THERE was one team across the semi-finals that was clearly the youngest and least experienced – and it wasn't Hawthorn.

Port Adelaide's side that held off the Hawks at Adelaide Oval was on average the youngest and had the fewest games played across the do-or-die clashes, as Power coach Ken Hinkley's call to back in youth paid off.

Hinkley has always been a coach happy to blood young talent. But on one of the biggest stages, the Power's youngsters played pivotal roles, with Logan Evans' dash off half-back important in lieu of Dan Houston and Kane Farrell, Josh Sinn coming in to add hardness and speed in defence and Jase Burgoyne producing a career-best performance. 

Port's selected 23 players had an average age of 25 years and 37 days, which was on average half a month younger than the Hawks, whose youth has been rightly celebrated in their unlikely run to the final six.

The Power also averaged the fewest games played across the round at 95.3 a player, in comparison to the Hawks' average of 102 games. 

The late withdrawal of Charlie Dixon for second-gamer Will Lorenz impacted the average, but the Power still had 370-gamer Travis Boak to even things up. Hawthorn's Luke Breust, playing his 300th game in the semi-final, was the most experienced Hawk in the game.

It shows that while the Power have been regularly in contention over the past five years – they have won the second most home and away games of all clubs in that period and are now into their third preliminary final since 2020 – they have continued to add younger players to their group. 

The Power and Hawks both had seven players who had played 50 games or less in the game, while Port had 15 players under 100 games to Hawthorn's 13. 

The difference in demographics was evident compared to the other semi-final between Brisbane and Greater Western Sydney, where the Lions had an average of 26 years and five months and 138.2 games played, and the Giants had an average of 26 years and five months and 120.8 games. 

The Lions had the most finals experience of the semi-final teams, with Brisbane's finals tally up to 245 games following the weekend. The Giants (203 games) were next ahead of Port (130) and Hawthorn (104).

Port will also be the youngest group of the preliminary finalists. 

This year's data shows across the home and away season, Collingwood was the oldest team every week on average (at 27.5 years) but the Cats were the most experienced side with an average of 128 games played per player across the year.

Geelong was second in average age, with Brisbane third, Sydney sixth and Port Adelaide 10th oldest. 

Brisbane was also third for games experience on average this year, with Sydney fourth and Port Adelaide ninth. 

2024 average age per team in home and away season

Collingwood – 27.5
Geelong – 27.1
Brisbane – 26.3
Western Bulldogs – 26.2
Carlton – 26.1
Sydney – 26
Melbourne – 25.9
Essendon – 25.9
Richmond – 25.8
Port Adelaide – 25.7
St Kilda – 25.6
West Coast – 25.4
Greater Western Sydney – 25.2
Hawthorn – 25
Fremantle – 25
Adelaide – 24.8
Gold Coast – 24.7
North Melbourne – 24.3

2024 average games player per team in home and away season

Geelong – 128
Collingwood – 128
Brisbane – 123
Sydney – 118
Melbourne – 113
Essendon – 110
Western Bulldogs – 109
St Kilda – 100
Port Adelaide – 100
West Coast – 96
Richmond – 95
Greater Western Sydney – 94
Carlton – 91
Hawthorn – 90
Fremantle – 87
Gold Coast – 85
Adelaide – 80
North Melbourne – 75