FIRST, there is boundless raw energy. The excitement of starting something new is inspiring and it can be overwhelming for all the emotions that ultimately spill over.

Then, there is hope from a new adventure. It becomes a force if the journey begins well ...

But if there are road bumps - and Port Adelaide has found a couple in the first two AFLW games, after two trial games without victory - how does a new team behave?

Now there is the need for belief.

"After the game I said, in our team meeting," recalls Port Adelaide vice-captain Ange Foley, "we have to look at our two games as super positives.

"We have been together for 13 weeks. We have matched it with two teams, one that has been in the competition for two or three years in West Coast and the Western Bulldogs who have been in the competition since day dot (in 2017). We matched it with them in patches.

"The next piece for us is belief that we are good enough.

"We are a new team. We are a young team. That is the facts.

"We have to start get away from worrying about those two things and believe we are good enough - and can really match it (with other teams).

"Then we will start to win games.

"I have absolute faith that we can beat Carlton. Sydney is an expansion team (that Port Adelaide plays in round four). We can be at 50-50 win-loss and that would be pretty good."

The force of the vice-captain's message certainly translated to training at Alberton this week where the energy to be better - to do better - was noted by Port Adelaide senior coach Lauren Arnell.

"All they want to do is improve as individuals and as a group - and we are seeing that every time we are with them," Arnell said.

ANOTHER FIRST

FIRST AFLW game in Perth. Then the second match is the first at home at Alberton Oval. And now the third game is the first played in Melbourne.

It has been a coast-to-coast start of firsts for Port Adelaide in the national women's league.

Port Adelaide has not played a national championship match at Ikon Park since Gavin Wanganeen picked up three Brownlow Medal votes in the 30-point win against Carton in AFL 2003, round 4. This was the game in which Mark Williams' team blitzed Carlton with an eight-goal third term.

The venue holds no secrets from Port Adelaide senior coach Lauren Arnell, who led Carlton to its first AFLW match at Ikon Park in 2017 - with 24,500 inside the venue and quite a few locked out on February 3, 2017. Arnell kicked the second goal for Carlton, the first that gave her team the lead ... and Carlton carried on to win by 35 points.

"I really love Ikon Park as a venue, particularly for women's footy. The dimensions of the ground (157 metres long, 127 metres at its widest points) suits women's football in general. It can be hard to describe, but the length and width suits women's football.

"We will roll in and play good footy, I hope."

Port Adelaide senior coach Lauren Arnell

PIECE BY PIECE

IT is a jigsaw with the challenge of connecting all the pieces to leave a beautiful picture. A picture that fits in a frame with the title of "premiership team".

First, the squad - 30 of them.

"Our group is capable of so much," says Port Adelaide senior coach Lauren Arnell.

Then, the game - defence, midfield and attack.

"How we exited defensive 50 under pressure, if you compare the two games (West Coast in Perth to Western Bulldogs at Alberton), it is like apples and oranges," said Port Adelaide senior coach Lauren Arnell. "We have seen really exciting progress, particularly from our back line through those two games.

"What we will see - what we expect to see - this week is progress with our ball movement, particularly through the middle of the ground.

"We know the group can move the ball better than how we did in round 2. Anyone who has watched us train will see that. I am hoping our group puts that out on the field this weekend against Carlton."

FLIP THE MAGNETS

FIVE goals in two games. Gemma Houghton with two - the team's leading scorer, so far. And the only player with more than one goal to her AFLW record at Port Adelaide.

The comparison with All-Australian AFL key forward Charlie Dixon has become too close to reality. Just as Dixon had his season stalled by an ankle injury, Houghton has moved to the sidelines with ankle surgery. She suffered the dreaded syndesmosis injury in the home loss to the Western Bulldogs on Saturday when her foot was caught under her body during a tackle in the second term.

So how does Port Adelaide restructure its attack?

Again, much to the Port Adelaide AFL script at the start of the season - when Dixon was sidelined after ankle surgery - opportunity presents for players wanting to make their names in the big league.

And there is the tantalising option of placing captain Erin Phillips at the goalfront to torment defenders with her sharp reading of the play and her ability to outsmart her rivals. It is even more enticing to make Phillips a focal point in attack while she is overcoming her corked leg from the season-opener against West Coast and the heavy tagging tactics being thrust on Port Adelaide's key playmakers.

"We'll see ...," Arnell said. "Erin can play nearly any position on the ground.

"There certainly are options."

There also is the chance to test the depth of Port Adelaide's inaugural 30-player squad.

At selection, Arnell and her match committee made their first forced and unforced changes. Port Adelaide will present for the first time Yasmin Duursma and Jade Halfpenny – the former a familiar surname among Port Adelaide fans. Sister of midfielder Xavier, Yasmin is keen to make her own mark on the game.

Halfpenny also has a family football link – the 20-year-old was the first father-daughter recruit for Norwood in the SANFL when she joined the club in 2020.

