IT'S over. The tightrope under Port Adelaide's heavy walk to September's AFL finals has snapped.

Port Adelaide's six-point loss to the finals-bound Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday afternoon captured a season of being so close, but not close enough. Good, but not good enough. Good to be competitive, but not great to maintain the storyline of 2020 and 2021 when Port Adelaide was a top-four pacesetter.

Port Adelaide is now 8-11. It cannot with three home-and-away games to play reach the 12-win threshold to become a top-eight finalist in September.

And there is much more than the 0-5 start to the season to consider in review of a season that began with high expectation.

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The six-point loss to Collingwood adds to the list of near misses in close games, those decided by 14 points or less, particularly against this year's true top-eight contenders. That count in all tight games is now 2-7 against Port Adelaide. By contrast, Collingwood has put together a string of nine wins in matches decided by two goals or less ... and is to be rewarded with finals action.

In Port Adelaide's battles with top-eight candidates this season, the wins against Sydney (23 points), St Kilda (one point) and Western Bulldogs (17) are heavily outweighed by the losses to Brisbane (11 points), Melbourne (32 and 14), Carlton (three), Richmond (12), Fremantle (eight), Geelong (35 and 12) and now Collingwood (six).

There is again another storyline of a Port Adelaide team that did not give up against Collingwood, even after staring at a 24-point deficit in the first minute of the last term.

Five-game defender Jase Burgoyne's first goal in AFL football - from a set shot at the top of the 50-metre arc - had Port Adelaide within six points with 61 seconds to play. Even after winning the following centre clearance, Port Adelaide could not complete the forward sortie with any score. The ball was lost 30 metres from goal. So was the game. And gone is the fight to stay in the finals race.

In all, this sums up Port Adelaide in Season 2022.

Willing, competitive, resilient ... but falling short, wasteful and below par when measured against the teams that will continue the race to settling the final eight during the next three weeks and then the battle for the AFL premiership during September.

And the questions of what Port Adelaide lacks to go from good to great will need to focus on what would allow Port Adelaide to score more.

The 12.10 (82) posted against Collingwood on Saturday was above the season average of 74, but it still was not enough.

The 22 scores came from 23 shots and 52 inside-50 entries. A 44 per cent efficiency rate inside-50 emphasises how much more Port Adelaide could - and needs - to find to match the AFL's true pacesetters.

The game was true to all that can be expected when so much is on the line. It was tough. It was not pretty. It was testing of many players on both line-ups. And it did not end with the celebration Port Adelaide wanted for captain Tom Jonas and Brownlow Medallist Ollie Wines in their 200th AFL games.

It certainly did not end with what Jonas and Wines wanted for their team and their club more so than themselves.

Port Adelaide's opening was historic - and built on extraordinary (but short-lived) efficiency inside-50 and intense pressure on the Collingwood players seeking to rebound from their defensive 50-metre arc.

Travis Boak entered the history books with the opening goal from the first kick of the match - scored before there was an opening bounce. The former Port Adelaide captain was awarded a free kick inside the 50-metre arc for interference from Collingwood half-back Nick Daicos.

After Collingwood won the territory game early with nine of the first 10 inside-50 sorties, Port Adelaide dominated the scoreboard with a momentum run of five unanswered goals from five players who delivered a 24-point lead deep into time-on while testing (and breaking) the discipline of the Collingwood players.

The best play in this five-goal run was started by Zak Butters not giving up on winning an aerial ball destined for the half-back boundary line in the 14th minute. Butters' centring pass to Ollie Wines opened a forward rush finished by Todd Marshall scoring Port Adelaide's third goal from a set shot.

The 12-point lead at quarter-time followed Port Adelaide dominating the possession despite being overwhelmed at clearances (4-14). But the manic pressure on the Collingwood players (as measured in part by the 13 tackles for the term that tumbled Collingwood into a poor disposal efficiency of 54 per cent) created opportunities that Port Adelaide nailed with six goals and eight scores from 12 inside-50 entries.

Port Adelaide's second term took the script to the other extreme while the game worked into a strong one-on-one contest with extra numbers at stoppages rather than in defence. This time there was no goal - just four behinds from 13 inside-50s, one more than in the first term. And Collingwood had its own unanswered five-goal run from time-on in the first term to a five-point lead at half-time.

Port Adelaide can score quickly, as it proved in the first term.

Port Adelaide also can go into long droughts, as has proven so costly during the season.

