PORT ADELAIDE looked at home at the MCG on Saturday night.
The Port Adelaide system - particularly in frustrating opposition defences seeking quick and direct rebound through the critical corridor space at the G - translates to the so-called home of Australian football.
Usually, it is the visiting non-Victorian teams that get trapped wide on the cricket ground. For Port Adelaide, after a 22-month absence from the MCG, to set the trap and keep Carlton on a repetitive routine of laboriously working slowly along the boundary is a reassuring note for a team that will revisit the G in round 10 for the grudge match against Collingwood ... and then not again until a much-anticipated finals campaign in September.
Port Adelaide created space and commanded the most-important space in the corridor to efficiently turn 48 inside-50s to an impressive 15.6 on the scoreboard. And with 76 per cent disposal efficency, that is better than this season's league average.
By stark contrast, Carlton dragged its way to 58 inside-50 entries with those slow and wide movements to be in more challenging spots to score ... as noted with an inefficient 9.14 return on its scorecard.
Usually, the numbers read the other way for a team that calls the MCG home and a visitor that, as Port Adelaide midfielder Ollie Wines put it, is left to take an invite to the G as a "privilege".
And when Carlton did try to line up forwards in prime positions there was ... Aliir Aliir.
"He gets his hand to everything," said former Port Adelaide captain Travis Boak of the Sydney recruit who has added more than just height to the defence.
"He has no fear going back ... he marked everything," added Boak of Aliir who was recorded with six marks. There were many more perfectly timed spoils or last-second knocks to deny Carlton forwards set shots or red-carpet passage to the goalfront.
Boak also noted the new power of rebound Port Adelaide has developed from Aliir being far more than just a stopper.
On a night when Port Adelaide was to be tested in how it would follow up a brutal win against AFL premier Richmond at Adelaide Oval and Carlton was to be measured as a top-eight contender, one strong conclusion came from the 28-point win.
Port Adelaide is a class ahead of Carlton.
The game was true to all that the numbers promised. It was indeed tough for the Port Adelaide midfielders, none more so than Boak who was again finding Ed Curnow following him faster than his own shadow. The tactic of Boak rolling onto powerful Carlton midfielder, co-captain Patrick Cripps, was more than effective in blunting the point of this tag. "It was selfless," said Wines.
The unfortunate note from a game that was promising more evidence of Dan Houston's value to the Port Adelaide midfield was the two heavy shoulder knocks - first from a collision with Marc Murphy and then from Jack Newnes - that forced Houston to be subbed out of the match in the third term.
Port Adelaide's defence will not carry the nagging Season 2020 question of lacking height while Aliir and Clurey work with captain Tom Jonas and Ryan Burton.
And Port Adelaide's attack should not be burdened by the Season 2021 doubt that young forwards Todd Marshall and Mitch Georgiades cannot work in a tandem alongside All-Australian key forward Charlie Dixon.
Marshall has deft touch and covers more and more ground with greater influence.
Georgiades has the knack of finding himself in the right place at the right time - and kicking with, as Hall of Famer Jason Dunstall noted, a "simple routine that is technically perfect".
The Port Adelaide system works on the MCG, even without injured duo Zak Butters and Xavier Duursma and with Houston and defender Hamish Hartlett joining the list of battered men at Alberton.
At 4-1, Port Adelaide has set up a sound foundation for a top-four campaign that - to deliver a premiership - demands being sound on the MCG. This is not in doubt after Port Adelaide proved it needed no refresher course in avoiding the traps of a testing venue, even after 22 months off the G.
