After coming back from a 41-point deficit to beat the West Coast Eagles in Round 5, Port Adelaide sat in a share of top spot on the AFL ladder after winning their first five matches.
How things have changed for the Power.
Since then they’ve been handed losses by North Melbourne, Richmond, Carlton, Geelong and the Western Bulldogs.
Wins against Melbourne and GWS perhaps gave a false indication of how far Port Adelaide had progressed, yet the same can be said about losses to Geelong and Carlton, two sides who we can say with almost absolute certainty will play finals football.
So exactly where are Ken Hinkley’s side at? And more pertinently, can they build from their 5-5 record with enough wins to move back into the top eight and see finals football for the first time since 2007?
Port get the chance to regroup this weekend with their mid-season bye, before a month of football that will likely determine whether they are still a chance at the eight.
They’ll get the closest thing to a guaranteed four points in Round 12 when they face the Giants at Skoda Stadium, then return to AAMI Stadium for home matches against Sydney and Collingwood, and finally head to Melbourne to play Essendon at Etihad Stadium.
Against the Swans, Magpies and Bombers the Power will unquestionably start as outsiders, but if they can jag a win from one of those games – as well as beat the Giants – it would leave the Alberton club at 7-7 with eight matches left in the season.
Looking further ahead, games against St Kilda, Brisbane Lions, Gold Coast and Adelaide could all be assessed as ‘winnable’ games, although the likes of Hawthorn, Geelong and Fremantle all loom.
Not that Hinkley would even be glancing anywhere near this far ahead on the fixtures list. First, he and his coaching staff must find a way to reverse their current five-match losing run.
Alongside fitness coach Darren Burgess, Hinkley was lauded for an innovative training regime that had Port Adelaide physically primed from Round 1.
But as is often the case with young sides the fitness benefits from preseason can only last so far, and we often see them tail off in the second half of the season.
Just ask Essendon, who saw their 8-1 start to 2012 crumble to finish at 11-11 and miss the finals altogether.
Hinkley also needs to reverse the slumping form of Justin Westhoff and Hamish Hartlett, both of whom made enterprising starts to 2013 but have fallen away sharply in the past month.
If they can’t provide support to the likes of captain Travis Boak, who has starred with an average of just under 25 touches a game, it could be a long second half of the season for the Power.
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