The side’s defensive match-ups - which began with recalled defender Trent McKenzie marking Collingwood last-kick hero Jamie Elliott - were tested during the second term when All-Australian defender Darcy Byrne-Jones rolled his right ankle while chasing Collingwood novice forward Ash Johnson. While midfielder Willem Drew waited on the medical substitute's seat, the Port Adelaide deputy vice-captain proved he was capable of returning to the field to join the fast-changing match-ups in the Collingwood forward 50.

All-Australian Aliir Aliir, the tallest player in the Port Adelaide defence at 194cm, took on the challenge of standing 211cm American-born convert Mason Cox when he was not working as a ruckman.

McKenzie, who replaced Tom Clurey in the back seven, was dealing with Elliott and the young man of the headlines, Jack Ginnivan who had three first-half goals. There was no encore from Ginnivan during the second half when Elliott and Will Hoskin-Elliott took over the challenge of finishing Collingwood's high-energy forward plays that amounted to a game-high 55 inside-50s (three more than Port Adelaide).

Collingwood's pre-game plan to avoid an aerial game in the Port Adelaide defensive half emerged in the second term when Collingwood preferred to run the ball - rather than "bomb" kicks - to its forwards. Collingwood troubled the statisticians with just eight contested marks - and nine bounces. Just as coaching director Brendon Bolton had declared during the week, Collingwood would work the ground rather than the air.

The numbers at half-time highlighted the contrast between the two teams (and defied the expectation of an "attractive" game with free-flowing attacking themes). Collingwood's strength was at the stoppages with a clear advantage at centre clearances. Port Adelaide was dominating outside the stoppages with a significant +53 count in uncontested possessions. The busiest player using his speed to work in hard-to-find space was Port Adelaide midfielder Connor Rozee who was the first on either side to reach 20 possessions.

The differing themes delivered very little difference on inside-50 opportunities - 29-25 in Collingwood's favour and 12 scores for each team (Collingwood's 7.5 and Port Adelaide's 6.6).

The second half began with the ultimate definition of pressure in Australian football with every mistake carrying a heavy cost. This included key forward Mitch Georgiades missing a set shot in the 16th minute of the third term after earning a free kick with a holding-the-ball tackle, adding to his season-long tale of woe with goalkicking yips.

The game had a role reversal with Port Adelaide winning at the contests - and Collingwood dominating on intercepts. The Champion Data statisticians finished the game acknowledging Port Adelaide won the clearances (44-36) and the usually trusty barometer of contested ball, 151-136. But Port Adelaide also won the turnover count, 82-76. Mistakes inevitably carry a bigger cost in tight matches.

There is no surprise that such intense football presented a game with scoring dominated by opportunities from turnovers.

Collingwood's preference to run at the Port Adelaide defence and scramble at every half-chance did become the home team's most-effective way to score - with four goals during the third term. Port Adelaide's two goals, the first from Butters in the opening minute and second from Sam Powell-Pepper's snap in the last 108 seconds, kept the margin at a manageable 17 points that became 23 with Elliott's ground kick after Collingwood won the first centre clearance of the last quarter.

Port Adelaide's tale of missed chances was most costly in the middle of the last term after Butters scored his second goal of the match with 12:08 to play to have the margin at 12 points. But Butters missed a set shot at 48 metres (for a behind) less than a minute later - and key forward Todd Marshall missed everything from 38 metres and on the boundary in the next forward run with 10:18 to play.

From three hard-earned inside-50 entries Port Adelaide scored just 1.1 - and Collingwood on the first rebound responded with its 13th goal, this one through a set shot from mid-season draftee Josh Carmichael to get the margin to 17 points.

There was the late charge with goals from Georgiades and Burgoyne. But again, Port Adelaide fell short - and the real purpose of any AFL season at Alberton ends sooner than expected.

Port Adelaide returns to Adelaide Oval for Saturday Night Football against Richmond. The match will define the final eight, but without Port Adelaide's presence. There is still the chance to square the win-loss ledger at 11-11 for the season with wins against Richmond, Essendon and Adelaide.

But the race to September is done.

COLLINGWOOD v PORT ADELAIDE

PORT ADELAIDE      6.2       6.6     8.9      12.10 (82)

COLLINGWOOD        4.3       7.5    11.8      13.10 (88)

BEST - Port Adelaide: Rozee, Boak, Wines, Butters, Finlayson, Powell-Pepper.

SCORERS - Port Adelaide: Boak, Butters, Powell-Pepper 2, Amon, Dixon, Finlayson, Georgaides, Marshall, Burgoyne.  

INJURY - nil

MEDICAL SUBSTITUTE: Willem Drew (not activated).

CROWD: 40,716 at the MCG.

NEXT: Richmond at Adelaide Oval, 7.10pm Saturday, August 6