David King is concerned about Port Adelaide ahead of their home Semi-Final against GWS on Saturday night.
While the Power enter the game as warm favourites, King believes their issues are coming back to bite them at the worst time.
Throughout the season Port Adelaide hasn’t been near the best defensive teams and they were found out in their Qualifying Final against Brisbane as the Lions piled on 123 points.
With Trent McKenzie in doubt for the clash with an ankle injury and Port Adelaide’s back six already struggling, King believes they’ll need to deny GWS inside 50 entries if they’re to win on Saturday.
“We've argued about Port Adelaide all year, and this is coming to the full stop on the discussion,” King said on SEN Whateley.
“What is their weapon? Why would they win it this year? Why would they make a Prelim, let alone win one?
“Why would they be in a real hurry to absolutely lock Ken Hinkley away?
“Why would they be saying, ‘This is all rolling, we're flying here’? They’re not, they’ve never been at the defensive levels of the top four or five teams.
“I know everyone says the ladder doesn't lie, you stack your wins and well done. They stacked a lot of home and away wins in the middle of the year, 13 in a row there at one stage.
“I know that if you can't hold up as a back six, you need enormous help in denying the opposition team inside 50 volume.
“As soon as you don't do either of those things, you're gone.
“I don't see it the same as others and the injuries are now going to be a massive impost on Ken Hinkley and their ability to win because it is going to come down to their spark players in the midfield.
“This is why I've been so strong on their chances this year because defensively, they're nowhere near it.”
While Port Adelaide won 17 games in the home and away season including 13 in a row throughout the middle of the season, King believes we’ve overlooked aspects of their game that were still issues during that run.
“You can win a lot of games of footy playing a whole heap of different ways,” King said.
“Home and away games, Geelong won a stack of them for years. Richmond won a stack of them for years and then it would get to get to a Preliminary Final and you go ‘Oh have a look at this’. Hang on, that's been the case all year.
“You can close your eyes or put the blinkers on and not look at aspects of your game.
“But right now, those aspects are getting exposed. Don't fall in love with everything and don't fall out of love with everything.
“But this has been an issue all season long.”
While GWS are the lower ranked of the two sides coming from seventh-placed, King believes it’s the worst possible Semi-Final matchup for Port Adelaide.
King believes the Giants could cut Port Adelaide to ribbons through the middle of the ground.
“It's the worst possible matchup,” King said.
“The Giants the last six weeks, if you give them the footy, they're the second-best team in the competition of getting on the scoreboard.
“As soon as you lose the footy, they're the hardest team to score against in the competition.
“Carlton and GWS had the best profiles coming into the final series, they were ranked equal-one on our metrics, and I'm not shocked to see them progress.
“I wouldn't be shocked to see GWS go to Port Adelaide, and everyone will say, ‘This happened three weeks ago’. The last time they met discussions are not for me outside of individual matchups.
“They're playing some serious footy, their ball movement is probably the number one feature.
“If you can't already stop ball movement and you get these guys who have become the GWS Globetrotters just coming through the corridor at speed. It's going to be a tough night.
While King tries not to get sucked into tipping against Qualifying Final losers, he does think Port Adelaide could be destined for a straight sets exit.
“Normally we talk like this every year,” King said.
“We just sort of move past the team that's stacked the top four finish and go for the winner from the previous weekend - even though they've won fewer games across the home and away season.
“But if you just look at how they play, I'll be tipping the Giants this week just because I think they're asset-rich.”
The winner of Saturday’s clash at the Adelaide Oval will face Collingwood in a Preliminary Final the following weekend at the MCG.