoyed the gig, we're one-from-one, I've told Kenny if we win the next one, I wouldn't mind [coaching against] Adelaide.

"There were a couple of moves made that weren't mine, they came through the headset [I asked] "Who was that? Kenny? Good, get it done".

"Kenny is very open and honest with the way we communicate up in the box, we've been working that way for a long time ... we definitely work as a unit up there. We just didn't have [Ken's] natural look at the game today."