WHAT will they say now?

Port Adelaide is the 2020 AFL minor premier, the team that has ranked first from the start to the finish of the most-challenging home-and-away season in the national competition since 1987 and the old statebound VFL of 1897.

Port Adelaide is the first team this century to hold top position after every round of the qualifying season - and first since Essendon closed the 20th century as the near-invincible pacesetter.

Port Adelaide is the first team to rise from also-ran to minor premier since Geelong in 2007.

Port Adelaide is ....

Surely it is no longer, as Port Adelaide senior assistant coach Michael Voss put it in the pre-game on Monday night, the "fifth Beatle" rated or ranked behind defending champion Richmond, Geelong, West Coast and Brisbane in this year's premiership race.

Respected? Who would not admire the way Port Adelaide patiently and methodically cracked open the AFL's most-miserly defence while Collingwood had so many incentives to win - and captain Scott Pendlebury to honour in his record-breaking game.

Port Adelaide is officially the AFL's minor premier, the winner of the McClelland Trophy for the fourth time this century after the triumphs of 2002, 2003 and the history making 2004 season.

History does repeat. In 1970, Port Adelaide rebounded from non-finalist to win the SANFL minor premiership in the club's centenary year. The 150th anniversary relives this script.

In 2004, Port Adelaide opened its breakthrough AFL premiership run against Geelong in a qualifying final at Football Park at West Lakes - and buried the ghosts of the repetitive false starts in the 2001, 2002 and 2003 finals series. Again, it is Geelong, this time at Adelaide Oval in a qualifying final that carries many demons, recent and old, to exorcise.

At the start of this 150th anniversary season, Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley lifted the bar to have his team chase the premiership rather this just recapture a top-eight ranking after missing finals in 2018 and last year. Many were dismissive ... Port Adelaide had to first prove it could be consistent before it could conquer the premiership, minor or major.

There is now a significant body of work to assess.

The 2020 AFL minor premiership has been claimed with a Port Adelaide team that has -

A 14-3 win-loss record with no loss to a team outside the top eight

ANSWERED every defeat with a victory - as Essendon hero Jobe Watson notes, a team that has responded when challenged

BEST defence conceding 869 points in 17 games (51-point average)

SECOND-ranked attack that has scored 1185 points in 17 matches (70-point average, 10 more than the competition average)

SECURED the club's best AFL ranking since finishing second in 2007

CLAIMED the double chance for the first time since 2007.

Port Adelaide joins Fitzroy (1904), Collingwood (1915), Essendon (1923 and 2000), Geelong (1953) and West Coast (1991) to hold top position every week from round 1 to the end of any VFL-AFL home-and-away season. But it is the first VFL-AFL team to rise to such consistent dominance from 10th in the previous season - and this rise has unfolded in a season of "unprecedented" challenges.

All of the six teams that led from start to finish of a home-and-away season in the old VFL or national AFL went on to play in grand finals; three won premierships. 

On February 11, when the season was unaware of the complications to unfold with the COVID pandemic, Hinkley boldly put premiership aspirations on the table - publicly.

"I said ... I was confident our team had grown," Hinkley recalls. "We did not know how much we had grown. We did not know what the season was going to deliver for us."

Then Port Adelaide decided to collect rather than wait for destiny to deliver ....

So what will they say of this Port Adelaide now?

ROUND 18

Port Adelaide 9.7 (61) d Collingwood 7.3 (45)

... he roves it and goals.

CHARLIE Dixon let Collingwood ruckman Brodie Grundy run under the ball at the boundary throw-in midway through the second term at the Gabba where Port Adelaide and Collingwood were going goal-for-goal.

Dixon read it better. He played it smarter. "He roves it and goals," called match commentator Bruce McAvaney.

It was Dixon's only goal for the match - and Port Adelaide won, proving for the third consecutive game that it does not need the power forward to dominate the team's goalkicking count to collect four premiership points.

Nine goals from seven goalkickers against the Collingwood defence that started this home-and-away season finale as the AFL's most miserly (a title now held by the Port Adelaide back men led by captain Tom Jonas).

And Dixon's game is measured by much more than that goal that gave Port Adelaide an eight-point lead leading up to half-time. He competed to harass and rush the Collingwood defenders to meet Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley's demand that his players be ruthless without respite.

