ROBBIE Gray's current contract at Port Adelaide has an expiry date of October 31, 2021. A week ago, Collingwood and West Coast premiership coach Michael Malthouse was wanting to rework that deal with a "use by" stamp reading, as soon as this season ended.

" ... when pace, durability, reflexes and sharpness of mind start to diminish, then time has caught up with you," wrote Malthouse, casting himself as the AFL's grim reaper with a significant list of the game's veterans.

In fairness to Malthouse, this has not been the most assertive of Gray's 14 seasons at Port Adelaide. And at age 32, there becomes an instant correlation between time catching up on a champion when his form is not aligned to a lofty standard.

Gray responded on Saturday. 

His team-high 27 touches mark Gray's most-productive game (by statistics) this season. Those 27 disposals are the most against his name since he collected his fifth Showdown Medal in the second derby in round 16 last year with 35.

The numbers are, true to Gray's status as a premier footballer, of high quality - 13 contested possessions, 82 per cent efficiency, three intercepts and movements that made Sydney opponent Callum Mills sharpen his focus.

Gray's score count of two goals against Sydney at Adelaide Oval on Saturday would have been three had the advantage rule not allowed team-mate Cam Sutcliffe to collect the first score of the match. But it is a team game. All up, Gray was involved in 10 of Port Adelaide's 18 scores.

All it needed at the end this lustrous performance was Gray taking a bow after saying, "Predictions of my demise have been greatly exaggerated."

Certainly Sydney premiership coach John Longmire left Adelaide Oval eager to testify the list-management team at Alberton did not err in signing both Gray and former captain Travis Boak to one-year contract extensions before the premiership season started.

"Elite," said Longmire of Gray.

"A very good player. Nothing surprises me about Robbie Gray. He has always been an elite player. I watch what he does and there is no surprises."

Gray emerged from summer training to enter the pre-season with his touch generating high enthusiasm. Be it those foot niggles that cost him a Victorian state jumper and a place in the first pre-season Marsh Community series warm-up matches or be it the 12-week lay-off during the COVID lockdown, Gray's season is best described as a "slow burn". The flame reached a reassuring peak with that match-winning goal after the siren against Carlton at the Gabba in round 7 - and three times in the past four matches, Gray has chalked up 20 or more touches (first with 22 in the epic clash with Richmond in round 11, 20 in the scrap with Hawthorn in round 13 and now the season-high 27 against Sydney).

Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley notes Gray's timing in finding peak form - like his perceptive finding of the football - is well timed.

"Rob's been building his form; he had a quieter start to the year, there's no doubt," Hinkley said. "He's just kept at it. He's consistent about the way he goes about things.

"We've helped him a little, we've certainly supported him a little bit when he needed some support from the coaching," added Hinkley referring to "opportunities that can help him find form, that can be a little bit around position and that can be a little bit around giving him the ball at times."

"But to his credit, he's the one who still has to do it. 

"He's building. So that's a good result, isn't it? We can look forward to Robbie playing like that more and more as we go through the season. That'll be a bit of a worry for some others."

ROUND 14

Port Adelaide 11.7 (73) d Sydney 7.5 (47)

THERE are still two Port Adelaides. Thankfully, in contrast to previous seasons, the good Port Adelaide is not as vulnerable to the bad Port Adelaide.

In the classic "glass half full, half empty" theme, Port Adelaide on Saturday at Adelaide Oval achieved its fourth consecutive win against Sydney with some very good aspects emerging in its game. But not always.

"A good first half; a poor second half," said Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley.

Not perfect, Hinkley added. But some parts of Port Adelaide's performance that delivered the 11th win from 14 matches this season were certainly pleasing.

In the first half, Port Adelaide tormented the Sydney defence. Of the 28 tackles counted towards Port Adelaide players, 13 were in their forward half of the field. This is forward pressure to admire.

In the second half, the count was 25 tackles in total - just two in the forward half. And Sydney coach John Longmire was admiring how his team had "more ball in the forward half ... and that doesn't happen often against Port Adelaide".

