AUSTRALIAN football needs this game. It is the heavyweight battle between the two best-performed teams since the round 2 restart - top-ranked Port Adelaide (4-0) against third-placed Brisbane (3-1) in the Saturday night blockbuster from the Gabba.
Just when the "look of the game" becomes the old chestnut thrown on the talkback roster, the AFL's most-attacking minded teams collide.
Port Adelaide ranks No.1 for hitting the forward-50 arc; Brisbane is No.2.
Every bit of the tale of the tape says this match between the teams commanding the top-two seeds in the AFL power rankings (Brisbane first, Port Adelaide second) could deliver the game as it should played ...
| SCORING | Port Adelaide | Brisbane |
| Shots | 23.8 | 23.7 |
| Conversion | 52.5% | 43% |
| Goals | 50 | 41 |
| Behinds | 45 | 54 |
And these figures are in shortened games of 16-minute quarters.
"It's the best against the best," says Brisbane midfielder-forward Mitch Robinson. "Port Adelaide are pretty exciting this year. And the way we've played for the past couple of years stacks up against the best teams.
"It's about the way we move the ball ... and it seems to be working at the moment."
The same can be said of Port Adelaide, particularly when all that work on ball movement and ball skills has translated to less focus on "disposal efficiency" this season. Even here the tale of the tape carries interest ....
| BALL MOVEMENT | Port Adelaide | Brisbane |
| Disposals efficiency | 72.6% | 68.2% |
| Effective disposals | 236 | 199 |
| Disposals per goal | 26 | 28.5 |
| Per scoring shot | 13.7 | 12.3 |
And there is this pearl from Robinson: "Good offence can be outdone by bad defence." Port Adelaide notably trapped the West Coast defence in the back 50 at the weekend ... and the tape shows both the Port Adelaide and Brisbane forwards are just as eager on defending territory as they are on turning the tumblers on the scoreboards. Tackles inside-50: Port Adelaide, 12.8 average; Brisbane, 13.2.
Saturday night could bring back many memories - and start a long run of new ones.
Port Adelaide premiership midfielder Roger James lived the intense rivalry with Brisbane from 2001-2004 when the two clubs had a monopoly on the minor premierships (Port Adelaide with three in a row, 2002-2004) and the flags (Brisbane with its three-peat, 2001-2003; Port Adelaide with the 2004 triumph).
This was the heavyweight battle to match anything boxing promoter Don King had ever put in the ring.
"I could say you try harder in those games ... but you don't," said James, who played Brisbane 16 times (for a 7-1-8 win-draw-loss count) during his 147-game AFL career at Alberton.
"They always were good games because we matched up well on each other ... and it was a good challenge to test yourself against Brisbane. They were the best of 2001, 2002, 2003 ...
"In the midfield you had to deal with the Fab Four - Michael Voss, Nigel Lappin, Simon Black, Jason Akermanis. It always was a great chance to prove yourself against the best."
Australian football needs such an intense rivalry again - and in the way both Port Adelaide and Brisbane play their football to enhance "the look of the game".
ROUND 5
Brisbane v Port Adelaide
After this match, no-one is saying of Port Adelaide: "Who have you played?"
It is almost a year since the two sides met at Adelaide Oval - and it feels just as long since their pre-season encounter. Port Adelaide won that Marsh Community Series match on February 23 at Moreton Bay by 21 points - with key forward Charlie Dixon proving his readiness for his comeback with his 4.3. And Brisbane midfielder Lachie Neale again put up big numbers - 46 disposals and 12 clearances.
"We need to get one back on them," says Brisbane midfielder-forward Mitch Robinson.
The Port Adelaide players would respond they have two AFL home-and-away games from last season to square away - the 48-point loss at Adelaide Oval in round 17 and the epic round 3 clash at the Gabba where Brisbane won by 17 points and Port Adelaide rookie Connor Rozee announced his Rising Star arrival with five goals.
There is so much to savour in this match. At one end it is Coleman Medal-leading forward Dixon against All-Australian defender Harris Andrews. At the other, Trent McKenzie and Tom Clurey have to deal with the double threat of Eric Hipwood and Daniel McStay.
And in between there is that midfield collision with Neale (but not the injured Dayne Zorko) and the Port Adelaide battery of Sam Powell-Pepper, vice-captain Ollie Wines, former captain Travis Boak and former Brisbane captain Tom Rockliff ... all working under the ruck agenda of Scott Lycett.
