PORT ADELAIDE on Sunday - in a top-eight clash with Carlton in Brisbane - will increase its season count on players fielded in seven AFL games to 29.
By the end of this extraordinary (and truncated) 17-round home-and-away series - plus the hopeful finals campaign that could extend to late October, if not early November - Port Adelaide could expect to field more players than in any other season.
And not just because of inevitable injury.
Early morning starts with long-haul flights to south-east Queensland will take it toll. This is confirmed by experience from the West Coast players of the 1990s.
Quick turnarounds - with potential four-day breaks - while the AFL crams the tormented fixture will demand new strategies (at least for Australian football) at the selection table.
And hub life brings its own challenges to keep the players mentally able.
Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley was reading the play during the 12-week shutdown while the COVID pandemic put the AFL season on hold - and in a measured search for a way to avoid the first cancellation of a VFL-AFL premiership season.
To recall Hinkley's words on the eve of the restart in May:
"Usually we talk about flexibility in the way a team plays, the game style. Now we also need flexibility in how you get to the game - there are bigger issues in preparing the team, not just for the upcoming match. This will be more critical if they fixture serves up more five and six-day breaks.
"It will test how you go from a team mentality in Australian football to working the full squad (as noted in European football with games on short breaks while clubs are based in 'hubs' for tournament group matches or constant travel between domestic and international competitions).
"It is all about working with the whole group, so we need more flexibility than ever before."
It all about the squad more than ever before.
So, in this extraordinary season in which the asterisk on the premiership winner will honour the club that adapts best to the unprecedented, it will be the best 22 who will win the grand final - and the best squad that wins the AFL premiership.
The argument to change Australian football tradition by handing premiership medals to the full squad - rather than just the grand final 22 - is stronger than ever. It would put the AFL in line with other major sporting competitions, including the Olympic Games that presents the most-cherished and desirable medals in world sport.
It also is true to the Port Adelaide Football Club's traditions to recognise all who contribute at a club that exists to win premierships.
Along the walk of fame to the changerooms at the Allan Scott Power Headquarters at Alberton, the wall carries the pictures of the squads - not just the grand final line-ups - from the club's 37 premiership seasons since 1870.
When Port Adelaide claimed its breakthrough AFL premiership in 2004, the club acknowledged the 10 players who were part of the campaign - but missed selection in the grand final 22 who dethroned Brisbane. They were handed special silver replicas of the AFL premiership trophy.
The debate is always - as in the 2004 case - would Port Adelaide captain Matthew Primus want a premiership medal after being on the sidelines for all but one league game (round 3 against Hawthorn at Football Park where he suffered a serious knee injury after a four-goal first half)? The more relevant question - answered so well by premiership captain Warren Tredrea during the 150th anniversary gala event in February - is would Port Adelaide have been successful without Primus' contribution off the field in 2004?
"Matty was the captain - and it is a testament to the captain he was that he led from Day One and, bar the time he lost with knee surgery, he did not miss a meeting or a training session," Tredrea said. "He did not play on the (grand final) day but he was a massive part of what we did.
"There were a number players (10) who missed out on selection on the premiership day. And that is why I give kudos to the theme squads win premierships not teams. Matty was a massive part of our squad."
ROUND 7
Carlton v Port Adelaide
Port Adelaide returns to the Gabba seeking the space for speed denied against Brisbane a fortnight earlier.
Carlton has rediscovered attacking themes since boarding the "D Train" with novice coach David Teague.
Australian football should be with two teams primed to win ... rather than directed not to lose.
By the key performance indicators, Port Adelaide is no one-trick pony. It has the AFL's second highest-scoring attack (behind Geelong); second-meanest defence (behind Collingwood); and leads the league on midfield numbers.
And the numbers back up the Teague-marked emphasis on attack as Carlton today ranks No.4 on the AFL scoring list. Most telling from the Champion Data statistical reports is Carlton's confidence to hit its forward-50 while it is league-leading for marks inside-50 (11.3 a match; Port Adelaide is at No.6 with a game average of 10).
Port Adelaide last week - to correct the tearaway centre clearances suffered against Brisbane - recalibrated the midfield and found the mix and tactical strategies to deal with a highly regarded Greater Western Sydney engine. Those adjustments are well timed in the lead-up to working against a Carlton midfield that retains co-captain Patrick Cripps, who has cleared away any concerns with a shoulder injury suffered in the first term of the 52-point win against the Western Bulldogs on Sunday.
This week's focal point in Port Adelaide's team structure turns to the attack: What is the best fit around key forward Charlie Dixon while he continues to draw the double-team defences and blocks on his runway to marking contests?
