WHAT label do they put on Port Adelaide this week?

F - that has been worn out with "flat-track bullies" tag - becomes truncated to just "flat" for another slow start.

P - "pretenders" - now stands for stoic "patience" to work through a very tough situation against an opponent with tighter locks than the local bank.

B - from that "bully" slur - is all about being "brave", just as senior coach Ken Hinkley has repeatedly demanded of his team and his club.

Port Adelaide's one-point win against Collingwood at the MCG on Sunday did play to the true images of two football teams with starkly contrasting playbooks. And for Collingwood, defence is not always the best form of attack ... not when there is slow and overdone ball movement.

Whereas for Port Adelaide, that instinctive determination to keep the scoreboard turning over ultimately did pay off with four premiership points that will be treasured by a team that stayed true to Hinkley's other mantra of "never give in".

It was ugly at the start for Port Adelaide (for the fourth time this season). More so when Port Adelaide's first goal was not scored until the Melbourne Cricket Club clock read 4.07pm for a game Collingwood started at 3.20pm and with the first four goals to have a 26-point lead.

And some of the seemingly contagious fumbling by Port Adelaide players at the contest made the start even more difficult to watch.

It was significantly reassuring for Port Adelaide at the end (for the seventh win in 10 matches this season). More so when Port Adelaide had to find a way to make its attacking-minded game over-run the defensive shackles that defines (and often deny) Collingwood.

And in this remarkable comeback - after Collingwood led for the first 91 minutes of game time - is the study of how so many Port Adelaide players added telling new dimensions to their game.

All-Australian key forward Charlie Dixon, while the critics were looking with venom at his goalkicking count for the season, again proved his worth to the team by setting up gold-plated opportunities for his team-mates.

There are two of these moments that Dixon could package in a video response to his external judges.

The first was in the fifth minute of the last term when Dixon pinned his Collingwood opponent Jordan Roughead to the goalfront before smothering his hasty kick from the Punt Road end. The spill from Dixon's full-blooded smother became unmarked Port Adelaide midfielder Dan Houston's moment to open the goalscoring rush in the last quarter (a term with six goals in 27 minutes after just 10 in the previous 90).

The second decisive Dixon moment rattled a recent ghost in the Collingwood library ...

No two games are ever the same. But this one should draw comparisons with the 2018 AFL grand final in which Collingwood made a fast start (for a 29-point lead in time-on of the first term) and West Coast marched off with the premiership.

That 2018 grand final is remembered for Dom Sheed's remarkable set-shot from the "outer" boundary of the Punt Road end of the G. From the same pocket, but much closer to goal, this home-and-away game was decided from an alert one-two play between Dixon in ruck and Ollie Wines at a shallow boundary throw-in with 5:14 to play.

The resulting 13-point lead from Wines' sharp kick capped a four-goal scoring surge by Port Adelaide after being held to just four goals during the previous three terms.

"We had to take the game on more with the ball," said Port Adelaide midfielder and opportunist forward Robbie Gray of the mindset needed by his team-mates in the last term to break free of the Collingwood defensive chains.

They gambled. They won.

They took risks. They found their reward.

They have captain Tom Jonas to thank for his desperate work in defence from the start - and they need to ask why they cannot show such eagerness for every and any contest from the first bounce. This would solve the flat starts.

They have young ruckman Peter Ladhams to admire for his aggressive tone towards Collingwood powerhouse ruckman Brodie Grundy after half-time.

They have to again salute former captains Travis Boak and Wines for their tireless work, particularly in a week when so much was made of Port Adelaide's numbers in stoppages and at contested football.

They have key defender Trent McKenzie to applaud for being so sharp - particularly in those perfectly timed spoils - in his first AFL game of the season.

They have young wingman Kane Farrell to acknowledge for understanding there was no better time - or occasion - to reward those who have shown so much faith in him.

And they have Gray to laud for being a master in every situation on every pressure point of the field.

Collingwood won on the statistic sheets - 35-29 at clearances, 10-7 at centre stoppages; and 137-127 on contested football ... and by 75 on all disposals.

But Port Adelaide won the game by one point by having a determination to score ... and play the game with enterprise.

So what label fits Port Adelaide this week?