Analysis: Does Port Adelaide have the balance right between youth and experience to win a flag?

Port Adelaide will be optimistic that tweaks, additions and finals experience will put them back in the flag mix in 2024. But is that reality?

Ryan Burton and Travis Boak react after the final siren. Picture: Getty Images

Is Port Adelaide a better side now than at the time of its 2021 preliminary final smashing?

And can the Power go from a contender to a flag winner next year?

Port reshaped its list at the end of 2018 in a bid to climb out of the no man’s land between seventh and 10th, where it had finished in each of the previous four seasons.

The club was not a genuine premiership threat nor getting high draft picks for finishing on the ladder’s lower rungs so traded Chad Wingard and Jared Polec while bringing in first-round draftees Zak Butters, Connor Rozee and Xavier Duursma, plus Ryan Burton from Hawthorn.

Now, the Power is stuck in a tougher part of the ladder to take the next step from: third to fifth.

That is where it has finished in three of the past four seasons, the dip being to 11th last year.

So often throughout this season, as Port went on a club record 13-game winning streak before qualifying in the top four at the end of the minor round, players or coaches stated how the team was better placed than 2020 or 2021 to win a premiership.

Captain Tom Jonas spoke at his retirement press conference last month about this being the “most connected group”, having “the most clarity of what works for us” and being “the most confident I’ve been on what we have the ability to deliver”.

But in losing the semi-final at home to GWS on Saturday night, the Power ultimately fell two spots and one game short of where it did two seasons ago when the Western Bulldogs smashed it by 71 points at Adelaide Oval.

Port was 17-5 that year, compared to 17-6 this campaign.

Travis Boak reacts after the final siren against the Giants. Picture: Getty Images

In 2021, Ollie Wines won the Brownlow Medal, Travis Boak finished eighth in that count, Jonas was fifth in the Power’s best-and-fairest, Karl Amon was fourth and Charlie Dixon placed 10th in the Coleman Medal.

None of them had a major influence on Port’s top-four tilt this year.

Wines was the Power’s fifth-choice midfield option and often played wing – partly because of the on-ball emergence of Rozee and Butters, but also due to his surgery-hampered off-season – and was far less influential.

Boak was the substitute in three of the previous five games before Saturday night, was a mainstay on a wing and could have played his last match for the club against the Giants.

Jonas lined up in the SANFL six times, mostly struggled at AFL level and has now retired.

The Power missed Amon’s consistency on the wing, which became a troublesome spot for the team this year, after his move to Hawthorn.

And Dixon never really got going due to injuries, kicking 22 goals from 13 games.

That makes 39 majors and 26 matches in two years for the 32-year-old, who the Power still relies on but is struggling to get on the park.

Clearly, there has been a changing of the guard.

Now, it is Rozee, Butters and Dan Houston who are the three best performers in the side, while Aliir Aliir remains a vital cog in defence.

Miles Bergman and Jason Horne-Francis are future stars, Willem Drew has added more string to his bow and the likes of Dylan Williams and Ollie Lord look next in line to break out.

Tom Jonas addresses the group before leaving Adelaide Oval. Picture: Getty Images

But while young guns took steps, the regression of some key older personnel made you wonder if the Power was as well balanced, in terms of inexperienced, mid-career and veterans firing at the same time, as two seasons ago when Rozee, Butters and Duursma were emerging.

The club’s defensive profile was definitely worse this season than in 2021.

Two years ago, Port was the third-stingiest team after the minor round, now it was the seventh-leakiest.

Much of a premiership run can be about timing.

Port went into Saturday night having lost five of its previous eight games and with Dixon, ruckman Scott Lycett, Duursma and forward Todd Marshall banged up.

Put simply, the Power peaked at the wrong time and was vulnerable when September started.

“Some of the personnel issues we were dealing with were making it pretty challenging for us,” Power coach Ken Hinkley said.

“But I thought we regathered ourselves with what we could possibly do (after three consecutive wins to end the minor round).

“Ideally I would’ve loved to have a fit Marshall, a fit Dixon and a fit McKenzie …”

Port is looking to bring in Western Bulldog Jordon Sweet to improve its ruck stocks, along with Essendon’s Brandon Zerk-Thatcher and Geelong’s Esava Ratugolea to bolster a backline that has been exposed amid a lack of size and Jonas and McKenzie’s battles with form or injury.

Will pressure again build on Ken Hinkley? Picture: Getty Images

As all clubs are, the Power will be optimistic over summer that tweaks, additions and finals experience puts them in the frame again to be back in the mix.

But, from the outside, it looks further behind the best sides than in 2021, meaning a flag is further away.

Then there is the mindset question after poor first halves again proved costly on Saturday night, like the 2021 preliminary final.

Asked if there was an issue with the group being able to stand up under the pressure of knockout finals, Hinkley said: “No, it’s still continuous improvement that has to come and if it doesn’t the results will be delivered as we have got the last couple of times we’ve played finals.

“But we’ve been top four three out of four years.

“We haven’t won, we get it.

“But we’re doing lots of things right to get us to a point and have still got another mountain to climb.

“There’s a team playing next week, Brisbane, who have lived in a similar space for a period of time.

“Experience makes you stronger and makes you better.”

Another thing Jonas said at his retirement press conference rang true after Saturday night.

“We’re going to finish top four three of the last four years, but we haven’t got anything to show for it,” he said.

“So it’s about going that little bit further and doing those small things that make a big difference a tiny bit better so we give ourselves that chance on that last day in September.”

Originally published as Analysis: Does Port Adelaide have the balance right between youth and experience to win a flag?