Miles Bergman is one beneficiary of Port Adelaide's luckless run with injury as he continues to push his case to be a regular in Ken Hinkley's side.

PORT ADELAIDE'S forward thinking for Season 2021 might now be described as perceptive. And now it is part of a necessity to be in prime condition for an AFL top-eight final series that will indeed reward the best squad - not the best team.

Port Adelaide read the script quite well.

Longer season (22 rather than 17 home-and-away games). Longer games (20-minute quarters rather than 16). Fewer rotations (75 rather than 90). Shorter pre-season (after an October finish to the COVID-interrupted 2020 season). Shorter lists. The only gain was the 23rd man medical substitute.

Port Adelaide opened the season declaring it would work a "squad mentality".

Defence coach Brett Montgomery noted after the pre-season opened in February with a summer Showdown at Alberton Oval: "The (home-and-away) season, we hope, will be 22 games long - it will be a slog, a grind again. So you need a deep squad with players capable of multiple roles."

Every Port Adelaide player had to successfully adapt to at least two roles. Even All-Australian key forward Charlie Dixon rediscovered the centre circle as a pinch-hitting ruckman.

Port Adelaide was perceptively stretching itself. How deep did the squad roll?

By the end of a promising pre-season, Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley and his staff were declaring the depth chart reached the 30s - and not just by the introduction of Essendon specialist forward Orazio Fantasia and Sydney defender Aliir Aliir.

"The approach at the start of the year was a really positive one around that squad mentality and how to keep a greater deeper squad engaged for longer," said Montgomery.

02:47

Travis Boak painting for Childhood Cancer Association | PTV

Travis Boak joined forces with local artist Marie Glezos to create a custom Port Adelaide print.

After four months of combative football, the challenge had changed by the curse of injuries rather than form lapses.

Port Adelaide has (so far) used 34 players in 16 home-and-away games. 

In a sport in which injuries are part of the challenge - and reinforce the theme that the AFL premiership race is about measuring the best squads not the best 22-man line-ups - Port Adelaide has been tested to the near limit on its squad mentality.

The more interesting sub-plot in any review of Port Adelaide's squad is the three-year storyline of the "three amigos" - Connor Rozee, Zak Butters and Xavier Duursma. They came to Alberton from the 2018 AFL national draft  with picks 5 (Rozee), 12 (Butters) and 18 (Duursma).

They avoided the "second-year blues" that haunt AFL rookies with greater pressure to maintain form under greater attention from opponents and critics. But the third-year torment of injuries is the unexpected burden on this trio.

In their debut season of 2019, the Rozee-Butters-Duursma trio combined for 18 of a possible 22 games. There was a 9-9 win-loss record in these matches - and great enthusiasm for how these teenagers would be a major part of Port Adelaide's midfield regeneration for the next decade.

In 2020, they played 11 of a possible 19 games in the shortened season. They had a 9-2 win-loss record. The anticipation for 2021 was one for billboard promotions.

In 2021, they have played just two of a possible 16 matches - rounds 3 (loss to West Coast in Perth) and 4 (win against AFL premier Richmond at Adelaide Oval).

Rozee missed the first two matches recuperating from foot surgery.

Duursma has been sidelined since a knee injury against Richmond, but returned to competitive football at the weekend in the SANFL clash with Norwood at Alberton Oval.

Butters suffered ankle and left-knee injuries against Richmond on April 9, had two rounds of surgery ... and strained his lateral medial ligament in his right knee in his AFL comeback match on Thursday night against Melbourne at Adelaide Oval.

The three pointers to the future will not be together again on an AFL field for the next month while Butters works through a four-week recovery program.

Willem Drew is another who has been afforded the time to showcase his abilities due to the injury toll at Alberton.

Setbacks for some are opportunities for others, the very point of the squad test in the AFL marathon to a premiership. 

Those who have gained amid this test are Miles Bergman and Willem Drew, as noted by Hinkley a fortnight ago: "There is no doubt that sometimes those (injury setbacks) forced upon you gives you an added bonus; there is no doubt about that.

"A number of players, those two (Bergman and Drew) in particular, have come in and established themselves in the side and look like really strong players.

"Drew (2016 AFL national draft, No. 33) we always thought was a genuine AFL player. He just didn't have luck with his body and Miles (2019 AFL national draft, No. 14) last year had a challenging first year with the COVID issues but we were always comfortable he had a lot of ability. We just needed to give him opportunities."

The depth test at Alberton this year has given four players their AFL start at Port Adelaide - academy graduate Lachie Jones, fellow half-back Martin Frederick, forward Dylan Williams and Bergman.

Short-term pain for long-term gain perhaps.

And at 11-5 with a fifth ranking - and on the verge of qualifying for the top-eight finals series - Port Adelaide is standing in a race that is going to challenge every would-be premiership squad (emphasis on squad) to the limit.