AT best it will be 8-3 after Port Adelaide closes the first half of the AFL home-and-away season against Fremantle at Adelaide Oval on Sunday - the club's best 11-game win-loss record in a 22-round series since 10-1 in 2014.

But still there is the question of where Port Adelaide fits in an 18-team race to September that seems more competitive than last season - and just as uncertain with the COVID protocols and lockdown in Melbourne.

Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley - who put on the table the need for his team to advance from "good" to "great" - is seeking to narrow the gap in his team's best and not-so-great form.

"We have to get tomorrow night done," Hinkley said at training at Adelaide Oval on Saturday. "That would get us to potentially our bye at 8-3. (But) it is a challenging competition we play in ...

"We will assess from there, we will improve. We will get better as the season improves. It is not a bad spot to be at but we have been a good side ... not a great side.

"It is a challenge to close that gap (between good and great) and that is for every side. We look at the sides that have done it in the past - Richmond is a perfect example of being able to do it and it took them a while. Once they got there, they have been able to stay there for a good period of time.

"That is what we are trying to do in a pretty tough competition.

"I would have said 11-0 would have been fantastic (at the bye) but I know 8-3 is a good return if we can get there. We are 7-3 and it is a really big game for us to get to 8-3. We would go to the halfway mark, not satisfied but knowing we have done a fair job."

At selection, Port Adelaide made one change - recalling opportunistic forward Orazio Fantasia returning from a leg injury that cost him one game. He replaces vice-captain Hamish Hartlett.

But there was no temptation to amend the line-up with two ruckmen, by calling Sam Hayes for his first AFL match to work a tandem with Peter Ladhams.

"We feel like we have the three talls (Charlie Dixon, Todd Marshall and Mitch Georgiades) in the front half," Hinkley said. "To (work two ruckmen) we would have to leave one of them out. We like the way they are operating together. 

"We think they are going to keep getting better together, so keeping them together is important. But they still have to play well to stay in the side.

"It is pretty simple for Hamish," added Hinkley of the 192-game Hartlett. "By his own feedback, he has been inconsistent - he has had some highlights in most games, but he also he has had some stuff that he would like to be better at and more consistent at.

"Hamish knows exactly where he is at. He is embracing the opportunity to go back (to the SANFL) and get himself in some good form, because he is a pretty important part of our team and we'd like to think it won't take him long to get back into some form."

Port Adelaide's midfield will be tested by the experience of Brownlow Medallist Nat Fyfe and David Mundy and the exciting talent of Adam Cerra, Caleb Serong and Angus Brayshaw.

Hinkley has his own new generation of midfielders to work alongside the experienced pair of former captains Ollie Wines and Travis Boak. This should include Connor Rozee with more midfield exposure on Sunday.

"There should be, but there will be a balance," Hinkley said. "What we are lucky with is we have a number of players who can play through the midfield - Connor, Robbie Gray, Sam Powell-Pepper, Dan Houston, Willem Drew, Kane Farrell ... 

"There are a lot who can get minutes in there and sometimes it is around how we are playing on the day, how the person is playing. But we expect Connor will only grow his midfield minutes as this season progresses.

"It is a challenging role to play (half-forward) some weeks and it can be hard when the team is not at its absolute best. Connor makes us a better team and he will make us a better team whether he is at half-forward or on ball. He is a pretty exciting player still.

"He is 100 per cent, ready to go," added Hinkley of Rozee who had foot surgery at the start of the year.

Port Adelaide has worked through the issues left by the one-point win against an ultra-defensive Collingwood at the MCG on Sunday - a theme that carries on with Fremantle under coach Justin Longmuir, a former Collingwood assistant coach.

"Fremantle are a bit similar to Collingwood," Hinkley said. "We expect it will be similar, but they also have some real weapons around the ball, Nat Fyfe in particular and David Mundy who are just outstanding players and leaders and they have these young men who are really emerging and Sean Darcy is a good ruckman. 

"They are in pretty good form as a football team and they are growing and heading the right way."

Fremantle's eagerness for a handball game puts Port Adelaide back to dealing with some questions exposed by the a Western Bulldogs at Adelaide Oval earlier this month.

"The Bulldogs are the absolute best at throwing the handball around and it challenged us on that night," Hinkley said. "We'd like to think we can use the ball by hand pretty well too."

Port Adelaide's preparation for Sunday was not thrown out by the COVID scare created by the team's presence at the MCG at the weekend.

"It was normal, other than having to get a COVID test on Wednesday which was our day off," Hinkley said. "It worked out pretty well with no interruptions to the preparation for the week. So we have no excuse for not being ready."

Port Adelaide hosts Fremantle at Adelaide for the sixth time with a 5-0 win-loss record. The match will start at 4.50pm Adelaide time, 40 minutes later than originally planned to allow extra travel time for the AFL umpires coming from Perth.

Port Adelaide is drawn to resume against Geelong at Adelaide Oval in Thursday Night Football on June 10. This assumes no change to the AFL fixture by the COVID lockdown in Melbourne.

"Whatever comes our way, we will embrace the opportunity to play whenever that time is," Hinkley said. "We just want the footy season to continue as everyone does. It is great for the community. We will be there with a smile."