PORT Adelaide has led the complicated, stop-start race to the 2020 AFL premiership from the start - 20 weeks in pole position.
But there are rankings and there are ratings.
For much of this 17-game, truncated home-and-away campaign there has been a search for a label to attach to Port Adelaide. Much of this uncertainty is of Port Adelaide's own making after being a contender that fell to also-ran in 2018 and last year.
So where does Port Adelaide truly rate in the battle for the flag that carries the asterisk to acknowledge more is being demanded of AFL teams during the COVID pandemic?
After 12 of 17 home-and-away matches, Port Adelaide has played six of the seven teams that also carry top-eight status today. Port Adelaide has a 3-3 win-loss count in this category (wins against West Coast, defending premier Richmond in the game of the season and Melbourne; losses to Brisbane, Geelong and St Kilda).
Collingwood awaits in the home-away season closer next month.
In the next group of "would-be" finalists, Port Adelaide has a perfect 3-0 record - wins against 2019 grand finalist Greater Western Sydney, the Western Bulldogs (a top-eight finalist last season) and Carlton, from that last-kick matchwinner after the siren from Robbie Gray at the Gabba. Still in contention and lingering on Port Adelaide's dance cards is Essendon (round 17, September 12).
All up, against certain, near-certain and would-be finalists, Port Adelaide has a 6-3 win-loss count. The seemingly never-ending question, "Who has Port Adelaide beaten?" has a far-more meaningful answer than in recent seasons.
If - as Malcolm Blight contends - the premiership table answers the rating question with the percentage column, Port Adelaide is No. 2 (behind Geelong, 138.5 percentage points to 127.5).
By the scoring ratings, Port Adelaide has the third most-productive attack, averaging 69 points - marginally behind top-ranked Geelong (74 points) and Brisbane (71).
As the debate focuses on which boots are delivering Port Adelaide's score, the goal umpires' cards have recorded 22 players have delivered 117 goals so far. Key forward Charlie Dixon leads the count, 21 goals - or 18 per cent of Port Adelaide's total goals this season. Less than one in five ...
It is far from all Charlie Dixon or nothing. (One might ask how many goals would have Geelong power forward Tom Hawkins kicked last Friday had he taken Dixon's place?)
Port Adelaide's goalkicking list has Robbie Gray (10) follow Dixon, along with injured forward Todd Marshall and Justin Westhoff on nine each and first-year forward Mitch Georgiades with seven.
If defence wins premierships, Port Adelaide has conceded on average 54 points - second to Geelong and on par with the Collingwood playbook that is noted for delivering an ultra-mean defence.
Port Adelaide's 10-goal loss to Geelong on Friday night on the Gold Coast brings into question just where Ken Hinkley's crew stands in this unusual premiership race. It is the third time Port Adelaide has been compelled to respond after being questioned in the aftermath of losses to Brisbane and St Kilda. Each time, Port Adelaide has beaten a fellow top-eight rival, first 2019 grand finalist Greater Western Sydney and then Melbourne - both with major challenges posed to the Port Adelaide midfielders.
This time it is Hawthorn at Adelaide Oval. And beyond dealing with the demand for an on-field response to the Geelong loss, there is the need to prove the focus on a prize has not been derailed by an off-field issue.
ROUND 13
Port Adelaide v Hawthorn
Sir Doug Nicholls Round
ALMOST six years have passed since Port Adelaide and eventual premier Hawthorn played an epic preliminary final at the MCG on September 20, 2014.
Since that three-point thriller, Port Adelaide and Hawthorn have met six times - for a 3-3 count. Port Adelaide's three wins include consecutive wins in 2015 when Hawthorn was completing its three-peat of premiership flags.
And Hawthorn's three wins include mid-season torments at York Park in Launceston in 2018 and last year that proved costly in Port Adelaide's chase for a top-eight finals berth.
These rivals know how to put a spanner in each others works.
For the first time since June 2017, Port Adelaide and Hawthorn meet at Adelaide Oval (in a match originally slated as a Hawthorn home game in Launceston during Sir Doug Nicholls round - hence the white base to the Port Adelaide indigenous jumper. For the first time, Port Adelaide will be in white at home ... these are indeed unprecedented times).
Port Adelaide is seeking to repeat its 2020 record of responding from defeat with a solid follow-up win - and to keep top spot from the growing challenges being made by Geelong, West Coast and Brisbane in the five-game stretch to the finals.
Hawthorn is condemned to missing finals for the second consecutive season - and finding a new blueprint after being the league's measuring stick for more than a decade.
So what game unfolds at Adelaide Oval on Saturday evening?
Hawthorn's empire might be crumbling; the emperor Alastair Clarkson might be without his regal clothes, but who would dismiss there is a real test for Port Adelaide against a coach and refitted team that will underline it can be as much a nuisance as it can be unsocialable?
On 2020 numbers, Port Adelaide's midfield - working to an eight-day break and much analysis from the failings against Geelong - should claim ascendancy. This should translate to quick movement to Charlie Dixon-led attack ...
