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THANKS to some nifty work with four minutes remaining from Aaron Young, Port Adelaide is still alive in 2015.

The Power were the trendy pick to win it all this year, but the last team to win the premiership after a 0-3 start was North Melbourne back in 1975.

The late goal against North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium, in which first gamer Brendon Ah Chee did well with the assist, meant that Port is on the board for this year and that the premiership campaign is back on track.

Port showed some resolve to claw back the lead after North slammed on four straight goals to hit the front in the final term. The Kangas had the energy and the emotion of more than 22,000 fans behind them, but Port took control of the clearances once again, got the ball in the hands of its match-winners and got the win in a clash that lived up to the hype, given the pace and the energy with which both clubs go about their footy. It was relentless and brutal, a taste of September at the time of the year when the autumn leaves are doing their thing.

It is not too dramatic a call to say this was the win that saved the Power's season. Next week the Hawks visit them at Adelaide Oval; the following week it is the rampant Adelaide in the first Showdown of the year and as the away team, which makes it an even more difficult assignment. Emerge from that at 2-3 and with the softer draw opening up, and Port will be OK.

North won't lose too many admirers out of this clash. When Jack Ziebell went down with a chest injury it meant the Kangaroos were without arguably their three best midfielders with Daniel Wells (Achilles) and Nick Dal Santo (hamstring) not playing either. Sam Wright was feeling woozy after taking a heavy hit as well.

But the draw does them no favours either, with the Cats in Geelong next Sunday followed by the Hawks the following week, back at Etihad. What will annoy Brad Scott the most was that his team had wrested the lead in a tight contest – at home – only to let it slip.

They didn't do a whole lot wrong at the death on Saturday night, but having let a close one get away – a trait the Kangaroos had worked so hard to eradicate from their game – will gnaw for the next little while, particularly if they find themselves four premiership points shy of where they need to be come the end of the home and away season.

Fletch-lotto

There are now just five games and counting for Dustin Fletcher in his quest to become just the third player in League history to play 400 games.

The Essendon marvel safely negotiated Saturday's win over Carlton at the MCG, in his return game after missing the Hawthorn epic the week before because of groin soreness.

And we say 'safely negotiated' because when you're 39, any injury could be career ending. When the Bombers' website itself says that Fletcher will be 'managed through the season' you begin to understand what a fine line player and club are walking.

Talk to Essendon people about whether Fletcher is still in the club's best 22 and the official line, of course, is that he is.

"He hasn't lost his pace and is still the best distributor and decision-maker in the backline," says Robert Shaw, an assistant coach with the Bombers for half Fletcher's career and now a commentator on Melbourne radio station SEN.

Others say that the Bombers recruited shrewdly in bringing James Gwilt across from St Kilda and that the side would be well served by either player for the remainder of the season as the third defensive tall behind Michael Hurley and Cale Hooker.

So attention now turns to which game will be the milestone game.

The starting point should be that it is a home game. If he can play every game from here, then the Bombers play a Sunday afternoon home game in round eight against the Brisbane Lions.

But that would mean a trip to Perth to play Fremantle in the interim, so in the interests of 'managing him through the season' perhaps the Bombers will hold him back for two matches over the next seven weeks and keep him for a Saturday night encounter with Geelong at Etihad.

That would appear to be the most appropriate stage for the most wonderful of milestones. 


Back to back to back to back

It's unclear yet who will be the biggest winner next Saturday when four AFL games will be staged consecutively.

The first challenge is to work out what to call this unprecedented day of wall-to-wall football that starts around 11am AEST with St Kilda-Carlton from New Zealand, continues with the traditional Essendon-Collingwood MCG clash, which is followed by the Greater Western Sydney-Gold Coast in Canberra, and concludes with a ripping nightcap featuring Port v Hawthorn and Fremantle v Sydney Swans.

A call out on Twitter suggested names such as 'double-double header', 'quadruple header', 'quadripple' and 'four-play' and other variations of that. But the winner comes from this guy.

Indeed it might be. For those of us who have looked enviously towards the US where Thanksgiving has become the best NFL day of the year and Christmas Day is chock full of marquee NBA match-ups, Anzac Day falling on a Saturday has allowed us to partake in a football feast of our own, with every game offering a great storyline.

Saints v Blues: Carlton is a great trainwreck unfolding before our very eyes. Could the Blues really start the season with four straight defeats?

Dons v Pies: How will the emerging young Pies such as Jack Crisp, Tim Broomhead and Adam Oxley handle the big occasion? You play for Collingwood, the occasion demands of you that you play well.

Giants v Suns: The next installment of the 'Which team will make the finals first Cup?' My money is clearly on the Giants in this one.

Power v Hawks: Possible Grand Final preview.

Dockers v Swans: An even more likely Grand Final preview.

The flipside to the bumper Saturday is another threateningly dull Friday night. Melbourne gets a rare prime time game at the MCG against Richmond and it is hoped that the Demons put on a better showing than fellow cellar-dwellers St Kilda did last Friday night.

The Anzac Day footy feast doesn't stop with the AFL. Local leagues around Australia have taken advantage of the day and have scheduled derby clashes and rivalry games.

Doubtless, Gillon McLachlan will be at one of the showpiece AFL games around the country or in New Zealand, but there is no doubt his heart will be with his beloved Uni Blues as they take on the hated Uni Blacks at the main oval at Melbourne University.

QUESTION TIME



Ashley Browne: This is an interesting theory, but one that hasn't quite been put to the test just yet. What the AFL has done with the fixture is deliberately schedule plenty of top v top, bottom v bottom clashes to open the season. So what we haven’t seen yet is St Kilda versus, say Hawthorn or the Swans, or Melbourne up against one of the top four clubs. But given how non-competitive the Saints were against a middling side such as Collingwood after the opening quarter on Friday night, the likelihood is that the gap between the best and worst in the AFL is alarmingly large.



AB: The Q-Clash is still a fortnight away, but based on the current form of the Suns and Lions, it will have little to recommend it other than a few bragging rights. The Swans-Giants game was quite entertaining in stages on Saturday and right now is clearly superior to its northern neighbor. A bit more care and composure with the ball from the Giants and the margin would have been considerably closer than the 21 points at the end. The Giants certainly weren’t intimidated by the boys from up the road and it makes the return clash later in the year one to circle in the calendar.

AB: Let's hope not. Channel Seven, in its wisdom has the Blues playing on three of the next six Friday nights, so if the rebuild is underway, they might want to delay it for a few weeks for the sake of our prime time viewing.

AB: Footy in Queensland might be in the tank at the moment, but having two teams in that state is vital for the AFL going forward. Melbourne certainly doesn't need any more teams – the old Fitzroy supporter base is a fraction of what it just was – while Hobart is probably next cab off the rank, but not for a long time.