But just who will take Jack home? Will it be last year's winner Kane Cornes, or perhaps the underrated Dom Cassisi?
Can Port Adelaide's only potential All-Australian, Daniel Motlop, claim his first John Cahill Medal or will another Power player emerge to claim the club's biggest individual honour?
PortAdelaideFC.com.au takes a look at some of the fancies for the John Cahill Medal and the other individual gongs on offer in 2008…
John Cahill Medallist (Best and Fairest)
Kane Cornes: the super-consistent Cornes stretched his number of consecutive games to 127 by playing every round in 2008 and continued to win plenty of the ball. The younger Cornes brother finished the season ranked third in the AFL for disposals (613) behind star Geelong duo Jimmy Bartel and Joel Corey and also maintained his mantle as one of the game's best stoppers, peforming crucial roles on superstars like Bartel, Lion Simon Black and Adelaide's Andrew McLeod.
Dom Cassisi: Cassisi became the first Port Adelaide player in history to finish second in the AFL's tackle count. laying 133 for the season. The former tagger made the most of his more attacking role in 2008, finishing 11th in the league for clearances and second, behind Cornes, as the Power's leading possession winner. The West Australian played 21 of a possible 22 games and also took on some big defensive jobs, which included minding Brownlow Medal fancy Brent Harvey on two occasions.
Daniel Motlop: Motlop enjoyed his best year games-wise, since 2004, playing 19-straight before missing one match with an adductor strain. The enigmatic forward finished eighth in the race for the Coleman Medal with a career-best return of 57 goals at an accuracy of 65 per cent (the second best accuracy rate of the AFL's top 10 goal kickers behind only Matthew Lloyd). Motlop showcased his strong defensive skills laying 47 tackles and is also in line to win goal of the year after dribbling home a beauty from the boundary line at Subiaco in round 10.
Dark horses
Dean Brogan, Steve Salopek and Alipate Carlile
Fos Williams Medal (voted on by the players based on the 'team' qualities of leadership, selflessness, courage, professionalism, loyalty and sense of humour)
Dom Cassisi: was one of three Power players nominated by his teammates for the AFLPA Most Valuable Player award, along with Salopek and Cornes. The hard-nosed 25-year-old is well liked and respected at Alberton and would be a worthy winner of the Fos Williams Medal, which was last year awarded to retired great Michael Wilson.
Best Team Man
Brendon Lade: Lade made the ultimate sacrifice for his team this season when he agreed to spend several weeks in the SANFL while the club experimented with young ruckman Fabian Deluca. The vice-captain experienced a drop in his All-Australian form of the previous two years, but finished strongly with three near best on ground performances. Cassisi will also come under consideration here.
Gavin Wanganeen Medal (best under player aged under 21 on January 1st)
Alipate Carlile/Travis Boak: Carlile and Boak have both impressed in their third and second years of football respectively. Carlile played all 22 games at full back and was rewarded for his consistent performances with the round 22 NAB Rising Star nomination. Boak, who earned his own nomination last year, showed no signs of the second-year blues, increasing his possession average from 16 last year to 20 in 2008. He probably would have featured prominently in the best and fairest award if not for a nagging groin injury which cost him a handful of games.
Best First Year Player
Paul Stewart: Stewart gets the nod for this one as the most-capped first-year player this season. The versatile defender suffered a neck injury after bravely throwing his body into a contest earlier in the year, but returned to play 11 games with an average of 13 possessions and four marks in each.
Most improved
Alipate Carlile/Tom Logan:
A number of players saw their improvements plateau this year, but not these two. Carlile, who started the season with just 10 games to his name, established himself as a reliable contributor at full back, while Logan, who struggled to break into the team last year, cemented his role at half-back playing 19 of the 22 games.
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the club.