But Hawthorn has form on setting up critical traps to hold up Port Adelaide - and keep the game on its terms with the so-called tempo football. How much this is still possible while Clarkson looks for the next generation of Hawthorn players is questionable.
Not in doubt is the work in this zone by South Australian recruit Will Day, the 2019 No. 13 draftee who this week signed a two-year contract extension (to 2023) where his grandfather Robert was a premiership hero in 1971. Since entering the AFL line-up in round six, Day has advanced his reputation week after week.
Port Adelaide lead ruckman Scott Lycett has another interesting duel to come against Ben McEvoy. They missed each other last season when neither player was available former match in Launceston. They last met when Lycett was at West Coast backing up Nic Naitanui in round 10, 2018 - and they beat McEvoy, Jonathon Ceglar and Hawthorn on the Docklands pitch. This time, Lycett will have to work the lead role with long minutes and relief from veteran Justin Westhoff rather than with the support of young gun Pete Ladhams (suspended for COVID protocol breaches).
Travis Boak and vice-captain Ollie Wines have to lock horns with Tom Mitchell and the refreshed Tom Scully.
And three old hands from Alberton - Shaun Burgoyne, Chad Wingard and Jarman Impey - have inspiration from honouring their indigenous culture in this round ... and, yet again, playing against Port Adelaide.
Hawthorn in the past two encounters has held Port Adelaide to 12 and nine goals from 34 and 28 inside-50s, albeit at York Park rather than Adelaide Oval.
A repeat of the themes - in particular pressure football in the forward half - Port Adelaide used to unravel Richmond would serve well against Hawthorn.
LUCKY FOR SOME
PORT Adelaide and Hawthorn have met twice in round 13 - and each time it certainly was lucky for Port Adelaide.
The second round 13 encounter between the clubs was a Friday Night Football wipe-out, in mid-June in 2005. It ended with Port Adelaide's biggest victory against Hawthorn, by 117 points (and the highest score by Port Adelaide in national company, 29.14 with a 188-point total).
Warren Tredrea kicked 7.1 - and another 13 Port Adelaide players registered a score. Byron Pickett was next best with 4.0.
Port Adelaide dominated the disposals (364-292) with midfielder Josh Francou picking up 30 touches but no Brownlow Medal votes (3, W. Tredrea; 2, S. Burgoyne; 1, P. Burgoyne).
The major damage was done in the second half - Port Adelaide outscoring Hawthorn, 17.9 to 2.6 taking the margin from 24 points at half-time to the record 117. This match is one of five in AFL company with a 100-plus winning margin by Port Adelaide.
In 1999, also at Football Park, in a Saturday night encounter that signalled Port Adelaide was building towards its first AFL finals series, there was a 20-point win against Hawthorn - and much inaccuracy at goal with Port Adelaide scoring 8.17. Stuart Dew finished with 0.5 and Warren Tredrea kicked 1.3.
All up since entering the AFL in 1997, Port Adelaide has played 22 times in round 13. The "lucky for some" count is 12-10 in Port Adelaide's favour. Lucky 13th?
SELECTION TABLE
Port Adelaide
FOUR changes in reaction to the biggest loss of the season - and the COVID breaches that put ruckman Pete Ladhams and defender-midfielder Dan Houston on the sidelines for the next three and two matches.
Veteran Justin Westhoff resumes to support lead ruckman Scott Lycett and to offer flexibility to the line-up. It will be career game No. 279 - and his first since August 3.
Former vice-captain Brad Ebert returns after missing three matches to recover from the concussion-style symptoms suffered on the return from Queensland after the win against Melbourne at the Gabba on July 30.
Port Adelaide's defence regains Jarrod Lienert and Riley Bonner, who could also work on a wing with Karl Amon, Zak Butters and Steven Motlop.
Former Brisbane captain Tom Rockliff plays his 200th AFL game, his 47th national league match for Port Adelaide since moving to Alberton as a free agent at the end of 2017.
In: Bonner, Ebert, Lienert, Westhoff
Out: Duursma (omitted), Farrell (omitted), Houston (suspended), Ladhams (suspended)
Hawthorn
IT is the biggest turnover of the magnets by Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson this season - six.
Hawthorn reloads its attack with Greater Western Sydney recruit Jonathan Patton, who proved his fitness in a scratch match with West Coast in Perth at the weekend before the Hawks moved into their Barossa Valley hub. He had been sidelined by a hamstring injury.
The Hawthorn defence introduces Michael Hartley, who has played 44 AFL games in the past four years while seeking a career at Collingwood and Essendon.
Midfielder Dan Howe appears for the first time after recovering from a plantar fascia injury. The depth test at Hawthorn puts 22-year-old midfielder James Cousins back in the senior line-up for the first time this season.
After being rested from the game against West Coast at the weekend, star midfielder Tom Scully resumes.
