The lights were turned off at Alberton in early 2022. The Power were turned off by a horrid start to the year and failed to ever really get up and running.
Coming into the 2023 season, there was a genuine worry that Port Adelaide would emulate their disastrous start to the 2022 season and see their year over before it ever really began.
After falling to 0-5 to commence its 2022 campaign, the club shot itself in the foot, and perhaps quite a few other parts of the body as it plummeted toward the tail end of the ladder. Making finals, whilst still possible, was made an extremely difficult task. With their confidence shaken, their coach under pressure, and the team not playing great footy, they very much became a ‘one step forward – two steps back’ team for the remainder of the season.
Given the way that season played out, there was immense pressure on the club to avoid another horror start to the year. However, looking at the fixture over the first five games of the season, it was clear that the AFL would be doing Port no favours.
Aside from the Showdown, which is always a belter irrespective of where the teams are situated on the ladder, Port were confronted with the task of facing four of the 2022 finalists, along with their date with the Crows in that five-week period to open the season.
It was almost as though some wanted to see them fail.
I have to admit – I sat back and looked at the draw, worried that we may be about to see the end of Ken Hinkley before the season was a quarter over. Here was Port, coming off a poor season, and they were handed four teams above them in the first five weeks.
Meanwhile, the reigning premiers had three teams that finished 12th or lower last season on the agenda in the same period. Talk about a charmed run…
Round One saw Port Adelaide make a powerful statement, knocking over the highly-fancied Brisbane Lions by nine goals at home. Round Two provided a hiccup, with a rampant Collingwood putting Port to the sword at the MCG. Round Three was the Showdown, and a resurgent Adelaide Crows ran away with the game late, to win by 31 points.
At this stage, the drums started beating again – many of them being hammered away at by Port Adelaide fans.
“Hinkley has to go,” they proclaimed.
“We will never be any good with Hinkley at the helm,” they said.
And then, they went strangely quiet.
Over the course of the next two weeks, Port Adelaide, with that same coach that supposedly couldn’t coach his way out of a wet paper bag, showed something that had been missing for about 18 months. They reverted to the tough, hard-at-it, workmanlike team that went so close to making the Grand Final just a couple of short seasons ago. They became the Power of old, and displayed some goddamned character!
And as they did, the louder voices in the AFL room of critics fell a little quieter.
Calls for Hinkley’s head ceased.
Criticism abated.
The Power moved to 3-2 with a huge come-from-behind win over the Swans in hostile territory, and they did it again in front of their adoring fans as part of Gather Round last weekend.
Before the season commenced, I thought that it would be an outstanding result for Port Adelaide to sit at 2-3 after the first five rounds, given their fixture. I figured that with West Coast next on the agenda, they’d be able to even things up after six weeks of footy and be ready to launch into the next month of footy from a pretty decent base.
At 3-2, they’re ahead of the game at the moment. And they’re doing it with a cohort of players that have improvement left in them.
For example, this is a team that is starting Travis Boak on the wing. Arguably their best inside/outside mid, Boak is a selfless warrior. He works harder than anyone else in the game and should be used as an example for players approaching 30 years of age to demonstrate how to get better after hitting that number.
And he is out on the wing, once again taking one for the team to enable Hinkley to get time into his young stars, Zak Butters and Connor Rozee in the guts. It’s selfless. It’s classy. It’s Travis F’n Boak, all over!
Port are also getting very little from a small forward combination that has all the tools to be elite, but are just not hitting their straps. Junior Rioli has not fired a shot since Round One. Orazio Fantasia found himself relegated to the stands after a slow start and now a quad injury is keeping him there. If they get one of that pair up and firing, this team goes to another level. Sam Powell-Pepper is doing the work of two blokes inside fifty, but he needs some help. Rioli simply has to pull his finger out, at least in the short term.
Aliir Aliir is riding the crest of a big wave of form. He has had to, really, as Tom Jonas has not been his steadfast self in 2023. Teams know it, too, and have been targeting Jonas’ man as the preferred forward target. If not for Aliir’s help defence, things could have been a lot worse.
And in the ruck, we’ve seen Scott Lycett struggle to keep up with some of the more nimble big men in the game.
So, the potential improvement is apparent for all to see and it is very possible, if not probable of occurring. Yet, even with those failings, Port are finding ways to win. They are defying the odds and public opinion. People were busy cracking wise about Jason Horne-Francis being Kane Cornes’ love child, but they’ve missed the real story – Port Adelaide are winning again and doing it on the back of sheer guts and willpower in later cases. With a win over the West Coast Eagles this weekend, we will see them start to make their way to a place they have not been since the 2021 season – the top four.
There remains a lot of belief about this Port Adelaide team. I thought they were a bit of a team of destiny in 2020 before they ran into the Tigers in the Prelim – one kick… just one kick kept them from facing the Cats in the decider. In 2021, they fell in a hole against the Dogs in the Prelim, but in 2022… that team was the aberration. That was not the Port Adelaide team I’d come to know and trust to bring the heat each week. They were lukewarm. They were not as advertised.
And that is what the 2023 version of the Port Adelaide Power look set to erase from the memory bank.
They have bolstered their future with the acquisition of a young star. They have stars of their own emerging in the midfield. And they have crafted a structure that is capable of going toe-to-toe with most teams, even when the game is not on their terms.
There are plenty who wrote Port Adelaide off after 2022. Those people are watching on nervously, as Port builds toward another finals campaign. There is unfinished business for the side that believes they should have made one Grand Final, at least, over the last few years.
And now, their hard work early in the season has set up the opportunity to right the wrongs.
This bounce back by Port Adelaide has been impressive, but it could be just the tip of the iceberg. They follow the Eagles game with clashes against the Saints and Bombers. By the time they conclude that stretch, not only will we have a clear picture of where the Power are at, we will have a better understanding as to how far they can go this season.
As it stands right now, I reckon they’ve already worked through the most difficult part of the draw. Top four is now the goal. And you’d better believe it is damn well achievable.
Like it or not, people, Port are back. Now, let’s see how far they can go.
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