THE MARKER was firmly laid down by Port Adelaide on Friday night.

As the South Australian side set about kicking off Gather Round with a bang, Ken Hinkley's midfield brigade of Connor Rozee, Zak Butters and Jason Horne-Francis looked like a group of players keen to stamp themselves as the game's best.

Against an Essendon side which went into the round leading the League for centre clearances and sitting second for stoppage scores, Port Adelaide won the centre clearance count 19-6 and kicked 39-14 from stoppage.

Rozee led the way with three goals from 36 disposals, Horne-Francis had 10 clearances within his 31 touches, while Butters piled up seven score involvements from his 26 disposals.

It put the trio in elite company and gave Port Adelaide a rightful argument that it has the game's most dominant and influential midfield trio as things stand, although the competition is fierce.

Sydney's combination of Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner and Errol Gulden have helped propel the side's improvement this year, while Tom Liberatore himself had 19 clearances alongside his Western Bulldogs teammates Marcus Bontempelli and Adam Treloar just 24 hours later.

According to Champion Data's AFL Player Ratings points, the stats guru's most definitive system to measure influence on a contest, the Sydney trio of Heeney, Warner and Gulden are currently averaging the most between them.

Heeney himself is averaging 26.6 AFL Player Ratings points per game so far this campaign, clearly the most of any player in the competition, which is a key reason for the Swans leading the way in this category.

Port Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs are close behind, though a series of other Champion Data metrics gives further argument to the idea that Hinkley might have the League's best midfield group at his disposal.

The Power's clearance differential of +7.2 per game far exceeds anyone else in the League, while a centre clearance differential of +5.0 doubles the next best. The team's inside-50 differential of +17.2 is also second in the competition.

Champion Data also notes that Hinkley's midfield currently has a scoring differential of +17 points per game from stoppage, which is behind Melbourne (+19) but ahead of Greater Western Sydney (+15), Fremantle (+13) and Sydney (+7) in second.

Furthermore, Port Adelaide has quality in depth behind its elite trio of Rozee, Butters and Horne-Francis. In fact, it's actually the team's fourth option Willem Drew who leads all Power players for AFL Player Ratings points this season.

Drew's average of 19.2 AFL Player Ratings points per game is marginally ahead of Butters (19.0 per game) and also clears both Horne-Francis (18.0 per game) and Rozee (16.2 per game).

When you can also sprinkle in the 2021 Brownlow Medal winner in Ollie Wines, the club's father-son youngster Jackson Mead and its 352-game champion Travis Boak – as it has done on occasions this year – it makes for a talented bunch.

Speaking after Friday night's comprehensive 69-point win over Essendon, Hinkley was keen to heap the praise on the club's midfield coach Josh Carr for the improvement of several important players.

"They're just growing," Hinkley said.

"Josh is doing an outstanding job of growing that young group of midfielders. Willem Drew has stepped up this year, he goes unnoticed by lots but not by us. The (other) three get noticed a fair bit and I think Ollie's back in some form too."

2024 AFL PLAYER RATINGS AVERAGE 

 
THE LEAGUE'S BEST FOR …

Stoppage Score Differential: Melbourne (+17)
Clearance Differential: Port Adelaide (+7.2)
Centre Clearance Differential: Port Adelaide (+5)
Contested Possession Differential: Greater Western Sydney (+15.5)
Total Clearances Success: Port Adelaide (46.2%)