Does veteran utility Justin Westhoff resume his charter of playing in every and any role on match day rather than switching to ruck from a key forward slot? How does Robbie Gray work in a new-look attack after a surprisingly tame month in which he has averaged 11 disposals, kicked 3.1? And why has Gray joined Dixon on the "blind side" of the umpires controlling play in Port Adelaide's forward 50?
Port Adelaide delivered last week when challenged to bounce back from the 37-point loss to Brisbane that marked the club's first loss in any game in Season 2020. The 17-point win against 2019 grand finalist Greater Western Sydney increases expectation - and puts Port Adelaide in the clear favourite role against Carlton.
It is part of the musical chairs run that has an AFL team's standing - or power ranking as it is called today - change week by week, result by result.
Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley endures the waves as the tide goes in and out on his team's relevance to this year's difficult premiership race. And he is not stepping away from his pre-season theme that Port Adelaide expects to win this year's flag to cap its 150th anniversary season celebrations.
"We started the year saying we hope to win the premiership in our 150th year - that is our mission; and we don't see any reason why we could not do it," Hinkley said this week. "This team is good enough enough; it is capable enough; and we are not going to let anything stop us believing that.
"We believe we are a good team. Good teams produce that moment that we did last week when coming off a bad result - our response was important.
"People will speak of living with expectation and needing consistency to meet those expectations. We talk of playing a brand of football that we want to play (to deliver on expectation). We have been working on that for 18 months now - and have a great understanding of the way we are trying to play."
HOLD THE BANNER
AS if he had waited long enough to cross this milestone. Port Adelaide lead ruckman Scott Lycett was to have played his 100th AFL game on Sunday, after 75 with West Coast - and 10 seasons in the national league.
But a knee injury has Lycett sidelined after a nice build-up to cracking the century in the big league.
When Lycett does get to 100, it will be his 31st senior game at the Port Adelaide Football Club - six SANFL league games from 2010; and 25 AFL matches since last season.
"I came from a small country town on the west coast (of the Eyre Peninsula), from the middle of nowhere," recalls Lycett of his move from that dusty road along Thevenard and Smoky Bay to Alberton.
"And with what's gone on this year, (a flag) would go down as one of the most special premierships. Hopefully, it can be Port Adelaide's premiership."
WHEN WE WERE YOUNG
CARLTON is in the AFL top eight for the first time since round 12, 2013 (Editors note: Carlton were leapfrogged after the Western Bulldogs beat Essendon on Friday night, but a win would return the Blues into the finals picture at the conclusion of Round 7).
Makes you wonder - on the eve of a 1 v 8 clash - when was the last time Port Adelaide and Carlton met with both clubs holding top-eight rankings?
Dr Who's time machine needs to take us back to Sunday, May 16, 2010 - and to Football Park at West Lakes.
Port Adelaide was ranked sixth (5-2 win-loss record); Carlton was seventh (4-3).
Port Adelaide appeared to break away in the third term after a tight first half. But the nine-point lead at the change was overwhelmed while Carlton loaded up six goals to one with emphasis on its big men, Setanta Ó hAilpín and Matthew Kreuzer.
Carlton won by 26 points - 17.16 (118) to 4.8 (92).
For the record: Round 12, 2013 - the last time Carlton was in the top eight - was a split round. Carlton had played 12 games; Port Adelaide 11 and both clubs had six wins. In Round 13, Port Adelaide caught up the game - and tipped Carlton out of eighth spot.
At the end of the 2013 home-and-away season, Port Adelaide (eighth) played Carlton (ninth) in the last AFL game at Football Park. Port Adelaide wore the black-and-white bars to honour the premiership winners who claimed SANFL flags at West Lakes from 1974-2013; Carlton won by a point - and both teams improved their rankings (Port Adelaide to seventh and Carlton to eighth after Essendon was banned from the AFL finals by sanctions from the supplement saga at Windy Hill).
SELECTION TABLE
Port Adelaide
Ken Hinkley is working the squad model - and benefitting with players earning his faith. The latest is former Brisbane first-round draftee Sam Mayes, who was lured back to South Australia in the 2018 AFL trade period.
Mayes, 26, is one of three forced changes - and restarts his AFL games counter that stopped at 101 with Brisbane. He will play his first game since round 14, 2018 - against Greater Western Sydney at the Gabba that was his home for 51 games from 2013, months after being the No.8 draftee from SANFL club North Adelaide.
Mayes, ruckman-forward Peter Ladhams and speed machine Xavier Duursma (recovered from a hamstring strain from round 3) make up the match 22.
They replace injured lead ruckman Scott Lycett (knee), suspended utility Brad Ebert and injured midfielder Cam Sutcliffe (hamstring).