And what does the tape say here?
| PISTON POWER | Port Adelaide | Brisbane |
| Clearances | 33.5 | 32 |
| Centre clearances | 10.5 | 10.5 |
| Stoppage clearances | 23 | 21.5 |
Yep, the AFL needs this game, particularly in a week that delivered more uncertainty on how this premiership season is to play out while Victoria becomes a troubled State in the battle against the second wave of the COVID pandemic.
ON A ROLL
Port Adelaide has not lost a match - any game - since August 17 last year (with that major slip-up against North Melbourne at the Docklands in Melbourne putting the last 'L' in the scorebook). So Ken Hinkley's team is on a seven-game winning streak - the season-closer last year; two pre-season matches and the first four of this complicated home-and-away season.
The last time Port Adelaide went 5-0 at the start of an AFL premiership season was in Hinkley's first year at Alberton in 2013.
Port Adelaide's longest winning streak in the AFL is eight matches, three times - in 2002, 2003 and 2014.
In the club's 150-year history, the longest run without defeat in premiership football is 30 SAFL games (29 wins and a draw) from 1913-1915 that includes the Invincibles of 1914 and the tie with South Adelaide in round 8, 1915 (after 28 consecutive wins).
SELECTION TABLE
Port Adelaide
Unchanged for the first time this season - and a reward for the 22 who beat West Coast last week was Port Adelaide's call at selection.
Despite his strong training on the Gold Coast, Port Adelaide defender Ryan Burton did not get the recall to the match 22 on Thursday night. Injured - and requiring minor knee surgery - from his third-quarter moment with Adelaide midfielder Paul Seedsman in Showdown XLVIII at Adelaide Oval three rounds ago, Burton gets an extra week to prepare for his AFL comeback.
The four-man emergency list covers every base with ruckman-forward Peter Ladhams, forward-midfielder Cam Sutcliffe, defender Jarrod Lienert and former Brisbane midfielder-defender Sam Mayes.
Unchanged
Brisbane
Two changes for Brisbane - one forced - strengthens the Lions ruck unit with the return of experienced ruckman Stefan Martin. He has missed the past two games (and wins against West Coast and Adelaide) with a hamstring strain.
Martin's return, to support lead ruckman Oscar McInerney, pushed Archie Smith out of the 22.
Inexperienced midfielder Tom Berry earns his third AFL game, replacing injured captain Dayne Zorko.
In: Berry, Martin
Out: Zorko (right calf), Smith
BIRD SEED
(the small stuff that matters)
Brisbane v Port Adelaide
Where: Gabba
When: Saturday, July 4
Time: 7.10pm (SA time)
Last time: Port Adelaide 6.13 (49) lost to Brisbane 14.13 (97) at Adelaide Oval, round 17, July 14 last year
In pre-season: Port Adelaide 14.14 (98) d Brisbane 12.5 (77) at Moreton Bay Central Sports Reserve
Overall: Port Adelaide 18, Brisbane 17, 2 drawn
Past five games (most recent first): L L W W W
Scoring average: Port Adelaide 96, Brisbane 95
Tightest margin - 0 from two draws, both at the Gabba: Round 20, 1997 and round 12, 1998.
Smallest winning margin - Port Adelaide by one point (104-103) at the Gabba in round 17, 2003; Brisbane by 10 points (86-76) at Football Park in round 2, 2003.
Biggest margin - Port Adelaide by 113 points (159-46) at Adelaide Oval in round 4, 2014; Brisbane by 69 points (147-78) at Football Park in round 8, 2006.
By venues - Adelaide Oval: Port Adelaide 4-1; Football Park: 7-6; Gabba: 6-2-10; MCG: 1-0.
FORM LINES
Port Adelaide - WWWW
Even with the 12-week shutdown, Port Adelaide has carried its pre-season form into the restart to have meaningful momentum ... or at least an understanding on how to cope in a premiership season that is increasingly likely to be stop-start and involve unprecedented travel from Adelaide (even considering how Shanghai was on Port Adelaide's cards).
After opening with a 47-point win against Gold Coast on the Gold Coast, Port Adelaide has put together an encouraging triple-play by beating Adelaide by 75 points at Adelaide Oval in Showdown XLVIII (revealing its power with speed in space); a 29-point win against Fremantle in the wet at Metricon Stadium (where it proved it can adapt when the weather demands change); and at the weekend, a 48-point win against 2018 premier West Coast (with the forward crew pinning the Eagles defence).
