Malcolm Blight column: Who will join my list of elite Power players?

THE first decade of the Power created a super team with super players. Malcolm Blight picks his best Port Adelaide line-up from 1997 and asks who will step up to make Port Adelaide a regular top-four contender again.

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PORT Adelaide is on the verge of a top-four finish — a result that would mark the club’s best result since 2007, a grand final year.

The Power on Friday, with a national audience for the third consecutive week, measures itself against another would-be top-four finalist, Melbourne — an AFL club that has endured a long wait to be among the league’s pacesetters (no finals since 2006 and no top-four ranking after the home-and-away series since 2000).

Port Adelaide great Bob McLean.

Melbourne's Norm Smith.

Somewhere in the footy gods’ pantheon, club great Bob McLean would savour this moment. He had a strong bond with Melbourne (through its patriarch Norm Smith) and long dreamed of SA’s oldest club and Victoria’s first club doing regular battle, rather than those occasional exhibition matches under lights to lockout crowds at Norwood Oval in the late 1950s when the clubs were the powerhouses of the VFL and SANFL.

McLean would be impressed with how Port Adelaide has won a national title more recently than Melbourne — and played in a grand final more recently than the Demons.

It will be fascinating, as both the Power and Melbourne build towards being regular top-four contenders, how that scorecard looks in a decade’s time.

Port Adelaide has been — bar for that bottoming out nightmare from 2008-2012 — a successful addition to the national competition.

The Power has a winning record since advancing from the SANFL to the AFL in 1997 — 244 wins, five draws and 224 losses in home-and-away football (a 51.5 per cent strike rate that is far more impressive than some other clubs have managed in their first 21 years in the big league).

This success has been built on some impressive players, particularly from the club’s first seven years when Port Adelaide had an extraordinary record from 2001-2004.

It was repeatedly a top-four club with 16 or more wins for four consecutive seasons — an outstanding tally that probably should have delivered more than one grand final and one premiership.

But then that is more than Melbourne has achieved recently.

Today, Port Adelaide’s greatest AFL line-up from 1997 is dominated by those Power pioneers from Mark Williams’ era at Alberton.

Port Adelaide’s 2004 premiership side.

Picking the Power’s greatest line-up does not create as much debate as usually comes with these tasks.

This is because there are stand-out players who gave Port Adelaide a strong foundation on which to build its AFL fortunes.

In the all-time 22, there are 12 players who earned All-Australian honours — Shaun Burgoyne, Chad and Kane Cornes, Josh Francou, Travis Boak, Chad Wingard, premiership captain Warren Tredrea, Brownlow Medallist Gavin Wanganeen, Robbie Gray, Brendon Lade and Matthew Primus.

In the 22 there are two Australian Football Hall of Famers, Tredrea and Wanganeen.

There are the 11 players who top Port Adelaide’s games tally — from Kane Cornes at 300 games to Stuart Dew at 180. And each of the 11 delivered quality and/or leadership in their long careers at Alberton.

Kane and Chad Cornes with the 2004 premiership cup.

A heavily strapped Michael Wilson training at Alberton Oval in 2004.

There are players who do not have All-Australian honours or Hall of Fame status who will be long admired, both inside and outside the Port Adelaide Football Club, for making the most of their talent. This theme epitomises 1997 Rising Star winner and 2004 premiership defender Michael Wilson, who played beyond the pain barrier in the last half of the 2004 season while carrying two bad shoulders.

There are players who would still stand up in another era, such as Lade. He did bring something extra to his game. He was a clever ruckman who delivered in attack with his strong marking and accurate kicking.

So in a decade’s time — when the measure of the current Port Adelaide and Melbourne teams will be fascinating — who will emerge from Ken Hinkley’s current group to be contenders for the Power’s all-time team in 2028?

Todd Marshall has a promising future as a forward. Left-footer Riley Bonner is emerging in defence with his ability to find the ball and use it well. Tom Jonas, like Wilson, is giving everything to his craft as an AFL defender.

Port Adelaide’s “Bash Brothers” Ollie Wines and Sam Powell-Pepper. Picture: Sarah Reed

Dougal Howard has converted from a ruckman-forward to a capable defender, adapting superbly as Chad Cornes did while being asked to play so many roles for the Power. Whether as a key defender, key forward or a playmaker in the midfield, Cornes delivered — and with great passion for his team.

And who knows what is to come from the “Bash Brothers”, second-year midfielder Sam Powell-Pepper and future captain Ollie Wines.

The first decade of the Power created a super team with super players. The next decade will be worth watching to note which players step up to make Port Adelaide a regular top-four contender again.

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all time power graphic for the web