Outsmarting Grundy at a crowded ruck contest and scoring from the clearance defined Port Adelaide in a Monday Night Football contest that set the final eight - and cleared away some lingering external doubts about Port Adelaide.

Collingwood won the hit-outs 42-27. Port Adelaide won the clearances, 26-24 - with a phenomenal 14-4 count at centre bounces. Tom Rockliff claimed six while crafting a game-high 30 possessions.

"And we answered the doubters," said Rockliff, the former Brisbane captain who will mark his 205th AFL game with his first final since his national league debut in 2009.

That is the doubters who questioned if Port Adelaide could effectively play Rockliff, vice-captain Ollie Wines and former captain Travis Boak in the same midfield. The doubts, based on the mono-pace of this trio, are answered by their competitive spirit to win the contest.

And when this midfield mix gains the masterly touch of Robbie Gray, as Hinkley orchestrated in the third term, there is little doubt on Port Adelaide's ability to command the agenda at stoppages. Add the bullish ways of Sam Powell-Pepper and there are more dimensions to the Port Adelaide midfield rotations.

Port Adelaide certainly commanded the forward-half territory as measured by inside-50s. This count was 44-35, during a match that did reflect finals pressure: Six lead changes until Rockliff's snap in the third quarter gave Port Adelaide a four-point lead that became 17 with Steve Motlop and Sam Powell-Pepper completing an unanswered three-goal scoring rush.

Defence was intense. Port Adelaide half-back Dan Houston intercepted 14 plays - and rebuilt the respect he craves after needing to sit out two games for breaching COVID protocols.

Houston was part of a defensive group that defied the two big threats posed by the Collingwood defence - Jordan de Goey, just one goal in a tough duel with Jonas; tall American Mason Cox who scored only one behind while opposed by Trent McKenzie.

The scouting notes back up Hinkley's remarks last week in declaring he has a better team that from Port Adelaide's last finals campaign in 2017:

Solid defence (and sound defensive strategies in the front half of the field). 

Sound midfield (with lead ruckman Scott Lycett working with greater strategy and capacity).

Strong attacking mindset (and far from reliant on Charlie Dixon).

And a multi-dimensional gameplan - with an understanding when to go hard with damaging speed and when to hold to take the edge off an opponent's search for momentum.

This is no longer a team that can be labelled a "one-trick pony". Some saw it very early in the restart to this COVID-stalled season: 

Huge growth in the way they play their football

Western Bulldogs great Brad Johnson, June 27, 2020

Port Adelaide should gain many more admirers from this 16-point win. The work started last year to build a team delivering in all three sectors - midfield, defence and attack - is showing its fruit now. This spring has Port Adelaide primed to reap a harvest long savoured at Alberton.

QUOTES OF THE GAME

"Port Adelaide deserves its position; they've responded when challenged."

Former Essendon captain Jobe Watson

"We think we've got what it takes."

Port Adelaide defender-midfielder Dan Houston

"We sit on top for a reason - we have embraced and answered every challenge."

Port Adelaide midfielder Tom Rockliff

"They were very good inside and at centre bounce - and that gave them territory."

Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley

NEXT

Qualifying final

Port Adelaide v Geelong

Adelaide Oval

Thursday, October 1. 7.10 pm (SA time)

IT is back to Adelaide Oval to live all the lessons from the 60-point loss to Geelong at Metricon Stadium on Friday, August 14.

This is Port Adelaide's first final since the double extra-time elimination final loss to West Coast at Adelaide Oval in 2017; first qualifying final since the win against West Coast at Football Park in 2007 and first Port Adelaide-Geelong qualifying final since 2004 at West Lakes.

Geelong is just one of three teams to beat Port Adelaide this season (the others being second-ranked Brisbane and sixth-placed St Kilda). But the 2011 AFL premier has a disappointing record in finals since that flag.

Port Adelaide's selection questions await the injury reports on defenders Tom Clurey (hamstring) and Ryan Burton (quad). Second-year midfielder-forward Zak Butters - fresh off his inclusion in the 40-man All Australian squad - is free of his two-man ban taken from the clash with North Melbourne.

