What happened on Saturday afternoon at the Adelaide Oval was less ships passing in the night and more one ship boarding the other and butchering the crew, leaving with all the plunder they can carry, then bringing out the cannons and sending the doomed vessel to Davy Jones’ Locker.

Such was the ferocious pounding Brisbane dealt out to Port Adelaide, in a match that loomed as line-ball heading in; ignominiously on a day the Power had earmarked to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of their greatest AFL triumph in the 2004 grand final.

It was a display to ratify the utterly contrasting fortunes of these two sides over the last month and a half.

The Lions, after a nightmare start to their grand final defence, have won five and drawn one of their last seven, have unearthed a group of gems as a result of a horror injury run, and are well and truly back in the finals, if not the premiership, mix.

The Power, meanwhile, are on a three-game losing streak, all games against sides theoretically around their level, and have been thoroughly outclassed in all of them. Had they not pulled a rabbit out of the hat against Hawthorn in Round 10, they’d have lost four of their last five.

Making the result all the more remarkable were the performances of a quarter of key cogs in both line-ups at the Adelaide Oval.

For the first time since his infamous Showdown hamstring injury, Connor Rozee and Zak Butters were both at full fitness, and the pair flew the flag all afternoon long to record a staggering percentage of the Power’s total disposals (it was nearly 30 per cent of their team tally at half time), and give Port an edge at centre bounces, the one stat that went their way.

And on the flipside, Hugh McCluggage, best afield against St Kilda last week, was almost totally shut down to half time by Willem Drew, reduced to five disposals and minimal impact; even quieter were Harris Andrews and Charlie Cameron, the former occupied enough by young Ollie Lord enough to keep his usually outstanding intercept numbers down, the latter not given an inch by the dogged Miles Bergman, perhaps the Power’s only true winner out of proceedings.

For all that, this match was a thrashing of the most vicious sort from the moment the Lions stopped wasting every second chance in front of goal midway through the second term; utterly dominant in the clearance count, winning the inside 50s handsomely and locking it in through a combination of tackling pressure and an excellent set-up outside 50 to repel any rebounds, the Power weren’t given an inch until things opened up in the last quarter with the game well and truly gone.

The lion’s share of the brutality (pardon the pun), as it has been regularly in recent weeks with Brisbane, came from stoppages; a key strength last season, the Lions’ scoring from clearances has rebounded to a fearsome extent even without dominating the numbers quite as emphatically as they did against the Power.

That’s twice in three weeks, the other against the Western Bulldogs, that the Lions have bossed the clearance count, winning that match 50-32 and handing Port a 42-27 smackdown. Particularly ruthless in their forward half, Brisbane bagged five goals to no score from such stoppages by half time alone, and had nine extra goals from clearances by the final siren.

That number is both a great credit to the Lions’ lethal combination of dogged ball-hunters like Lachie Neale and Josh Dunkley and smooth outside movers such as McCluggage and Zac Bailey, as well as a sizeable form surge from Oscar McInerney in the ruck; but it’s also an indictment on Port’s defensive work with a midfield that is an attacking force at its best but are regularly getting cruelled going the other way.

Take this stoppage inside the Lions’ forward 50 late in the second term as an example.

While Jordon Sweet is bullied off the ball far too easily by McInerney – neither he nor the omitted Ivan Soldo have been the ruck fix Port were looking for in last year’s trade period – most other teams have failsafes to guard against such a ploy.

Not Port Adelaide. The two loose men goal side of the stoppage, Brandon Zerk-Thatcher and Rozee, are effectively witches hats, with a gaping hole between them and no communication in filling it. They both stand, all but stock still and painfully slow to react, as McInerney takes the ball out of the ruck and dribbles through the goal.

But if you look closer, there are even more mistakes: Willem Drew is meant to be guarding McCluggage, but as the throw-in comes in the Lion spins around him as they jostle at the front of the stoppage, so by the time the ball reaches McInerney, he is goal side and without a touch. Had McInerney merely tapped the ball instead of grabbing it himself, McCluggage was set to scythe through Zerk-Thatcher and Rozee’s open gap and kick the goal anyway.

The less said about Kane Farrell’s job on Cam Rayner, the better: Rayner has his arm fully extended to shove off the Port defender, and just like with McCluggage, by the time the ball reaches the ruckmen he is goal side and contact-free. A simple tap out the back, and Rayner runs clear and snaps in open space on his left for another likely goal.

There’s even more to dissect here: the lack of a goalkeeper on the line or even in the square for exactly the dribble kick McInerney makes, Ollie Wines getting sucked into the stoppage and leaving his man, Dunkley, free at the back where a simple handball clear would have given him a free shot at goal too, Esava Ratugolea not even having a token arm on Joe Daniher as they watch the play unfold, first-gamer Logan Evans inexplicably being given the job of guarding Charlie Cameron and getting away with a blatant hold while letting him goalside and running into the free square.

