The Look Ahead will be the staple pre-season content piece, setting a tone for all 18 teams. The plan is to use them as a scene setter for team trends and individuals. In other words, don’t expect predictions, expect topics to be introduced – from both a list build and on-field perspective.
After a quartet of additions from other teams – two key defenders and two ruckmen – Port Adelaide are hoping their key issues from 2023 have been fixed.
Player contracts
With Marshall’s re-signing done and dusted – the biggest remaining piece in the 2024 list – it projects as a calm year for contracts at Alberton.
The Aliir deal, depending on when it arrives, should be a good indicator of what Port think of their defensive core going forward.
List demographics
Purely from an age point of view, it’s a well-balanced list. Ratugolea and Zerk-Thatcher’s arrivals fill out the mid-20s key defender gap, and also allows time for younger types – Marshall (Kyle) and McCallum – to progress at their own pace.
The small forward stocks are a little hit and miss, but that can be minimised to an extent by getting creative with the burgeoning midfield stocks. More on that in a moment.
Create your own Port Adelaide Depth Chart
Changes in personnel
In:
From other clubs: Esava Ratugolea, Ivan Soldo, Jordon Sweet, Brandon Zerk-Thatcher
National Draft: Thomas Anastasopoulos, Lachlan Charleson, Will Lorenz
Rookie Draft: Xavier Walsh
Out: Nathan Barkla, Riley Bonner, Trent Dumont, Xavier Duursma, Orazio Fantasia, Sam Hayes, Tom Jonas, Scott Lycett, Jake Pasini, Brynn Teakle
Can Port fix their defensive issues while maintaining their offensive ball use?
As detailed in last year’s Finals Dossier, no team lost a higher percentage of defensive one-on-ones than Port Adelaide.
The flip side of that was stacking their defensive unit with plenty of kicks to cause damage offensively, but in key moments, i.e. finals, the system broke down.
The introduction of Ratugolea and Zerk-Thatcher indicates change, and no-one has indicated it’ll be anything other than those two alongside Aliir in a three-pronged look. Either that or I’ve missed key news, but I digress.
With none of those three overly damaging in possession, it puts greater pressure on remaining defensive rotations to carry the load. It’s a trickier balance to find and it wouldn’t be overly surprising if the back half of the ground had a slow start to the year figuring out each other’s patterns.
But there’s also a scenario where Port find the balance between three talls forming a solid partnership, and the remaining rotations breaking lines. If that happens, along with one other thing, they’ll be genuine premiership contenders…
How will the midfield rotations settle in?
Ollie Wines’ move back to heavier on-ball minutes after a below-par 2023 – as he worked back from a serious knee injury – has a domino effect on the remaining midfielders.
With reports suggesting Boak likely has one wing locked up, the other one being a rotating cast at this stage, and Drew’s best position on-ball as well, putting two and two together suggests more Wines midfield time means slightly more forward time for either Rozee, Butters, Horne-Francis, or any combination of the three.
Part of Port’s improvement from 2022 to 2023 was finding the right mix of midfield dynamism and front half pressure. The risk of more on-ball Wines is decreasing the former, and if any of the Rozee-Butters-Horne-Francis trio are forced to spend a little more time forward – nothing drastic, but a shift nonetheless – they’ll have to increase the latter in response.
It’s a razor thin line to balance on, because personnel wise Port’s small forward depth – from a defensive/pressure point of view – is shallow. In an ideal world they find a way to use their midfield depth to cover for some of it, leading to a perfect world where both areas are covered by a similar group.
What is success for Port Adelaide in 2024?
If all the above comes together – defensive additions fixing Port’s back-half ability to, well, defend, still finding the right drive from that area of the ground, the midfield reshuffle not hurting their offence, and front half pressure holding up, there’s no reason why the Power shouldn’t be a top four side.
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