PORT ADELAIDE'S 49-point loss to Brisbane - to extend the losing streak to the Queensland-based club to four - ruined more than the expectation of another epic duel at the Gabba. Or of any meaningful assessment of Port Adelaide's new-look playbook - and from where the team generated the bulk of its 96-point average score in the first six rounds of this home-and-away season.

This Saturday night horror show dialled back the calendar to those days when Port Adelaide found fame or shame all depending on its willingness to get its hands dirty.

Very few Port Adelaide players were as ready - or as eager - for the contest as vice-captain Ollie Wines was from the first bounce.

This contradiction of the "Port Adelaide way" revived the question of how very little can make it to the scoreboard while so many inside-50s are being recorded on the statistician's sheets. Inefficiency coupled with inaccuracy make for an ugly picture on the scoreboard.

EIGHT points - just one goal - in the first term.

TEN points - and again just one goal - in the second quarter.

The last time this happened? Round 3 actually - against West Coast in Perth where Port Adelaide again was exposed for lacking a blue-collar work ethic at the contest. In the West at Easter, there was a second-half response to outscore West Coast ....

The stark contrast in efficiency between Port Adelaide and Brisbane was well noted on the half-time scoreboard: 8.8 to 2.6. Or, more to the point, Port Adelaide had more inside-50 entries but no forward emerging as a threat while Brisbane full back Harris Andrews topped up his confidence bank while answering his critics; the more efficient Brisbane had more scores from fewer opportunities.

NINE points - and still just one goal - in the third term when the quarter-by-quarter margin kept blowing out from 21 to 38 to 54.

The last time Port Adelaide had just three goals at three quarter-time? Round 12 last season, on the Gold Coast, in that 10-goal loss to eventual grand finalist Geelong.

SIXTEEN points - and two goals - in the last quarter when Port Adelaide won the term by five points.

The last time Port Adelaide scored five goals or less? That 60-point loss to Geelong last season.

For the third consecutive year, Brisbane has blunted Port Adelaide's scoring capabilities to restrict the goal count to six in 2019, six in 2020 and five in 2021. Once can be an "outrider"; twice can be a coincidence but three times demands a rethink on how to play Brisbane.

And there is no great mystery to why Port Adelaide can crumble from a team being watched - and admired - for its scoring prowess and methods to running dry: Being beaten (or as Hawthorn premiership hero Dermott Brereton put it, "bashed up") at the contest has painful consequences.

The contested possession count finished at 155-132 in Brisbane's favour. Wines defied the team malaise with his 13 hard-earned contested possessions in his match-high 37 disposals.

The inside-50 tally closed at 58-55 in Port Adelaide's favour - but Brisbane had 30 shots to 20. No Port Adelaide player managed more than one goal. The three-man tall-forward tandem of Charlie Dixon, Todd Marshall and Mitch Georgiades combined for ... 0.2 (all from Dixon) of the team's 5.14.

This put an echo on Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley's pre-game response on whether his team had discovered a new goalscoring formula: "Sometimes it is artificial, sometimes it is real. It is up to us to find out if it is real ..."

Brownlow Medallist Gerard Healy started his night in the television booth believing the Port Adelaide he admires was the real deal as a measuring stick for this year's AFL premiership race. Now he is perplexed.

The question - that repeats from the heavy losses to Brisbane and Geelong last season and West Coast this year - is how Port Adelaide responds. There is the natural adrenaline run that comes from a Showdown derby against Adelaide, a match that demands a strong approach to the contest.

It is going to be a long week for both derby rivals after both Port Adelaide and Adelaide warmed up for Showdown XLIX with lame performances.