EMOTIONAL WAVES

ONE week it is the "old firm" from the Western Bulldogs, the club that won the heart of Port Adelaide senior coach Lauren Arnell as a young fan.

NEXT it is the "old gang" at Carlton where Arnell was the inaugural AFLW captain - and scored the club's second AFLW goal.

Some emotional roller-coaster the Port Adelaide coach is riding while also managing the emotions of 30 players in a new team at Alberton.

"As a player, I was able to play (for Brisbane) against Carlton in a final," Arnell said. "Time does dull that (emotional wave) a little bit. My investment and emotion is completely towards my group of players here at Port Adelaide."

And while back at Ikon Park, Arnell will watch Darcy Vescio - the player who kicked the first goal of the first Carlton AFLW team led by Arnell - reach their 50th AFLW milestone. It is another key moment in a resume that includes two All-Australian honours, the AFLW leading goalkicker twice, three times at Carlton, AFLW Mark of the Year once ... and the first player to reach 50 AFLW goals.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"We pride ourselves on our contested possession game and we lost that (against the Western Bulldogs) ... (and) we probably were just giving away a few silly free kicks.

"Just building a bit more connection through all the lines and playing a more offensive game that we have been practising through pre-season. We probably just want to build a bit more on our offensive game style and our elite kicking skills – we just need to bring that back."

Port Adelaide defender Hannah Dunn

BIRD SEED

(little stuff that means most)

CARLTON v PORT ADELAIDE

First Port Adelaide AFLW home match in Melbourne

When: Sunday, September 11, 2022

Time: 11.40am (Adelaide)

Where: Princes Park, Carlton

First meeting of the teams

On the ladder - Port Adelaide, 0-2 ranked 14th. Carlton, 1-1, ranked 11th.

Carlton joined the AFLW for its inaugural season in 2017 after being a long-time protagonist in establishing the women's game in Australian football. Carlton and Richmond were rivals in the first VFL-sanctioned women's match in 1933, a game played at Ikon Park - the venue of this AFLW match - with gatetakings devoted to the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Carlton was part of the first eight-team AFLW competition - and had Port Adelaide senior coach Lauren Arnell as its inaugural captain. The team has ranked fourth, eighth, grand finalist, third, seventh and eighth in its six AFLW seasons.

Last weekend: Port Adelaide lost to the Western Bulldogs by 19 points at Alberton Oval; Carlton scored a one-point win against Season 7 expansion team Essendon at the Port Melbourne cricket ground.

HERSTORY is made with Port Adelaide's first championship points in the AFLW - from a draw against Carlton.

"And it is a very odd feeling," says Port Adelaide AFLW captain Erin Phillips knowing no-one celebrates a tie, even if it delivers the landmark first AFLW premiership points in a team's story.

"It is an awkward feeling," added team-mate Jacqueline Yorston. "A draw is painful. You would rather win or lose."

Such remarks are from the disappointment of a team that worked so hard for its first win and fell short. But there is one point of celebration that will eventually sink in for Lauren Arnell's "Inaugurals" - the demanding early steps to that historic first win in AFLW certainly are taking Port Adelaide in the right direction.

"We keep building every week," said Phillips. "We are definitely making progress."

"We're playing more and more of our game," added the bullish Yorston.

There is no club song to blare out for the first time in victory. But there are signs of a team in the making, moment by moment.

Highly touted South Australian junior Hannah Ewings announced herself on the AFLW stage at Ikon Park.

Indy Tahau is emerging as a perceptive intercept defender who will not be pushed off the ball nor ever show fear in a contest.

And the Port Adelaide defence has a woman on a mission in Ebony O'Dea, who forced - with her assertive marking - Carlton to concede star Darcy Vescio from a forward role to the wing after watching its main scorer virtually shut down.

Maria Moloney and NAB Rising Star nominee Abbey Dowrick will torment rival midfielders with their sharp work around the clearances.

And when Port Adelaide needed a new target in attack, Jade De Melo put up her hand - and had the Sherrin stick.

As Phillips says, "We are definitely making progress."

Port Adelaide made this game turn in its favour with a four-goal blitz in the second term. It did not score another goal after the 17th minute of the second term. It added only one behind in the second half. A team that can outpoint the opposition on inside-50s - 33-24 in this game at Ikon Park in Melbourne - is not being rewarded on the scoreboard.

Port Adelaide's start - compared with Carlton's two-goal opening - did highlight the difference between the raw energy of a new team making its way in a new league and the well-worn system of a side in its seventh AFLW league. The same might be said of the finish in which Carlton ultimately pulled the contested game back to its terms and won territory.

Experience does count. Carlton has been in AFLW since the start. It had the team's "soul" Vescio playing their 50th AFLW game; one of three 50-game milestones for the Victorian team. And for all the list-management havoc created by expansion, the "connection" between the Carlton players remains at a level that defines the gap between an "experienced" team and an "inaugural" team.

