Port Adelaide finds some answers to its inconsistency puzzle with gritty win against AFL premiers Richmond

PORT Adelaide and AFL premiers Richmond dealt with long-running themes as they collided at Adelaide Oval in Friday Night Football. Some linger harder after the Power held tough for a 14-point win.

Port’s Jared Polec gets his handpass away from Richmond’s Dan Butler at Adelaide Oval on Fruiday night. Picture: SARAH REED

WE came uncertain what to expect. Port Adelaide still had not told the AFL world what it stands for after 11 weeks; and Richmond, supposedly, takes to Adelaide Oval as Superman does to kryptonite.

At the end, on another of those nights that makes the Oval shine, these themes (and a few others) have been worked over - and some will be worked harder in the reviews of the Power’s 14-point win.

Port Adelaide is - can we say it? - the real deal in the congested race to September from that middle pack between fifth and 11th.

Or should that be the “joker”, considering the mixed form and goal droughts in critical games?

Richmond - more so without injured Brownlow Medallist Dustin Martin - is the team that loses its impressive powers on the road.

Port Adelaide can make its fans fall off the edges of their seats with those trademark kicking turnovers.

And the Power also can walk off at half-time - after turning a seven-point deficit into a 23-point lead with five unanswered goals - with its supporters on their feet offering applause rather than venting despair and frustration.

So fragile one time. So brilliant the next. So much of the Power’s best movements hinge on speed (that comes when wingman Jared Polec runs and runs and runs) and clean skills.

And, yes, winning the contested ball - and not coughing it up repeatedly on the exit from the stoppages.

Replicating Richmond’s penchant for pressure inside-50 works a treat too.

It seems so simple.

Not so mystifying in the Port Adelaide way this season is the beauty of that grand vision of key forward Charlie Dixon stomping his feet around the goalsquare and perhaps no more than 30 metres from the goalfront while the restocked midfield gives him silver-service supply.

All the questions about Dixon’s goalscoring (lack of it) needs to come with the note he sees more of the centre square than goalsquare.

There was a significant change to that forward-50 supply last night as Dixon locked into a fascinating duel with Richmond full back, All-Australian captain Alex Rance.

One of the AFL’s great enigmas, Port Adelaide genius Chad Wingard, came into this Friday night puzzle needing to answer many questions and many people, some friends, some foes.

Hinkley - perhaps noting Wingard’s confusion in attack - effectively put his greatest mystery package in the opening midfield set-up.

There was a meaningful response. There was new energy.

In his nine-touch first term, Wingard was only in the shadow of team-mate Justin Westhoff, another remarkable player who created a deceptive image with his laconic ways.

And while the Wingard mystery goes on, every Power fan should admire how their other genius Robbie Gray always delivers (with the occasional set shot going off line).

So this week, Port Adelaide is a good thing. Richmond is the team with travel sickness.