Injury puts defender James Sicily (knee), midfielder Jaeger O'Meara (hand) and defender James Frawley (dislocated thumb) and forward Jack Gunston (back soreness) out of the match while Irish recruit Connor Nash and defender Harry Morrison have been dropped.
In: Cousins, Hanrahan, Hartley, Howe, Patton, Scully.
Out: Frawley (dislocated thumb), Gunston (back), Morrison (omitted), Nash (omitted), O'Meara (hand), Sicily (knee).
BIRD SEED
(the little stuff that counts most)
Where: Adelaide Oval
When: Saturday, August 22, 2020
Time: 4.05pm (SA time)
Last time: Port Adelaide 6.13 (49) lost to Hawthorn 12.8 (80) at York Park, Launceston in round 10, May 25 last year
Overall: Port Adelaide 19, Hawthorn 16
Past five games (most recent first): L L W L W
Scoring average: Port Adelaide 95, Hawthorn 91
Tightest winning margin - Port Adelaide by four points (84-80) at the MCG, in round 18, August 3, 2003; Hawthorn by three points twice, (64-61) at York Park, Launceston, in round 11, June 2, 2018; (97-94) at the MCG in the preliminary final, September 20, 2014.
Biggest winning margin - Port Adelaide by 117 points (188-71) at Football Park, in round 13, June 17, 2005; Hawthorn by 165 points (197-32) at the MCG, round 21, August 13, 2011.
By venues - Adelaide Oval (3-1), Football Park (8-6), MCG (4-4), Docklands (1-0), Waverley Park (1-1), York Park (2-4).
By States - South Australia (11-7), Victoria (6-5), Tasmania (2-4).
FORM LINES
Port Adelaide
L W W W L W W L W W W W
HOW will Port Adelaide respond? So far this season, each of the two defeats has been quickly addressed and answered with assertive performances. The same will be expected from Port Adelaide this time with the focus on how the midfield loads up the attack to overcome the usual tests Hawthorn poses with its strategies behind centre.
Port Adelaide has not lost consecutive games since falling in rounds 17, 18 and 19 in tests against the finals-bound Brisbane, Greater Western Sydney and eventual premier Richmond
Notable in Port Adelaide's past three scores - 8.7, 13.15 and 4.7 - is the fall in goalscoring accuracy. Port Adelaide has a 117.124 count this season (48.5 per cent conversion excluding shots missed or going out of bounds).
Hawthorn
L L W L L L L W W L W
JUST one win in the past seven rounds has Hawthorn out of finals contention for the second consecutive season - and third time in four years. It is a stark contrast to the reputation of the Alastair Clarkson empire that won consecutive flags from 2013-2015.
But time has moved on and Clarkson has acknowledged the list-management strategy at Hawthorn must do the same with an emphasis on youth - a theme not tried at Hawthorn for some time.
Hawthorn's last win was on Friday, July 31 against Carlton - by 31 points after the fast-starting Carlton led by five goals while Hawthorn was scoreless in the first 15 minutes. Hawthorn scored nine of the game's next 10 goals at Perth Stadium to put its win-loss count at 4-5. Today, it is 4-7.
Win No.3 dates back to June 28, by four points against North Melbourne in that round 4 match that is to be forever remembered for Clarkson's hit on the holding-the-ball interpretations by the umpires ... and the AFL's reaction that has marked the season.
HARRIED HAWKS
ALASTAIR Clarkson left Port Adelaide at the start of the successful 2004 AFL finals campaign to start his phenomenal senior coaching career at Hawthorn (a four-premiership dynasty).
His appreciation of Port Adelaide talent, on and off the field, is noted by the acquisitions Clarkson has made from Alberton. He took fitness coach Andrew Russell and recruiting guru Geoff Morris to develop and prepare his premiership teams.
He took impressive players, Stuart Dew, Brent Guerra (via St Kilda), Jarman Impey, Chad Wingard ... and the grand Shaun Burgoyne.
On the return route, Clarkson has conceded South Australian-born defender Ryan Burton (during the Wingard trade in 2018 exchange period). Most notable is the high count of left footers involved in these trades.
Shaun Burgoyne left Port Adelaide at the end of the 2009 season, after 157 AFL games with Port Adelaide - including the never-to-be-forgotten 2004 grand final at the MCG. Burgoyne always shows his fondness for that flag by referencing that title in his subsequent wins with Hawthorn (2013, 2014 and 2015).
Burgoyne's trophy collection from Port Adelaide also includes a Showdown Medal - from a tie with Simon Goodwin during the heritage round derby late in 2005.
Burgoyne on Saturday will play his 386th AFL match. He is aged 37 (born October 21, 1982).
QUOTES OF THE PRE-GAME
"I don't think height is an issue in defence. It's the players up the ground putting more pressure on. We've also missed Ryan Burton who plays an important role there."
Port Adelaide vice-captain and midfielder Ollie Wines.
"We don't like where we are at the moment ..."
Hawthorn and former Port Adelaide switch-hitting defender Jarman Impey.
TIP
Port Adelaide by 25 points.