To break these well-established chains and links in the Carlton side, Port Adelaide needed to take its pressure game to extremes. Manic tackling that finished with a 67 count for a Port Adelaide team that is becoming known for this critical feature of Arnell's playbook. The gameplan also demands hard running to close down space. And hardness where it counts most - at the contest.

At quarter-time, Port Adelaide was winning the clearances (by three). But it was overwhelmed by Carlton's dominance on disposal (+30) by being first at the football - and tellingly in contested plays off the ruck battles, particularly in the aerial game. It was Ewings setting the agenda at ground level with an extraordinary game that began with a seven-touch first term. She finished with a team-high 21.

No-one could question Port Adelaide's work ethic, as noted by the strong tackling numbers - and the hyper-enthusiasm to run down Carlton players, a theme that repeatedly was penalised with high-contact free kicks.

The measure of Port Adelaide's promise was in having more inside-50s ... but it could not make this advantage count, unlike Carlton which set up its two-goal start with a strong kicking game that was capitalised with three marks inside the forward-50 arc at Ikon Park.

Port Adelaide did move Phillips from midfield roles to work deep in an attack that has been denied the strength and go-to target of Gemma Houghton by ankle surgery and now gains the experience and leadership of an AFLW superstar.

But Port Adelaide's 0.1 start - and scoreless last term - is the signal that enthusiasm needed to be matched by system.

"We have to get the ball in more dangerous spots - and create the contest," Arnell said of the adjustments needed after a no-goal first quarter while Carlton was working two extra players in the defensive half.

Instructions were followed to the letter from the start of the second term with Port Adelaide's four goals of the term built with contested work to and at the goalsquare.

Phillips' handball from a behind post to basketball convert Olivia Levicki in the goalsquare gave Port Adelaide its first goal. Margin, six points in Carlton favour.

Debutante Jade Halfpenny's long kick to the goalsquare was finished with Fremantle recruit Jade De Melo's flat-footed, reactive snap from the goalsquare. Game level.

De Melo's goal from a set shot was built on Phillips winning a clearance and midfielder Maria Moloney's perfect pass inside-50. Margin, six points in Port Adelaide's favour.

Moloney put her name on the scoresheet with a set shot after winning a holding-the-ball free kick - at the end of Port Adelaide's most-promising play of pin-point passing from a defensive rebound. Margin, 12 points in Port Adelaide's favour.

"We've shown we have the fight in us," said Justin Mules at half-time when Port Adelaide had doubled Carlton's score, 26 to 13. "We are playing our style of footy."

Port Adelaide's style is contested football. It is the measure of the club's fortunes in the AFL. It defines the AFLW team as well.

After losing the contested numbers by eight in the first term, Port Adelaide dominated in this key category during the second term. At one stage, with a strong-tackling pressure game, there was a +26 surge in contested football from Arnell's Inaugurals. And, in contrast to the first term, it was translating to the scoreboard.

Port Adelaide scored 4.1, turning a 12-point deficit into a 13-point lead after its most-impressive quarter of 16 played in AFLW football.

Carlton stood still - and failed to score.

"Job still needs to be done," said Hammond. The lesson of Port Adelaide conceding a two-goal lead at three quarter-time to West Coast in the season-opener in Perth lingers...

As to be expected, Carlton responded matching Port Adelaide in the contest - but not finding the same power to set up a kicking game as it did in the first term.

And Port Adelaide stood firm, conceding one goal but failing to take advantage of its own rushes to the goalfront where it had put the Carlton defence to the test with 27 inside-50s.

De Melo had Port Adelaide's two chances to score in the third term.

Her first, from a push-in-the-back free kick on the boundary, finished out-of-bounds on the full with her checkside kick hitting the behind post.

Her second, after taking two bounces while running from outside 50 to the goalfront, would have created a perfect highlight to put on an endless loop on any social media site. The running kick, sadly, missed.

Port Adelaide's lead was gone with 8:53 to play in the last quarter after Carlton opened the last term with three consecutive behinds. Rather than become a team playing with haste and apprehension, the Port Adelaide players showed composure that is not associated with a new team with so many inexperienced players.

It was 27-27 entering the last minute.

Still 27-27 with 10 seconds to play with a stoppage at the top of Carlton's 50-metre arc - and a free kick conceded by Kate Surman to Carlton first-game Lily Goss with three seconds to play. The set-shot from 40 metres fell short ... and both Carlton and Port Adelaide will feel short changed for their efforts in a match that proved again that the contest decides so much.

On that front, contested possessions finished at 100-100. A draw. How the footy gods work!

CARLTON v PORT ADELAIDE

PORT ADELAIDE      0.1   4.2  4.3   4.3 (27)

CARLTON            2.1   2.1  3.1   4.3 (27)

BEST - Port Adelaide: Ewings, Tahau, O’Dea, Dowrick, Moloney, De Melo, Surman, Foley, Phillips.

GOALS - Port Adelaide: De Melo 2, Levicki, Moloney.

INJURY: Nil.

Played at Princes Park, Carlton, Melbourne.

NEXT: Sydney at Alberton Oval on Saturday, 12.40pm start.