In the second quarter, Port Adelaide was dominant - 4.1 while not conceding a score to set up a 32-point lead.

In the third term, 0.1 ... while Sydney gained command of the critical contested possessions and clearances that traditionally clearly define contests between these teams. But this ascendancy was not rewarded on the scoreboard where Sydney added 2.3, notably with Sam Wicks, James Bell and Nick Blakey missing set shots in the 13th, 14th and 16th minutes. The 18-point buffer at three quarter-time could have been far less.

Notable at this point was Sydney taking to the shade cast by the Sir Edwin Smith stand before the last changeover while Adelaide Oval basked under its warmest sun since early April. The Port Adelaide huddle stayed in the sun.

The cracking point in the Sydney-dominated second half was in the 17th minute of the last term when Port Adelaide midfielder-forward Zak Butters overcame all the close attention of Jackson Thurlow to stab his team's 10th goal - and the dagger also punctured Longmire's belief of a late-moment thriller, as noted by his despondent reaction in the coach's box while Butters' crafty kick put the margin at 25 points.

There was so much to like early in Port Adelaide's work, particularly the scene-setting first term by Robbie Gray. And a fair bit to frown across during the second half. The good stuff was better than the ordinary.

At least the goalkicking conversion rate improved.

This leaves the question: Which Port Adelaide will win this identity battle before the top-eight finals begin in mid-September? 

Sometimes it can look like we're a fair way away ... but when we played (and beat 2019 AFL premier Richmond) it was called the game of the season. That was not that far back. We're moving towards our best footy. I have no doubt about that. It is good time of the year to be getting to that spot.

As a football club we said a long time ago that we're getting ready, that we're coming at the competition. We're living up to our end of the bargain as best we can.

Now it is up to us to maximise and capitalise on that opportunity.

Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley

This game once again had the Port Adelaide faithful emptying their lungs in frustration with the holding-the-ball calls (or lack of them) from the three field umpires. If Longmire's facial expressions on Butters' game-sealing goal in the last term said it all, so did Port Adelaide midfielder Tom Rockliff's body language after he was granted a holding-the-ball free kick for his bracing tackle on the western wing during the last term. 

Rockliff says his reaction was in frustration to inconsistent calls on holding-the-ball. He was not alone. There is no doubt that team-mate Darcy Bryne-Jones, in his 100th AFL game, was denied umpire appreciation of his tackle in the 22nd minute mark of the last term. At least that moment, a field ruck contest, ended in Port Adelaide's favour with Justin Westhoff scoring the team's 11th goal.

Port Adelaide's injury list does not appear to have been amended by this match.

After Butters created a nightmarish scare of an ankle and/or knee injury after collapsing while charging on a dream run to the northern goal in the first term, the real concern was left with former vice-captain Brad Ebert being forced into the medical rooms during the third term after a clash of heads (or cheeks) with Sydney forward Will Hayward. 

Just as the Butters moment ended with relief in the teenager getting back on his feet and playing out the match, the critical concussion tests on Ebert also were clear and encouraging.

And now to the seven-day break (thanks to yet another advent of this "unprecedented" season; the "mid-week bye") ... with still plenty of work to be done at Alberton.

QUOTE OF THE GAME

"He said he was trying to go too fast. It is like the little kid that is running first time for a few times - he's running too quick that he just falls over.

"I reckon it will get a run in the (team) review. And national television considering he pulled up fine. I can't tell you what happened, I was just watching like everyone else and thinking the worst; thinking surely he has done something bad to make that happen. But Zak is pretty hyper-flexible and fast obviously - and got his legs mixed up."

Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley on midfielder-forward Zak Butters stumbling to ground - and sending a scare through the camp - while charging at full pace to the northern goal in the first quarter.

TAKE IT TO THE BANK

(five things we learned this week)

1) SILLY SEASON. It is rare - more so than unusual - for board members of one AFL club to speak of uncontracted players at another. But this is the "unprecedented year". Port Adelaide key forward Charlie Dixon became part of this new club last week. But will he be finding his third AFL club in November? "Charlie Dixon is not going anywhere," Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley said on Friday. "Did anyone really think he was going to leave?" One person certainly tried to create that perception.

