PORT ADELAIDE beat Sydney by 26 points at Adelaide Oval on Saturday afternoon to ensure it remains at the top of the AFL ladder for another week.

The Swans got on top in the second half but Port had done enough to get the result.

Here are some key things we learned from the game.

1) Never write off a champion

Going into Saturday’s game, AFL Hall of Famer Mick Malthouse wrote in a column that Robbie Gray should retire, among a list of other players from other clubs. He wrote that Gray had a “loss of pace and depth in his kicking” and he was not having a huge output. Whether Gray read the comments or not does not matter. He showed he still has plenty to offer at AFL level. By half time Gray led the game with 19 touches, four tackles and three clearances and two goals (which could have easily been three if not for Cam Sutcliffe taking playing on to advantage for Port's first of the day) - his first after strong forward pressure by his teammates and his second after a clever tap by Dixon when the big man was going to get tackled. By the end of the game he had 27 disposals, ten score involvements, six tackles and five clearances. Coach Ken Hinkley said Gray is building form and would have a few opposition sides worried. Certainly Malthouse would be eating his words.

2) The Swans are no longer Port’s bogey side.

Overall, Sydney has beaten Port Adelaide in 20 of their 31 meetings. It’s a significant record for any side against another. More telling is that between 2006 and 2016, Port played the Swans 15 times for just two wins. That included a run of eight straight losses and another of five straight losses. But since 2016, Port has won each of the four encounters between the sides by 28, 23, 47 and 26 points – that’s an average win of 31 points. Port supporters will be hoping Sydney’s dominance is at an end and their side will now have a run of its own.

3) Charlie Dixon’s strong season.

He’s been strong in every sense of the word in 2020. Despite some doubters and a quiet couple of weeks, Dixon pulled out a big game where he was influential on the scoreboard and off it. As well as bringing his teammates into the game, as evidenced by his tap-down to Gray in the first quarter, Dixon was involved in eight of Port’s 18 scores including four goals of his own. He has now moved up to third in the race for the Coleman Medal with 27 goals in his 13 games this season and as stats guru @sirswampthing on twitter pointed out, he’s kicked multiple goals in eight games this season – the only Port player to do so in 2020. The next best is Justin Westhoff, who has kicked multiple goals in four games.

4) Port likes milestones

Last week it was a win in Tom Rockliff’s 200^th AFL game and Travis Boak’s 300^th AFL-sanctioned game, which qualified him for AFL life membership, against Richmond Port did the job in what was Ollie Wines’ and Tom Jonas’ 150^th games and Scott Lycett’s 100^th, in Justin Westhoff’s 300^th AFL-sanctioned match, the Power got up by 51 points over Melbourne, and it was a similar result when coach Ken Hinkley achieved the same milestone against GWS on the Gold Coast. Throw in a win over West Coast in Brad Ebert’s 250^th game. Saturday’s win occurred in Darcy Byrne-Jones’ 100^th game. That’s six wins in six milestone games in 2020. Talk about doing the job for your teammates.

5) Strong defence helps win games

It never gets the same accolades as some of the goals the forwards kick, but some of the defending from Port was outstanding against the Swans on Saturday. When Sydney got on top in the third quarter, Port was lucky the visitors only managed two goals for the term – one early to Sam Reid and the other just before the three-quarter time siren to Nick Blakey. While some of that was down to inaccurate kicking, much of it was about the desperate defending by Port’s backline. It started in the eleventh minute when a long shot appeared about to bounce through or at least end up in the arms of an incoming Swans forward into an open goal but Tom Clurey was more desperate and showed speed and strength to burst past his opponent and clear the ball outside 50 to a teamamte. Darcy Byrne-Jones then showed repeated efforts in the middle of the ground, followed by Sam Powell-Pepper’s three tackles and bumps to prevent yet another Swans attack. The latter was a moment that lifted the entire side when it needed it and helped Port get back into the game.