AFL Fixture 2022: Every game, full analysis of Port Adelaide draw
Port Adelaide has been given a perfect opportunity to stamp itself as a premiership contender early in the 2022 season. Check out our fixture analysis to find out why.
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Port Adelaide’s path to what it hopes will be a premiership in 2022 will greatly test its resolve as the club seeks to rebound from a poor end to the season and go two steps better next year.
No road to the finals is easy.
The one the Power will have to navigate to qualify for a third successive major round features difficult double-up games, trips to seven cities and a bevy of night football.
Port Adelaide twice plays reigning premier Melbourne, preliminary finalist Geelong, 2021 major-round returnee Essendon, winner of three of the past five flags Richmond and, as always, cross-town rival Adelaide.
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Facing the Demons in Round 18 in Alice Springs, rather than the MCG, where Melbourne had an 8-3-1 record this year, should benefit the Power.
As could taking on St Kilda in Cairns, as opposed to Marvel Stadium, in Round 7.
Those journeys will ensure the kilometres mount for the Power, which – Covid border restrictions permitting – will travel to Brisbane (Round 1), Melbourne (against Carlton in Round 5), Cairns, Hobart (to face North Melbourne in Round 9) and Geelong (Round 10) in the opening two months.
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Beyond that is a visit to Perth to battle Fremantle at Perth Stadium, where Port Adelaide has a 1-4 record, in Round 16.
The Power has not played at the Cattery since 2017 and boasts a 2-12 overall ratio there.
It is without a win in Geelong since Domenic Cassisi’s last-minute goal to snatch a thriller in 2007.
The Power has also dropped its past three meetings with the Lions at the Gabba.
Travelling to Brisbane kicks off a juicy start to the campaign that features the first Friday night Showdown in Round 3, a home Thursday night blockbuster against the Demons, hosting West Coast on Anzac weekend and a Friday night rematch with preliminary final conqueror the Western Bulldogs.
September’s 71-point defeat to the Dogs will still sting at Alberton.
Capitalising on a favourable early draw – six of the Power’s first nine matches are against non-finalists from this year – will be important to its top-four hopes.
Whichever way it goes, Port Adelaide’s premiership tilt will draw plenty of eyeballs in marquee slots.
The Power and Bulldogs were awarded the equal-most prime time matches in the first nine weeks of the season with six each.
Port Adelaide had 11 games after 7pm during this year’s minor round.
It was also scheduled to play three times at the MCG – the most since 2013, although two of those matches were finals.
They will be against Carlton, Richmond (in Round 13) and Collingwood (in Round 20).
The Power would be hoping for a fourth at the famous ground next season in a premiership decider, providing the ‘G hosted it for the first time in three years.
To get there, Ken Hinkley’s side will look to bank early wins and finish strongly in a tricky run: Melbourne in the NT, hosting Geelong, Collingwood away, Richmond in Adelaide, Essendon at Marvel and its home match against the Crows in Round 23.
The last time the Power faced its fierce rival in the round before the finals was 2004 – the year of Port Adelaide’s sole premiership.
Dumont acquisition the perfect piece to Port puzzle
- Simeon Thomas-Wilson
From vice-captain of North Melbourne in 2020 to delisted by the wooden spooners a year later.
New Port Adelaide player Trent Dumont says the turn his career took was a “kick up the bum”, but now back home in South Australia he is confident he can add to a Power side looking to go one better than the preliminary final in 2022.
After a calf issue plagued his 2021 campaign at the Kangaroos, Dumont was let go by North Melbourne at the end of the season after 113 games.
“I still think I’ve got a lot to give to the game, but, at the same time, I saw it coming. I was told about a month before the actual decision that it was going to happen and it was sort of an amicable thing,” he said.
“I told them I thought my best footy was elsewhere and in my heart of hearts I said I’d like to be back at Port Adelaide, so they were happy with that and how it finished, and so was I.
“It was definitely a kick up the bum.
“I suspect that’s how it happens for most people when they get a second chance and even though you don’t necessarily want that to be the case and you think, ‘I’ve got to be at my best all the time’, that’s just the rollercoaster of professional spot and I’m just so keen to go to another level (at Port).”
The 26-year-old had explored a move to Power a year earlier, with his father and sister battling some health issues, but he was still under contract at the Roos.
And while list managers at other clubs were quick to tell him he should be on a list after being let go by the Roos, he had to wait until the rookie draft to continue his career.
“Yeah, there were a lot of moments where I was getting calls from list managers, and they were telling me, 'Mate you are too good to not be on a list next year’,” he said.
“And I would say, ‘How about yours?’ and they would say, ‘Nah, not ours mate’.
“So there was a lot of that going on and I was getting all these kind words from list managers and they were telling me that it was going to happen really late.
“So as uncomfortable as it was ... it happened the way it was told to me it would and I’m so happy now.”
After off-season ankle surgery Dumont said the calf issue that plagued his 2021 campaign should be behind him and hoped he could play an important role in Port Adelaide’s 2022 season.
“Just a relentless work rate and a great team player,” he said of what he hopes to add to the Power.
“Also a bit of leadership to the young guys, I guess I’m in the age bracket where we have the older players and the real young stars and I can be that link in between with (Ollie) Wines, (Darcy) Byrne-Jones and Orazio (Fantasia).
“There’s not a whole lot in that (age) range.”
Port Adelaide’s full group, minus Mitch Georgiades and Jake Pasini who are in Perth, were back at Alberton on Monday.
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Originally published as AFL Fixture 2022: Every game, full analysis of Port Adelaide draw
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