2) UMPIRE'S CALL. In a year with so many proverbial moments falling, so has the thought an umpire will never change a decision. The SANFL did allow for the voting slips on its Magarey Medal equivalent in the women's league to be amended to set up a post-count tie between North Adelaide premiership champion Anne Hatchard and West Adelaide ball winner Rachelle Martin. How many men who have questioned their votes in Magarey and Brownlow counts would enjoy using this precedent?

3) TOUGH FORECAST. Season 2020 has tested everyone with heavy hits to AFL finances in the wake of revenue being slashed in the wake of the COVID pandemic. Hawthorn Football Club president Jeff Kennett highlighted during the week that 2021 will - without the pandemic cleared away - demand more cuts and pain. The test is far from gone nor resolved and there is still much to be done to repin the game's foundation. Kennett last week referred to 2021 as a "tsunami" on the horizon. "Every club," says Kennett, "will be smaller (in 2021) ... everyone has taken (salary) cuts between 20-30 per cent (this year) and the question is will there be more next year?"

4) IT'S NOT THE GRASS. So much is made of the home-field advantage Geelong (at Kardinia Park) and Richmond (at the MCG) have in Victoria. Perhaps the quality of the teams also has something to do with their success. Since being forced out of Victoria, Richmond has won six of six matches in Queensland; Geelong is four from four in the Sunshine State and still trying to determine of its plays better at the Gabba or Metricon Stadium. Geelong's 11-point win against the Western Bulldogs, after being six goals down at quarter-time, marks the club's biggest comeback from a first-quarter deficit since 1931 - at the MCG in the preliminary final against Carlton (7.5 to 0.0) in a game that had 16 goals in the first half and just  six in the second. Geelong won by six points and then beat Richmond for the VFL flag. The September 11 clash between Geelong and Richmond at Metricon Stadium is building nicely.

5) GROWING PAINS. Free agency was introduced in the AFL at the end of 2012, allowing uncontracted players after eight years of service at the club that drafted them to move freely to the club of their choice. Other sports have had such a trigger to player movement for much longer - and coped with players declaring a change of contractual allegiance before a season ends. In some places, the AFL system is still trying to cope with admirable honesty from players.

NEXT

Bye

PORT Adelaide is one of six clubs with the bye during the week. And even without action in round 15, Port Adelaide will remain top of the ladder for the 23rd consecutive week. As strange as it is, Port Adelaide gets a seven-day break - "a luxury these days," says Ken Hinkley - rather than a regulation fortnight's rest from this bye.

NEXT NEXT

North Melbourne v Port Adelaide

Metricon Stadium, Gold Coast

Saturday, September 5

7.10pm SA time

JUST one game to open round 16 - and on a Saturday night rather than a Friday night.

There also is a bit carrying over from the last North Melbourne-Port Adelaide clash that became a costly Saturday night for Ken Hinkley and his team at the Melbourne Docklands on August 17 last year. Despite being out of finals contention - as it is today - North Melbourne decided to take up the role of being a top-eight spoiler with an 86-point win against Port Adelaide.

Port Adelaide defender-midfielder Dan Houston is eligible at selection after serving his two-match ban for breaching COVID protocols. But whether he has served all of his penance - or conceded a first-22 position to a rival - will not be answered until selection on Friday.

ANNIVERSARY NOTE

SEPTEMBER beckons. It is the month that defines Port Adelaide as Australia's most-successful football club. 

September 1870, in the club's inaugural season, marked the third and final game in the year-long series against another team in its first campaign, Young Australian.

So far, the scorecard reads - Game 1: 1-1 draw at the North Parklands (defined as the grounds to the east of Adelaide Oval) on July 30.

Game 2: 1-1 draw at Buck's Flat, Glanville with a sandstorm testing the players (15 a side) and spectators on August 20.

Game 3 takes the series back to the North Parklands on September 10 with the Concordia Band to entertain along with the footballers, who again will form teams of 15 men each.