PORT ADELAIDE maintained its position in the AFL’s top four and gave Travis Boak the ideal celebration for his 300^th game with a relatively comfortable 28-point win over Collingwood at Marvel Stadium on Friday night.

After an interrupted week where Port again found itself in Melbourne at short notice for a game originally scheduled for Adelaide Oval, Boak and his teammates got the job done against an at-times plucky Collingwood outfit.

Here are some key things we learned from the game.

1) Team-first mentality key to success

Ollie Wines has fast become one of Port’s key ball winners in 2021, averaging 32.6 disposals per game and six clearances. But he can do the defensive stuff too. Collingwood vice-captain Taylor Adams was causing a few headaches for the Port Adelaide midfield with 21 first-half disposals. Wines went to him after half time and kept him to just three second-half disposals. Wines had been quiet to that point, and had recorded just 17 disposals to three-quarter time before bursting away in the last quarter and finishing with 30 plus seven clearances and a goal. Coach Ken Hinkley lauded his performance for being team-first, saying it showed each player was prepared to do whatever was needed for the team.

2) Tall forwards firing

Some might have questioned Port’s decision to go into the game with four tall forwards but Charlie Dixon, Todd Marshall, Peter Ladhams and Mitch Georgiades all had their moments and made the Power forward line unpredictable and dangerous. Dixon booted four goals, Marshall three and Ladhams two, while Georgiades was unable to replicate his four-goal effort last week but offered a target. The selection of four talls was made in part due to the absence of smaller forwards Robbie Gray, Orazio Fantasia, Steven Motlop and Kane Farrell with injury and in part to provide Scott Lycett with a back-up ruck to help against Magpie Brodie Grundy. Hinkley admitted he would consider retaining the tall quartet depending on the opposition and availability of other personnel.  

3) Drew dangerous

While Wines has received most of the accolades in 2021, Willem Drew’s trajectory should be noted as well. Having endured two horribly injury-interrupted seasons, the 28-game 22-year-old has become one of the more consistent performers at AFL level for Port this season. Many will have forgotten Drew debuted in the same game as Connor Rozee, Zak Butters and Xavier Duursma in 2019. With coach Ken Hinkley admitting a couple of weeks ago that there was too much reliance in the midfield on Travis Boak and Wines, it appears Drew might have been listening. Recently used as a lock-down midfielder able to get from contest to contest, he went to work on Friday night to show he could win the ball as well. With Wines down on disposals, Drew lifted his rate to finish with a career-high 32 disposals. He also had 17 contested possessions, a game-high eight clearances and five tackles.

4) Terrific trio will be better for the run

Rozee, Butters and Duursma seem to go together. It seems the young trio will forever be linked after being drafted together in 2018. During the week, when it was announced all three would be returning from respective knee injuries against Collingwood, coach Ken Hinkley was asked what he referred to them as. Nicknames such as the holy trinity and the three stooges were thrown at Hinkley, who simply said he called them “Connor, Zak and Xavier”. Having been without the three playing together since Round 4, it was pleasing for Hinkley to have them back in the team. Their numbers read a combined 49 disposals, seven tackles, and a goal – hardly setting the world alight – but Hinkley would have been pleased to see the young trio get through the game unharmed and he would expect that they would be better for the run in the lead in to the finals.

5) Boak’s incredible 300

You only had to watch a couple of the videos put out before Friday night’s game to see how universally admired and respected Travis Boak is within the walls at Alberton and beyond. Reaching 300 games makes him just the sixth to reach the milestone for the club in its 151-year history and just the second to reach the milestone at AFL level after Kane Cornes. This week will be another big week for the former captain who will overtake Cornes’ club AFL games record. Remarkably, even at 32 (33 on Sunday) Boak continues to fire. He finished his milestone game with 30 disposals and seven clearances. It was a huge weekend for milestones. Stats guru @sirswampthing pointed out on twitter that it was the first VFL/AFL round ever where there were players playing games 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300 and 350. He also had this interesting point about the recent record for the last ten players in their 300^th game.