It’s Port Adelaide’s last roll of the premiership dice.

Sitting atop of the AFL ladder, a win and almost 40% ahead of second placed Geelong, there is no better time than now to win its second AFL premiership.

Power and Senior Coach Ken Hinkley must be congratulated. His players and club as a whole have embraced AFL 2020 as an “opportunity” and not an “inconvenience”.

12 months ago, I challenged both Adelaide and Port Board to be “brave” and make senior coaching changes for 2020 after both Don Pyke and Ken Hinkley’s teams underachieved for back to back years.

I felt had both coaches fallen out of contract at the end 2019, that they wouldn’t be coaching in 2020.

Shortly after, Don Pyke departed the Crows with a rumored six figure payout, whereas Ken Hinkley received the backing of his board to fulfill his contact, whilst not having won a final since 2014.

Fast-forward eight months and Port are leading the way.

To understand why, you have to dig deeper to see what has really taken place at Alberton.

Senior Coach Ken Hinkley, Assistant Michael Voss and others have undertaken personal development programs overseas to improve, with many having noticed significant improvement.

After missing the 2018 finals series less than a year after attracting high profile recruits Tom Rockliff, Steven Motlop and Jack Watts to chase the premiership glory, something had to change.

Not only did they need to re-boot their playing list, but a statement needed to be made.

Football department heavy hitters, Football Manager Chris Davies, Senior Coach Ken Hinkley, List Manager Jason Cripps and National Recruiter Geoff Parker formulated a plan to attack the upcoming super draft and make big decisions on senior players to re-boot their playing stocks.

That's when Port Adelaide became a ruthless club again, putting culture first.

Superstar Chad Wingard departed for Hawthorn in exchange for young gun Ryan Burton and picks 15 (Xavier Duursma) and 35.

Port’s draft hand landed them Connor Rozee, Xavier Duursma, and Zac Butters – replenishing Ports playing stocks with three young stars.

12 months later, after once again falling short of finals football, Port followed the blueprint of 12 months earlier by trading out key defender Dougal Howard, veteran Paddy Ryder and pick 10 to St Kilda in exchange for picks 12, 18 and St Kilda’s 2020 future third round pick.

Port once again bolstered their youthful stocks claiming Miles Bergman (pick14), Mitch Georgiades (18), Dylan Williams (23) and father son Jackson Mead (pick 25).

Fast forward to season 2020, with teams living in interstate hubs and as Port has experienced lately having to fly interstate on the same day of a game - a lot has changed, but Port have flourished.

Their willingness to adopt the “we’ll play anywhere, anytime attitude” has been a breath of fresh air while other clubs appear reluctant to embrace disruption to their lives.

Ken Hinkley’s men need another five wins to play finals. If they do, it will also ensure Hinkley coaches on in 2021, triggering an extension clause in his contract.

But finals aren’t enough.

As Hinkley stated in the pre-season “I love this club and I love the history of this club and this club's history is premierships. So, that's what we're starting out to try and do. We're going to start this year wanting to win the premiership in our 150th year. We're going to do everything we can to do that. To do that, you have to qualify for finals, so look out, we're coming."

It was brave, bold and I loved it. No spin, just honesty from a coach who knew he needed results to survive.

Before season 2021 kicks off contracted players of the ilk of Robbie Gray will be 33 years of age, Travis Boak 32, Tom Rockliff 31, Steven Motlop 30 and Skipper Tom Jonas 30.

Throw in soon to be out of contracted stars Justin Westhoff, Brad Ebert and Charlie Dixon who will turn 34, 30 and 30 respectively next year.

It won’t be long until the backbone of Port Adelaide’s last decade is tipped out into retirement and their list takes on a whole new look.

And while Port has got off to a flyer with five wins from six matches, their loss to Brisbane was a reality check. Ken Hinkley revealed "we were beaten badly at the contest, which is an area where we've been really solid and where we've been pretty good for a fair while now. But tonight, we were given a good uppercut."

However, it was how they reacted to their disappointing loss to the Lions, by bouncing back to beat the Giants that has me excited.

In past years Port have failed to respond when they have been challenged by a top eight contender.

But on the weekend (against the Giants) they found a way to win when they were clearly below their best. When momentum was against them early in the last quarter, they wrestled back control of the game to run away 17-point winners.

Six rounds certainly doesn't make a season, but make no mistake, Port is in the running.

With fixtures still to come against last year’s premiers Richmond, finalists Collingwood, Geelong, Hawthorn, Essendon and the Western Bulldogs there is still a lot to play out.

But if they keep their current attitude intact in the unpredictable COVID 2020 season, anything is possible.

They must strike now.