AN ideal pre-season would end with plenty of answers and very few questions - or lingering doubts. This is Port Adelaide's script in the lead-up to AFL Season 2021.

Indeed, Port Adelaide appears even better prepared for a premiership campaign than at any time during those heady days of collecting three consecutive McClelland Trophies as AFL minor premier from 2002-2004.

The contrast between Port Adelaide, as the 2020 minor premier, and Adelaide, the 2020 wooden spooner, certainly has never appeared starker after two commanding wins by 52 and 71 points in consecutive summer Showdowns across eight days from Alberton and Noarlunga in this shortened AFL pre-season.

And some might argue back-to-back practice games against the AFL's 18th-ranked rival - after Adelaide has stripped more experience from its squad - is anything but ideal for Port Adelaide. However, ....

Sunday's close to the pre-season with the near 12-goal win - after having 6.10 on the scoreboard at half-time and finishing the AAMI Community Series derby at Noarlunga with 17.14 - has anything but the lustre of fool's gold. It reaffirms Port Adelaide is ready to answer fellow top-four contenders Geelong, Brisbane and defending AFL premier Richmond in staying ahead of the pack.

Comparisons of one pre-season to another seem meaningless to Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley. But there is plenty to take out of the summer even if it ends with rising star midfielder-forward Connor Rozee having surgery this week to correct his latest foot injury.

"We feel we are in pretty good shape ...," says Hinkley. "We are really well prepared; well drilled as far as the way we like to play. And that gives us a great chance to start the season off strong."

Physically, Port Adelaide appears as well primed as that summer of 2012-13 that led to Hinkley declaring no team would out-run his players ... 12 months after they were noted for being without the strength to run out quarters, let alone matches.

Mentally, the Port Adelaide players seem critically motivated to take that extra step that has eluded them after preliminary final heartbreak last season and in 2014.

And that great intangible of team spirit has some telling signals on the field with the work done at Alberton to build a sounder gameplan and a better connected squad delivering results.

"It definitely is as good as we execute at the moment; it is done at a really high level," Hinkley says of the transition of a game style in his playbook to actions by his players on the field. "It is done at a really high level - and that has been a two-to-three-year build. It has not been a two-minute build. 

"I've said 2019 was disappointing in where we finished (with no finals appearance), but it was part of what we were putting together - and '20 was a fantastic season. We'd like '21 to be better."

Some key questions were answered at Noarlunga in a pre-season game that would have gone into the official record books had it unfolded during the home-and-away campaign. When novice Jackson Mead took Port Adelaide's 182nd team mark in the 18th minute of the last term, the league record of 181 marks set by Richmond against Adelaide in round 8, 2006 was surpassed.

More meaningful were the scouting notes that highlight Robbie Gray is starting his 15th AFL season with a game sense mere mortals can only dream to command.

Sydney recruit Aliir Aliir can play in defence AND two ruckmen, Scott Lycett and Peter Ladhams, can also be on the field while they offer a go-to target when working as forwards inside-50.

Essendon recruit Orazio Fantasia, who had a 3.3 return for his forward work while playing just the first half of this game, is just as Port Adelaide forward coach Nathan Bassett said: "Orazio is going to help us score; you see when he touches the footy we score more often than not."

And now - with recent draftees Lachie Jones and Miles Bergman showing the appetite for their AFL debuts - comes the challenge of finding the starting 22 for the premiership-season opener against North Melbourne at the Docklands on Sunday, March 21.

Some pre-seasons close with a debate well worth enduring as the "water cooler" moment on Monday mornings - and Tuesday and Wednesday and ...