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PORT Adelaide is one win from qualifying for consecutive AFL final series for the first time since 2005. And it is still June.
Not since the heady days of its SANFL glory seasons has the Port Adelaide Football Club been in a position to plan so early for September - even before the tax man cometh. At 11-2 and one win clear of its rivals at the top of the AFL ladder, the Power is better placed than in its breakthrough 2004 premiership season (9-4, fourth) when the players were fuelled by the pain of three years of wasted opportunities.
The argument may begin that this young Power player group still has not paid its dues ... but then did the Baby Bombers who stunned the AFL by winning the 1993 flag or the Alastair Clarkson shark hunters of 2008 who netted Geelong?
Port coach Ken Hinkley is to learn plenty of his players in the next nine weeks. Last year, he watched them thrive on the edge of qualifying for the club's first final series since 2007. Such a script is never short of motivation, week after week. This season, there is the challenge of staying on the so-called "red line" for another three months - and the danger of taking short cuts, such as protecting the body be ready for confirmed appointments in September.
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The Power players returned to their Portress at Adelaide Oval on Saturday - after taking many pats on the back for a "gallant" four-point loss to Sydney at the SCG a week earlier - needing to prove the "fat head" tag thrust upon them earlier this season by North Melbourne premiership defender David King would not resurface.
The 72-point win against the lowly ranked Western Bulldogs was pretty much all Hinkley should have expected - and everything the Power players should have demanded of themselves in a competition that punishes teams that are satisfied in June.
Port lost the first quarter by four points (after being 16 points down in time-on) but - as a sign of a team with a clear focus and unbridled ambition - won the next three quarters by 16, 32 and 28 points while key forward Jay Schulz moved closer to personal success in the race for the John Coleman Medal as the AFL's leading goalkicker. His eight goals (four in the last term) matched the club's AFL record of eight from Hall of Famer Warren Tredrea against Carlton at Princes Park in 1998.
Port Adelaide celebrate their win over the Western Bulldogs. Picture: Sarah Reed. Source: News Corp Australia
Beyond the instant headline created by Schulz's eight goals, the other telling signs in a rather predictable game were the class of Robbie Gray, the appetite Ollie Wines has for contested football and the way captain Travis Boak sets the agenda when the Power needs to make its mark on the scoreboard.
The Power did again mix a heavy focus on defence with the critically important task of entertaining a demanding supporter base by breaking the watershed 100-point barrier for the seventh time this season. But it is still June ... and the question lingers on how ambitious and self-critical are Hinkley's players who are still competing against proven men from Sydney, Hawthorn and Fremantle for the flag?
Hinkley insists they are the coach's dream - self-motivated men led by a demanding captain, Boak, who returned from the SCG noting his teammates had lost a game and cannot put in a trophy cabinet whatever respect they supposedly won by standing up against the Swans.
Jay Schulz kicked eight goals in the win over the Western Bulldogs. Picture: Sarah Reed. Source: News Corp Australia
Schulz, who endured mediocrity at Richmond and in his early seasons at Alberton, notes: "We always come into Monday knowing there are still things we need to work on. Guys will go home (on Saturday night) to watch the game knowing what they did not do well enough. We don't need (Hinkley) to come down at quarter-time to tell us what we are not doing well - a lot of the guys know it already and they are not happy with it.
"That is the good thing about this group. We're telling each other - even before Ken has to - and we get on with fine tuning things, quarter by quarter; week by week. We know there is a long, long road to go - and we have to (turn up) every week.
"The next 10 weeks (to the finals) are not going to be a drag. We love playing footy - and we love competing, particularly against the best sides ... and there are some good ones coming up. We want to win every game and the only way we can do that is by improving each week.
"We are more demanding of each other, more demanding than any other group I have been involved in. We want to achieve something together. we want to keep winning."
What more could a coach want?
"They want to be as good as they possibly can be," Hinkley noted of his group. "Their appetite is as strong as it ever has been. Very strong. And (despite the early qualification to finals) we will not take our eye off the ball."
For the record, there are still 97 days to the grand final.
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