Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley conceded his team has a lot of work to do in order to close the gap on the best teams after losing to Collingwood. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES.

Heading into the weekend, Port Adelaide might have been the bookmakers’ outsiders against Collingwood, but in tipping competitions all around the country the Power would have been backed in by a large number of punters.

Keen footy watchers would rightly have felt that, based on the performances of both sides leading up to their encounter, Port Adelaide was a huge show and that the Magpies were ripe for the picking, even if the match was at the MCG.

The Power had won four of their first five games, albeit against inferior opposition, in convincing fashion, save for the thriller against Fremantle in Round 5.

Conversely, the Magpies were comprehensively outplayed in their opening three matches on the way to a 0-3 start and, after a super victory over the Lions in Brisbane, held on by the skin of their teeth against previously winless Hawthorn prior to having a bye.

And in the first 25 minutes on Saturday, it looked as though Port Adelaide had announced itself as a legitimate top-four threat after kicking six of the first seven goals to open up a commanding 31-point lead.

But from that moment on, things went pear-shaped very quickly and after Collingwood kicked eight majors in a row, it assumed total control in the third quarter, and never looked back, on the way to executing a stunning 73-point turnaround to win by seven goals.

It was truly the stuff of nightmares for Power coach Ken Hinkley and his men.

And one of the major reasons the contest turned on its head was that Port Adelaide’s vaunted midfield, featuring the likes of Connor Rozee, Zak Butters and Jason Horne-Francis, was taken back to school.

After quarter-time, the Magpies obliterated the Power in contested possessions 122-79, prompting Hinkley to concede post-match his on-ball unit copped a “reality check” that it actually isn’t one of the strongest engine rooms in the league.

He also said the “super concerning” performance brought the team’s work rate into question.

This isn’t a one-off for a club that believes it is smack bang in the middle of its premiership window, hence its recruiting spree in the off-season of Ivan Soldo, Brandon Zerk-Thatcher, Esava Ratugolea and Jordon Sweet.

Last round, the Dockers comfortably beat the Power in contested possessions 138-127 and clearances 40-31, and in Round 2, Richmond won contested ball against Port Adelaide 124-117.

After six matches, Port Adelaide is second-last in the competition for contested possession differential.

The Power might still have a healthy 4-2 win-loss record, but if that trend continues, they will be just making up the numbers yet again this season.

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And another early trend that would concern Port is that, after losing to Melbourne in Round 3 as well, its record against 2023 finalists is already 0-2.

The Demons and Magpies appear to be top-four threats again this year, which is already raising questions again about the Power’s legitimacy as a premiership contender.

Hinkley, who is still yet to take the Power to a grand final, and holds the VFL/AFL record for the longest time without a premiership for a first-time coach, also noted after their crushing defeat to the reigning premiers on Saturday that “there’s a gap that we’re chasing still.”

Well, the brutal reality for Port Adelaide is that all it has been doing in the 12 years that Hinkley has been in charge is chasing the gap on the competition pacesetters without ever closing it.

Under Hinkley, Port has never had a positive win-loss record against top-four teams in any season. The closest the Power came was all the way back in 2014 when they had a square 4-4 ledger against such teams.

And when you expand that out to top-eight sides, Port Adelaide has only once registered a better-than-50-per-cent record of 5-4 in the COVID-affected 2020 season. They split the difference twice 5-5 in 2023 and 2021.

It’s a damning set of numbers.

The Power play the Saints and Crows in the next two rounds – games they should win – and will probably improve their record to a rosy 6-2. But we’re not going learn much about them in those matches.

The next real test for Port will come in Round 9 when it takes on the undefeated ladder-leading Cats at Kardinia Park. That’s when the footy world will sit up and take notice to see if anything has changed for the Power when they get another audit from a competition heavyweight.

If they continue to put up similar performances against teams at the pointy end of the ladder for the remainder of this season, as they have been doing for well over a decade, then the question, again, will have to be asked if Hinkley is the right man to take the Power’s extremely talented group of players to premiership glory.

PORT ADELAIDE UNDER HINKLEY

Win-loss records v Top 4
2023: 2-3
2022: 1-5
2021: 1-3
2020: 2-3
2019: 1-5
2018: 1-4
2017: 0-5
2016: 0-5
2015: 3-4
2014: 4-4
2013: 1-5

Win-loss records v Top 8
2023: 5-5
2022: 2-10
2021: 5-5
2020: 5-4
2019: 3-7
2018: 3-6
2017: 2-8
2016: 1-9
2015: 6-7
2014: 5-7
2013: 3-8