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It is amazing how quickly things change in the world of AFL football. It was only in 2012 that the very existence of Port Adelaide in the AFL was questioned by certain pundits.
Port Adelaide was getting smashed in games of football, the club was making massive financial losses off the field, the tarps jokes were in full swing, a mass exodus of players was apparently on the cards and Matthew Primus had been sacked as coach before the end of the season.
Port Adelaide was expected to struggle to be competitive and it would take years for them to compete and challenge for finals football. Three years later and Port Adelaide was considered underachievers for not challenging for the 2015 premiership.
Welcome to the world of AFL football.
No doubt improved performance leads to increased expectations. No one in their wildest dreams thought Port Adelaide would play finals in the first two years under new coach Ken Hinkley. But the expectation was after a preliminary final in 2014 that Port Adelaide would play finals football again in 2015, and challenge for the premiership.
All the experts have had their say on what went wrong for Port Adelaide in 2015. Did the players get ahead of themselves? Did other clubs work Port out? As disappointing as the season was it is perhaps not as bad as first thought when sitting back and analysing. Losses to Carlton and Brisbane were inexcusable, but Port Adelaide still won twelve games for the season and finished in ninth spot. Twelve wins would have been enough to play finals football in five of the last six seasons.
Had Port Adelaide snuck into the finals they certainly would have relished another elimination final against Richmond. Port Adelaide were applauded for their brilliant season in 2014, they only lost two more games in 2015 highlighting how even the competition is.
Every team has injuries and they are simply apart of football. Port Adelaide has generally had a good injury run during the Ken Hinkley tenure, last season was probably the most testing. Jared Polec, Ollie Wines, Matt White, Alipate Carlile, Jackson Trengove all missed significant periods of football.
The form of the players such as Matthew Lobbe, Angus Monfries and Tom Jonas also of concern at different parts of the season among others. The return of Polec especially will be a massive boost and many players will be looking to make amends for last year’s below par performances.
So where else will the improvement for Port Adelaide come for in 2016? While the year long suspensions to Angus Monfries and Paddy Ryder presents a challenge on the eve of the season it will be hoped the recruitment of Charlie Dixon and Jimmy Toumpas will help offset this. The age demographic of the squad is healthy and maybe Port Adelaide will look back at 2015 as the learning curve they needed to have. Port Adelaide did lose five games in 2015 by less than two goals which would suggest they were not too far off the mark.
Port Adelaide has also made changes to their coaching panel in the off-season with the arrival of Nathan Bassett, Chad Cornes and Garry Hocking who will now support Michael Voss with the midfield full time at AFL level after relinquishing his role with the Port Magpies. The Pre-season has seen stability being the key at Alberton with the re-signing of many key players including Ollie Wines, Chad Wingard, Robbie Gray, Hamish Hartlett and Travis Boak among others.
Every club is full of optimism at this time of year and Port Adelaide is no different. Predictions can be dangerous at this time of year before a game for points has been played, but you get the distinct impression Port Adelaide will learn the lessons from 2015.
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