PORT ADELAIDE strengthened its hold on a top-four position with a 27-point win over Greater Western Sydney at Marvel Stadium on Sunday evening.

The Giants fought back after Port’s early territory and scoreboard dominance, and at one point in the third quarter took the lead, before the Power outfit took charge and came away with a win that was important in the context of the season and make-up of the top eight.

Here are some key things we learned from the game.

1) Anyone, anywhere, any time

It became a bit of a catch phrase around Alberton in 2020 and it has carried through this season, as it has needed to. For a game originally scheduled to be played at Canberra’s Manuka Oval, Sunday’s contest certainly kept people guessing. The AFL only locked in a replacement venue on the Gold Coast on Thursday and then a snap lockdown in Queensland forced yet another rethink. The result was Port’s third straight game at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne’s Docklands and fourth in five weeks. The lack of certainty and change of plans didn’t seem to affect Port Adelaide, as it didn’t last week with a quick evacuation of Adelaide and another last-minute venue change ahead of the win over Collingwood.

2) “Damaging” forward line

For the second week in a row, Port persisted with a very tall forward line and for the second week in a row, it fired. Tall forwards Charlie Dixon, Todd Marshall, Peter Ladhams and Mitch Georgiades all had their moments with Dixon booting four goals, Ladhams three, Georgiades two and Marshall one. That’s ten goals between them. With nine different goal kickers against the Giants, Hinkley was pretty happy with what he saw. It was the second game back from injury of Connor Rozee, Zak Butters and Xavier Duursma, and first game in seven weeks for Orazio Fantasia and each added to the front-half fire power. Hinkley said he likes to think the forward half is pretty damaging. “We’ve got Robbie Gray not too far away and Steven Motlop not far behind that so we’ve got some talent to fit in there still that can make us even more damaging,” he said.

3) Home away from home

Last year it was Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast that became Port’s second home with five wins from six games at the venue. This season it appears Marvel Stadium has taken the title. Port has enjoyed five wins in five games there in 2021 including in four of the last five outings. The 2021 wins have come against North Melbourne (by 52 points in Round 1), Hawthorn (by 34 points in Round 16), St Kilda (by 13 points in Round 18), Collingwood (by 28 points in Round 19) and Sunday’s 27-point win over GWS. Interestingly, it’s the second time Port and GWS have met on neutral territory after the game played on the Gold Coast in 2020, where Port won by 17 points.

4) Dixon’s slow build

Charlie Dixon gets a lot of attention. That’s what happens when you’re a 200-centimetre tattooed and bearded man mountain. Critics had pointed to Dixon’s lack of output in the first half of the season, when he had 18 goals in eleven games but the big man has quietly and steadily built a pretty solid season since. In eight games since the bye he has booted 23 goals at an average of nearly three per game. In that period, he has kicked four goals on four occasions including in consecutive games against Collingwood and the Giants. To put his season into perspective, Dixon had 34 goals in 18 shortened games in 2020, and had 37 in 18 games this season before his latest haul of four against the Giants. It is just the third time in his career he’s passed 40 goals in a season. His 41 so far equals the number he booted in his last season with Gold Coast in 2015 and he is fast closing in on his best haul of 49 in 2017 while playing for Port.

5) Medical sub unused again

Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley might have thought he’d been stalked by a black cat this season as he has seen a remarkable 15 surgeries so far for his players under some kind of an injury curse. But having had Sam Mayes remain on the interchange bench as an unused medical substitute in the Round 19 win over Collingwood, Hinkley would have been pleased to see Boyd Woodcock do the same in Round 20. It’s just the sixth time Port has not used its medical substitute in 19 games this year. With the return from injury of names like Fantasia, Duursma, Rozee and Butters in the last couple of weeks, and Robbie Gray and Steven Motlop not too far away from resuming as well, Hinkley will be hoping that black cat has left his side alone for a while.