We can be No.1!: Port Adelaide’s Orazio Fantasia celebrates a goal against St Kilda in Round 6. Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Port Adelaide is an exceptionally talented, well coached footy team whose premiership window is wide open.

Last year, the club led the competition for all 17 rounds and came within six points of knocking off the Tigers in the preliminary final- and a first grand final appearance in 13 years.

Through seven rounds this year, the Power have comfortably resumed a position in the top four, while only Melbourne (149) and the Bulldogs (157) boast a better percentage than their 120.

Just as it was last season, Port is a real team, playing for real stakes.

That said, last Saturday’s Gabba meltdown was yet another reminder that while the Power remain an unquestionable premiership threat, they have developed the perception as something of a flat-track bully in recent times.

Let’s check in and assess those claims, as well as whether it all ultimately matters.

BULLY FOR YOU

After a two-season finals drought, the Power jumped out of the gates at the start of 2020 and have never really looked back.

Theirs was a campaign that ran on rocket fuel all season, altering their short and long term premiership prospects, as well as the job security of Ken Hinkley along the way.

And indeed it’s been against inferior opposition where Port has looked most rampant, demonstrating a level of play that’s arguably been the league’s most intoxicating and imposing.

Since the start of the 2020 season, Port has dialled up a monstrous 12-0 record against bottom eight teams while posting a pounding 180.1 percentage in the process.

This season, the Power have already easily dispatched of North Melbourne, Essendon, Carlton and St Kilda to the tune of 178 points, winning 13 of the 16 quarters in those matches.

SO WHAT’S THE PROBLEM HERE?

Well, the problem is Port’s form against the league’s downtrodden is in sharp contrast to what it often dials up against genuine opposition.

Port is the kind of club which enjoys tormenting cellar-dwellers, running up big scores and flexing its muscles along the way, yet it has exhibited a tendency to wilt when pitted against teams capable of punching back.

While the Power did claim their first minor premiership in 16 years last season, they did so with a pedestrian 4-3 home and away record against top eight opponents, while their 93.7 percentage was actually the weakest number a minor premier had sported since St Kilda in 1997.

And while no, Port’s numbers last season didn’t ultimately get in the way of a respectable finals campaign, which began with a rampant qualifying final victory over Geelong and culminated in a tense preliminary final loss to Richmond, it did provide fuel to Port sceptics that when the going got legitimately tough, it couldn’t truly get going.

BUT DOES IT ACTUALLY MATTER?

So is there any truth to the well-trodden sports cliche that to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best? Well … not really.

In fact, it’s increasingly acceptable to be a relatively middling team against top eight opposition during the home and away season, with such form not necessarily forming an impediment to a club’s premiership aspirations.

In 2014, Hawthorn went 5-5 in the home and away season against top eight rivals, yet successfully claimed its third flag in seven seasons. Speaking of 5-5, that was the record the Eagles took into their finals campaign twelve months later, and it didn’t get in the way of them booking a grand final rendezvous against the Hawks.

When the Western Bulldogs won their ground-breaking 2016 flag, they entered September carrying just a 4-5 record against their finals brethren, as well as a forgettable 88.9 percentage.

In 2018, Collingwood came within a kick of winning its 16th club premiership. Its record against top eight foes during the home and away season? How about 1-7, with an 81.6 percentage to boot.

While Richmond’s 2020 flag was achieved with a 4-2 record and solid 121.7 percentage against the best, its 2017 and 2019 triumphs were accomplished with suspect form against top eight combatants, combining for just a 9-8 record and an unremarkable 90.1 percentage.

THEY’VE GOT THE POWER TO WIN

Ultimately, being a flat-track bully in the modern AFL is OK, so long as you’re exceptionally good at being a bully in the first place, using that dominance to secure a finals spot, and preferably a top four berth.

While Port Adelaide has clearly got a proclivity for murdering awful teams, and which sits in contrast to what it routinely delivers against serious outfits, it needn’t have too much of a say in its quest to land a second AFL premiership.

This is a team which has worked damn hard to build a list capable of contending, and while the flat-track bully claims have merit, it’s not as though Port hasn’t proven itself against the best.

While Saturday’s mauling in Brisbane was demoralising, the reality is the Power beat Richmond just three weeks earlier, while it was only last October that Port nearly stood in the way of the Tigers’ steam train.

This week, the Power will host the “Showdown” against Adelaide, and if Port’s recent record against strugglers is anything to go by, it should win comfortably. Yet it will only be the following week when they’ll next get to trade blows with a serious outfit, when the Bulldogs come to town.

Win, and it will prove just how serious Port Adelaide is about a 2021 premiership assault. Lose, and really, let’s be honest, it really won’t matter all that much in the grand scheme of things.

You can read more of James Rosewarne’s work at STATS INSIDER