Ladhams will play his first AFL game of the season - and first since the round 22 clash with North Melbourne at the Docklands on August 17 last year. He will be supported by veteran utility Justin Westhoff.
In: Duursma, Ladhams, Mayes
Out: Ebert (suspended), Lycett (knee), Sutcliffe (hamstring)
Carlton
No change.
It is the first time since round 2, 2017 that Carlton has retained the same 22 in consecutive weeks.
Unchanged
BIRD SEED
(the little stuff that counts most)
Carlton v Port Adelaide
Where: Gabba, Brisbane
When: Sunday, July 19
Time: 12.35pm (SA time)
Last time: Port Adelaide 13.10 (88) d Carlton 11.6 (72) at Adelaide Oval, round 2, March 30, 2019
Overall: Port Adelaide 18, Carlton 13, one draw.
Past five games (most recent first): W W W L L
Scoring average: Port Adelaide 101, Carlton 91
Drawn game - Port Adelaide 15.19 (109) drew with Carlton 16.13 (109) at Football Park, round 4, April 16, 2005.
Tightest margin - Port Adelaide by five points (88-83) at Football Park, round 21, July 30, 2000; Carlton by one point (104-103) at Football Park, round 23, August 31, 2013.
Biggest margin - Port Adelaide by 103 points (140-37) at Adelaide Oval, round 22, August 22, 2014; Carlton by 91 points (169-78) at Princes Park, round 6, April 15, 2000.
By venues - Adelaide Oval (3-0); Football Park (8-1-7); Princes Park (3-1); MCG (2-1); Docklands (2-4).
By States - SA: 11-1-7; Victoria: 7-6.
First meeting at Gabba.
FORM LINES
Port Adelaide
W L W W W W (5-1)
From a major dent in the 37-point loss against Brisbane to major credibility as a top-eight contender with a 17-point win against 2019 losing grand finalist Greater Western Sydney ... a week is still a long time in football.
Vital to Port Adelaide answering the critics' call for a response to the Brisbane loss was the strength of the recalibrated midfield - and the midfielders' understanding the blue-collar need to give no inch to their rivals.
Port Adelaide's scoreboard average is 76-46 after six games - six matches with 20 per cent less game time and significant new demands on last season when the ledger read 82-78.
Carlton
W L W W L L (3-3)
David Teague took the shackles off Carlton last year when he was the interim coach finding steam for the D-Train to roll into the full-time job this season. Carlton won six of 11 under Teague last season with two 100-point totals in his first month at the command of a team that was lifted from the grind.
Carlton last week was the only AFL team to crack the watershed 100-point barrier, scoring 103 points against the Western Bulldogs at the Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast on Sunday evening.
While Carlton has not been consistent this season, it has scored significant wins - none more impressive than holding for a two-point win against Geelong at Kardinia Park in round 3.
So far, Carlton has beaten the Western Bulldogs (51 points), scored the only win claimed against Essendon (one point - Editor: prior to last night's lost to the Bulldogs) this season and Geelong. It has lost to Richmond (24 points), Melbourne (one point) and St Kilda (18).
TEAL OR NAVY BLUE?
Port Adelaide list manager Jason Cripps has not needed to do much business with Carlton, in particular with their former recruiting boss Stephen Silvagni, in recent years.
But there have been some memorable deals between Port Adelaide and Carlton, even before they became AFL rivals.
The most famous move from Alberton to Princes Park remains Port Adelaide wingman - and South Australian Sheffield Shield cricketer - Craig Bradley joining Carlton in 1986 to play 375 VFL-AFL matches in the navy blue. He finished his senior career in 2002 as the only Australian football player with more than 500 senior games to his resume, including the 98 at Port Adelaide from 1981-1985.
The most contentious moment between the two clubs in the AFL era was during the 2003 trade period in which Port Adelaide refused to take a weak deal from Collingwood - and, on principle, allowed wingman Nick Stevens to walk to Carlton.
Two Port Adelaide ruckmen finished their AFL careers at Carlton - Barnaby French and Matthew Lobbe. French finished up playing more games at Carlton (71, 2003-2006) than at Port Adelaide (62, 1999-2002). Lobbe made it to his 100-game AFL milestone last year a he played eight matches with Carlton in 2018-2019 after his 92 at Port Adelaide from 2010-2017.
QUOTE OF THE PRE-GAME
"I will obviously play that role throughout the year, going to half-back or going into the midfield ... whatever suits the team. I have a few of my mates who all say they had me in fantasy (competitions), just spraying every week because they don't know where l'm playing."
Port Adelaide's versatile Dan Houston
TIP
Port Adelaide by 18 points