It’s basically a Where’s Wally of all the structural failings; honestly, the Lions could have goalled from five or six different players, in five or six different ways.

The comparison between that shambles and the Lions’ sole defensive operator at that stoppage, Jarrod Berry, is stark: Berry maintains constant contact with Butters, pushing and jostling him away from the optimum drop zone for the ruckmen, and only relents when McInerney’s kick leaves his boot.

Little wonder that, in the five weeks prior to their Adelaide Oval butchering, Port ranked third-last at conceding points from stoppages, giving up over 43 points per game. Only West Coast, who have been historically bad in this regard for two years, and Geelong, who simply don’t have any on-ball A-graders to speak of, fare worse.

Keep in mind that’s supposed to be a major Power strength; Rozee, Butters and Horne-Francis loomed at the start of the year as the trio destined to carry the club back to glory, with all of them aggressive monsters at their best. Yet they just aren’t clicking at the moment, while the grunt work supposed to be done in their stead by defensive mids Drew and Ollie Wines is leaving plenty to be desired.

The Lions ruthlessly exposed every element of the Power’s midfield vulnerability, with McInerney doing as he pleased in the ruck, Dunkley and Neale winning stacks of hard ball, with 35 contested possessions between them, and Bailey and Rayner pushing up to stoppages from half-forward and acting as perfect outside link players to receive and drive the ball long, more than making up for McCluggage’s quiet game with 11 inside 50s between them.

They were just as lethal in picking apart Port’s vulnerable backline, and specifically mincing key defensive trio Aliir Aliir, Zerk-Thatcher and Ratugolea; granted, they didn’t get much help from further afield as the Lions dominated territory and supply, but it was still frightening just how little influence they could provide aerially.

Used higher up the ground than in recent weeks, Eric Hipwood’s hard leading and roaming role pulled the Power’s ideal structure apart; too often, once of Ratugolea or Aliir would let themselves be dragged away from defensive 50 and into no man’s land, with the Lions freely able to bypass them en route to goal.

The below Logan Morris goal is an act of individual brilliance, but it’s worth noting that both Aliir and Ratugolea, Port’s interceptors, are outside defensive 50 when the young Lion picks up the ball. Andrews simply wouldn’t be caught dead letting himself be pulled out of position like this.

The arrival of Ratugolea and Zerk-Thatcher was, ideally, meant to allow Aliir to be the third tall and freed-up interceptor, similar to what Jack Payne allows Andrews to do.

But it seems to have muddled his thinking and given him a less defined role, and it bit the Power hard when Zerk-Thatcher was subbed out at half time.

Just minute into the third term, Aliir is guarding Hipwood when Bailey fires a ball inside 50, and his scrambled thought process is manifest to all.

He and Hipwood arrive too late to influence the contest, but Aliir commits the cardinal sin: he stops watching the ball and instead guesses where it will go, choosing to run behind where Daniher and Ratugolea are flying for the footy.

Not only is his guess wrong, but in that instant he has forgotten all about Hipwood, who most certainly doesn’t make that mistake: with his opponent out of the picture, he watches the footy come off hands, roves perfectly, and has all the time he needs to snap truly on the left.

Equally baffling was the utter lack of cohesion, or even basic communication, between Aliir and Ratugolea as the key defensive pair.

Ideally, you’d have one guarding the space 30-50 metres from goal from a centre bounce, and the other closer to goal, allowing one tall presence for any sort of kick inside 50.

But look where they have both been dragged for the below goal: far too high, allowing the ball to be kicked long and over the Power’s two best (and really only) intercept marking options.

It should be noted, though, that the ground ball defending from Port’s smaller backs was abysmal in the above clip too.

As it is in the below, when Ratugolea and Darcy Byrne-Jones make two of the most pitiful tackle attempts you’ll see in a while, letting Charlie Cameron escape their clutches for a late goal.

So obvious are these frailties that they might as well be flashing neon signs spelling out to the world how Port Adelaide can be beaten.

True, not every side will have as fearsome a forward line as the Lions’, nor such an in-form and multi-faceted midfield brigade.

Most, though, are going to have at least one of these traits, and any good side worth their salt is going to give the Power serious grief unless Ken Hinkley can radically change what they’re doing.

Still in the eight, Port Adelaide’s form has them perilously placed for the rest of the season – and just how easy they are to beat, and beat well, should be utterly terrifying for everyone affiliated with Alberton heading into the second half of a season that should, and probably is, finals or bust for the coach.