WE take just seven seconds to create - or judge - a "first impression", psychologists say.

Port Adelaide has had seven AFLW matches. First impressions?

Senior coach Lauren Arnell vowed her "Inaugurals" would play "the Port Adelaide way" - emphasis on contested football, never compromising, never giving up. The newest Port Adelaide team at Alberton would, under Arnell's watch, honour all the traditional themes embedded at the club across 152 years.

From the season-opener against West Coast in Perth, Arnell's quickly assembled inaugural 30-player squad has left a lasting impression on the AFLW for its manic tackling, its appetite for the hard ball and its want to compete until the final siren - rather than the scoreboard - says the game is done.

At one win (against fellow AFLW newcomer Sydney), one draw (with Carlton) and five losses, Port Adelaide would seem to have fallen short of expectation with those who forecast them to be the best-performed of the four new teams in the now 18-club AFLW. Victorian rivals Essendon and Hawthorn now are in the play-off for this title.

As Port Adelaide learned in that seven-year challenge to win its first AFL men's premiership, climbing that tall mountain to ultimate success in Australian football is very slippery under foot. And that was with more than a century of experience in the SANFL ...

Arnell's side came together for a season that was rushed forward (by five months) in a league that was fast-tracked (by three years) while so much of the base of Australian football for women needs to underpinned after decades of turning teenage girls away from the game.

Seven matches is the "short game".

Port Adelaide is in the AFLW challenge with the "long view" - as noted by the emphasis on youth in list manager Naomi Maidment's recruiting strategy for sustained success once Port Adelaide does firm its base.

First impressions of the player list would include:

MIDFIELD is more than promising - it is exciting. Teenager Hannah Ewings and 20-year-old Abbey Dowrick each claimed Rising Star nominations in the first three weeks of Season 7 - Dowrick on debut against West Coast; Ewings in Round 3. And there is the ambition of Brisbane recruit Maria Moloney in this midfield that has conceded captain Erin Phillips to attack.

DEFENCE is very true to the Port Adelaide way. Ebony O'Dea is strong in spirit, as noted with her determination to play in the season-opener after having a lung punctured in the "secret" pre-season game at Thebarton Oval in early August. Alex Ballard is the ultimate "goalkeeper" with her intercept marking. And Indy Tahau is a polished defender with her read of the play and her calmness in rebounding at a time when Port Adelaide's need for sound connections from defence to the midfield to attack is a critical work in progress.

ATTACK ... this is where Port Adelaide has taken the biggest hit by injury, first to Fremantle recruit, All-Australian Gemma Houghton. Her absence since round 3 - after requiring ankle surgery - has denied a busy midfield the prime go-to target at the goalfront to finish the work of a team that never lacks enterprise nor energy to launch a forward-50 sortie.

Football's great inevitable - injuries - seems further emphasised in a short 10-game home-and-away season with a new 30-player squad. It also demands teams adapt - and improvise.

Basketball convert Olivia Levicki is shining in ruck while covering the absence of Liz McGrath (in a similar repeat of how Jeremy Finlayson showed a powerful side to his game when thrust in ruck to cover the gap created by Scott Lycett's season-ending shoulder surgery in the AFL campaign this year). Levicki's lone-hand work - with a game-high 23 hit-outs - against Hawthorn at Frankston at the weekend is one of many silver linings to the injury cloud that could have easily exposed Port Adelaide as vulnerable to repeat maulings where it wants to be most effective: Stoppages.

There is no surprise that Phillips move from the midfield to attack - to cover the gaps left by losing Houghton (injury) and Jade de Melo (personal reasons) - has further underlined how the AFLW's first genuine superstar is the ultimate team player. Phillips' ability to draw opponents, thereby releasing her team-mates to work in space - and then using her immaculate skills to send that team-mate into a scoring play - has only enhanced her reputation in the game and importance to Port Adelaide.

And on the leadership front, vice-captain Ange Foley, has presented the perfect first impression on and off the field. After living the premiership dream elsewhere, Foley has arrived at Port Adelaide to live the dream - totally committed and completely living "the Port Adelaide way" in how she speaks, how she thinks, how she acts and how she strives to be the best player (and person) she can be.

Those returning to Alberton this weekend - when capacity at the club's traditional home is restricted to 3500 amid redevelopment works - and those watching on television for the Round 8 clash with the finals-chasing North Melbourne will move on from the "first impressions" of seven games in the AFLW.

The next phase?

In every part of Port Adelaide history - the start in 1870 to the foundation of the SANFL in 1877; the chase of the first title across 1877 to 1884; the battle for AFL entry from 1990-1994 and the challenging ride to the first AFL crown from 1997-2004 - there is a strong body of hard work to achieve success. No sense of entitlement - just a commitment to build a strong foundation on which to inspire future generations to chase more success. This is Port Adelaide history. It also is Port Adelaide's "herstory".

The next three games - North Melbourne at home, St Kilda on the road and the homestand finale against Essendon - are to give an insight on what will be when Arnell and her coaching team get to work through the volumes of lessons from this inaugural campaign to make a stronger impression in AFLW Season 8.