Brisbane - WWWL
After stumbling to Hawthorn by 28 points in the season-opener at the MCG in late March, Brisbane has been very much at home - three games at the Gabba for three wins by 12, 30 and 37 points against the Gold Coast hub teams of Fremantle, West Coast and Adelaide respectively.
Not surprisingly, the Lions have created more goalscoring chances in each game at home, but Brisbane has had its accuracy fall week by week from 57 per cent in round 2 to 30 per cent on Sunday when it put 10.23 on the scoreboard against last-ranked Adelaide.
SWINGING IN THE JUNGLE
Brownlow Medallist and Brisbane premiership captain and former coach Michael Voss has been at Port Adelaide since October 2014, working as the midfield coach and the senior assistant - notably on the interchange bench recently.
Brisbane has a Port Adelaide fan who made his way to the AFL in the most extraordinary way. Matt Eagles, a 200cm ruckman-defender, won season 2 of The Recruit in 2016 - and a year later was on the Brisbane list and in the Lions' line-up for his AFL debut in round 7 against Collingwood. At 28, the South Australian from Paskeville became the oldest player to make his AFL debut for Brisbane.
THE RIVALRY
Port Adelaide and Brisbane were "the rivalry" of the 2000 decade. The list of moments that led up to their 2004 AFL grand final encounter at the MCG highlighted how a duel can be just as deep in its passion across 2004 kilometres from Alberton to Brisbane as it is along a short drive to West Lakes Boulevard ....
For the first four seasons of the 21st century there was always something between Port Adelaide and Brisbane, more so when the rivalry was preconditioned by the intense history between the two coaches, Mark Williams and Leigh Matthews, dating back to Matthews' call as Collingwood coach to ship captain Williams to the new-start Brisbane Bears in 1987.
The blow-out Ansett Cup pre-season final won by Port Adelaide at Football Park in 2001; the Saturday afternoon battle for the minor premiership at West Lakes in August 2002 when Chad Cornes at centre half-back went against Jonathan Brown; the battles Williams endured to get the cricket square uncovered for training sessions at the Gabba; the Lions' claims that Port Adelaide had "dobbed" them into the AFL for using intravenous saline drips and the two epic battles of 2003.
Both games - won against home-ground advantage - remain the tightest winning margins for the clubs against their rival. Brisbane won by 10 points at Football Park (86-76) in round 2; Port Adelaide squared the account with a one-point win at the Gabba (104-103) in round 17.
Port Adelaide midfielder Roger James was the hero with his match-leveling and game winning behinds in the final two minutes.
"The one time you miss two shots at goal - and you people remember it for good reasons," James said this week. "I was just lucky on the second one ... to be in the right place and to be on my own in a forward pocket when the ball was turned over ... I could not have been chasing my man too hard at the time."
It was some finish ... starting with Jason Akermanis' perfect read on a boundary throw-in that led to a goal on the run - and a one-point lead (103-102) with 3:17 to play.
James scored the levelling behind a 1:41 on the clock by kicking across the goal - from left to right - after picking up a loose ball just on 50 at half-forward left.
His match winner came from Josh Carr winning a hot ball in the centre square - after Brisbane duo Michael Voss and Simon Black tumbled into each other. Carr's quick kick to Che Cockatoo-Collins to the right flank led to an equally quick pass to James, who - just as he recalled - was loose in the right forward pocket. His kick from 45 metres was shallow of the nearest goalpost and left 42 seconds on the clock.
The ball did not leave the Port Adelaide forward 50 on the back of some blue-collar stoppage work from Carr and Gavin Wanganeen.
QUOTE OF THE PRE-GAME
"I think that we need to be tougher on holding-the-ball; I think the prior opportunity needs to be tighter because our players are so skilled, assessing it and taking the tackle."
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan .... so how will the AFL umpires react this weekend, more so when this statement has been followed up by an edict from AFL House to be more vigilant on holding-the-ball and incorrect disposals in tackles?
And what prompted this rethink? Hawthorn premiership coach Alastair Clarkson saying on the weekend that the lack of free kicks had put the game "in a dreadful space".
The game legend who has won as many premierships (four) as Clarkson as a coach, Leigh Matthews responded: "I am loving the umpiring philosophy (that) is giving the player in possession every opportunity and every benefit of the doubt. That meant there was very few holding the balls because frankly there's very little prior opportunity."
And what does the tape say in this category for Port Adelaide and Brisbane?
| TACKLING | Port Adelaide | Brisbane |
| Tackles | 55 | 56 |
| Frees for | 16 | 17 |
| Free against | 14 | 18 |
TIP
Port Adelaide by three points.