Port Adelaide is guaranteed two home finals at Adelaide Oval.

TAKE IT TO THE BANK

(Five things we learned in the past week)

1) ENTITLEMENT. Departing Essendon coach John Worsfold did create a storm (in some places an overblown reaction) when he spelled out the tightly controlled AFL with salary caps and drafts has ended the era of "entitlement" for any club in the premiership race. His words are worth recording: "I understand that Essendon people think that Essendon should be better. But they have also got to understand that the competition challenges clubs now to work to the same rules, so the same rules at the draft and the salary cap. And no one team has any more right to be successful quicker than any other team just because they’re a big name club. You have got to knuckle down and commit to doing the work. And good clubs will do that and come out of it with success."

2) ALL CLEAR. Only one AFL club - Port Adelaide - is without a VFL-AFL wooden spoon on its record. And since the VFL expanded with a national agenda in 1987, only four clubs have avoided finishing last - Port Adelaide, Geelong, Hawthorn and North Melbourne. Port Adelaide's wooden spoons from the SANFL are all from the 19th century - 1886, 1896 and 1900 (and in magenta). The 1896 spoon was quickly traded in for a premiership in 1897.

3) LOCKER COUNT. Justin Westhoff will complete his 280-game (and counting) AFL career having always worn the No. 39 jumper at Port Adelaide. And he has not looked to change it, even though he almost inherited 2004 premiership ruckman Brendon Lade's No. 5 jumper. Lade closed his AFL chapter (67 games in the No. 20 jumper and 167 in the No.5 guernsey) at the end of 2009 offering his locker to Westhoff. Lade is a very, very good judge.

4) OVAL LOVE. AFL finals will be played at Adelaide Oval, Perth Stadium, Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast and the new grand final venue of the Gabba in Brisbane. But not just Port Adelaide is showing preference for "home" finals at Adelaide Oval. Clearly, any team "hosting" a final against Brisbane would prefer this play-off outside Queensland. So it shall be interesting to note how many preliminary finals are ultimately played at the Oval this year.

5) TIME CHECK. Sixteen-minute quarters will stay for the AFL top-eight final series but not return next season (when it might or might not return to the 20-minute format). In Season 2019, the average score in an AFL home-and-away match was 80 points. If the 20 per cent fall in game time was met with a 20 per cent cut in scoring, Season 2020 would have averaged 64 points. The competition ran at 60 points per game. Defence ruled? Or did the move to "neutral" grounds make a difference in the scoring?

ANNIVERSARY NOTE

October 15, 1910

PORT Adelaide and Collingwood have crossed paths on the road to national acclaim for more than a century - and certainly well before Collingwood welcomed Port Adelaide to the "big league" at the MCG on March 29, 1997.

This year marks the 110th anniversary of the clubs' first encounter for national kudos with the Champions of Australia play-off between Port Adelaide and Collingwood at Adelaide Oval - the second of four finales for Port Adelaide holding up the honour of the SANFL against the VFL premier.

This match is memorable for:

Port Adelaide being in all-black to avoid the clash with Collingwood's black-and-white stripes (the start of a saga that rolls on),

Port Adelaide following up its 1897 triumph against South Melbourne with a convincing win against Collingwood, 15.20 (110) to 7.9 (51). Port Adelaide won the second half, 11.9 to 2.5,

And Harold Oliver kicking five goals ... to advance his growing reputation as a hero (cult figure) among the Port Adelaide fans.

Frank Hansen had moved from South Adelaide to Port Adelaide in 1910 and achieved the first of his four consecutive SANFL leading goalkicker crowns with 46 goals (his best tally in the four-peat that was followed by counts of 41, 37 and 39 goals before he retired after just one game with the 1914 Invicibles).

Hansen kicked four goals in the 1910 Champions of Australia final that ended with his "poor shooting as a great surprise to everyone for this unusually accurate player missed many easy shots". 

Collingwood arrived with just nine of its 1910 premiership players, but The Advertiser recorded "the Portonians deserve considerable credit for the exhibition they gave and the ease with which they won indicated that the standard of football which obtains in South Australia is just about equal to anything else in the Commonwealth".

Same can be said after Monday Night Football at the Gabba.