"We will keep learning - and improving," says Arnell of the mission statement her team will take to the end of the season. "It is a tribute to the culture we create here - Port Adelaide is not a club that will accept just turning up. We are a footy club with a leadership group - and a coaching group - that turns up to be better every day. The culture we are building is (creating a competitive spirit) and anyone who comes to watch us train or play will see that."

"We could go into our shell now with three games to play in this season. We could say, 'We're losing ... that's it'. But the energy at training and the way we train - along with what we are executing straight away on the training track - is awesome."

SHE'S BACK

AFTER six tough weeks on the sidelines - working hard to overcome ankle surgery and feeling the pain of her team-mates needing a target in attack - Fremantle recruit Gemma Houghton returns.

"Gemma has never had an injury before," said Port Adelaide senior coach Lauren Arnell who lost the All-Australian after the Round 2 home loss to the Western Bulldogs. "She has taken it really well and her rehab has been really quick and awesome. She is athletic. She has done all the right things. She is back earlier than expected, but - most important - she is moving well. She trained Tuesday. She will again Thursday and if she gets through she will be up for selection. That is super exciting for us.”

"It is super exciting for us. Having Gemma in the team boosts us in general, with our morale. It is nice to look up and have Gemma Houghton in the forward line running at you - she is quick and provides heaps of energy. It will be awesome."

Port Adelaide vice-captain Ange Foley

OPPO WATCH

NORTH MELBOURNE is miserly. It has the league's No. 6-ranked defence, a figure that is not recognising the strength of the North Melbourne playbook (and there is a small differential in the rankings from No. 3-6 in the scores conceded in seven rounds of AFLW this season).

North Melbourne last weekend frustrated the AFLW's top-scoring side Brisbane, conceding just eight scores (5.3) to the league's top-ranked side while paying dearly for its yips with 3.8 - and, in much the same way as Port Adelaide paid for its 1.10 against Hawthorn, struggled for meaningly deep entries to its attacking 50. However, there can be no doubting how North Melbourne makes the opposition work hard for everything.

"We played some pretty good football; we put one of the best team's in the competition under enormous pressure," says North Melbourne coach Darren Crocker. "There were probably just some lapses, moments in the game that cost us, but that's a far more sustainable brand of football."

North Melbourne has a potent ruck pairing with Emma King and Kim Rennie loading up a strong midfield battery led by Ash Riddell, Jasmine Garner and Jenna Bruton.

THEME ROUND

IT is Pride Round. A new jumper. A new spirit from AFLW.

"I want to see so many people feel welcome at Alberton on Saturday," says Port Adelaide senior coach Lauren Arnell. "One special part of Pride Round is the celebration of everyone feeling included and part of something. That is something I can connect with strongly (as a newcomer) at Port Adelaide. We are so excited and proud to be a part of this weekend's celebrations.

"Our Pride jersey is modelled on 'unique identity'," Arnell explained. "We have the 'fingerprint' design. One beautiful thing about W - and sport - is it does bring people together. It is something I am so proud to be involved in. W has broken down so many barriers in sport in Australia by making sure all people feel involved."

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"The girls who designed (the Pride Round guernsey) told the group: As everyone is individual, so is their thumbprint, or fingerprint, and no two people have the same fingerprint. So that’s just us celebrating that no two people are the same and we want to celebrate everyone as individuals, no matter who they are."

Port Adelaide defender Hannah Dunn on the special theme-based guernsey to be worn this weekend.

PORT ADELAIDE v NORTH MELBOURNE

When: Saturday, October 15, 2022

Time: 12.40pm SA time

Where: Alberton Oval

First meeting of the teams

On the ladder - Port Adelaide 1-1-5, ranked 16th. North Melbourne, 4-3, ranked seventh.

NORTH MELBOURNE - or the North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos - skipped the inaugural AFLW season in 2017, making its application to join the national women's league for 2019. It was among the first add-ons - with Geelong - for the 2019 campaign and finished third with a 5-2 win-loss record. It was a preliminary finalist with a 5-1 win-loss record as a conference leader in 2020 when the COVID pandemic forced an end to the competition without a premier; sixth in 2021 with a 6-3 count that qualified for the elimination finals and was fourth in Season 6 with a 7-3 count and again an elimination finalist.

Last weekend: Port Adelaide made enough opportunities to win against fellow AFLW newcomer Hawthorn, but scored 1.10 at Frankston to lose by 13 points. North Melbourne locked itself into an absorbing battle with competition leader Brisbane - and also kicked poorly, 3.8 to lose by seven points, while holding the AFLW's most-potent attack to just five goals.

Form lines - Port Adelaide, LLDWLLL (losing to West Coast by 12 points, losing to the Western Bulldogs by 19 points, draw with Carlton, beating Sydney by 66 points, losing to Gold Coast by 14 points on the road, falling to Adelaide by 60 points in the first AFLW Showdown and kicking itself to a 13-point defeat against Hawthorn); North Melbourne, WLLWWWL (opened the season beating Gold Coast by 26 points, pushed last season's grand finalist Melbourne to two points, lost by 14 points to defending champions Adelaide, beat Geelong by 12 points, scored a strong 15-point win against the Western Bulldogs, trounced newcomer Sydney by 66 points and pushed league leader Brisbane before losing by seven points).