“The draw is diabolical”: Horror fixture tipped to cause contender to miss finals altogether

Daniel Menzel doesn’t have Port Adelaide playing finals in 2025, and there’s one big reason behind his prediction. The fixture.

With each AFL club having six double-ups across the home and away season, Menzel thinks that the teams the Power play twice are stronger than those that any other team faces.

After doing his ladder predictor for the 2025 campaign, Menzel realised that the teams Port Adelaide play twice - Hawthorn, Sydney, Adelaide, Geelong, Fremantle, and Carlton – are all inside his top nine predicted teams.

With that in mind, Menzel thinks that what he considers the ‘hardest draw in the competition’ will come back to haunt them.

“My main point on Port Adelaide is the fact that I think they have been given the hardest draw in the competition,” Menzel said on SEN SA The Run Home.

“The draw is diabolical. The teams that they play twice are these six teams - Hawthorn, Sydney, Adelaide, Geelong, Fremantle, and Carlton.

“Now, all six of those teams are in my top nine teams in the competition, so they’re in the top half of the ladder.

“No other team in the competition on my predicted ladder plays every single team in the top 9.

“I just think that is a horrific run for Port Adelaide.”

After losing 27-year-old Dan Houston via trade, Menzel also thinks that the Power could be too young to really contend in 2025 with all of their star players in Connor Rozee (25), Zak Butters (24) and Jason Horne-Francis (21) all yet to really hit their primes.

“I'm a bit concerned about the reliance on their best players and the demographic is still a bit younger than what we're seeing from the teams that have got it done in the last couple of years,” Menzel said.

“For mine, they've only got four players in their best 22 between the age of 26 and 29, that’s what I have.

“That's concerning. You need your players that have got experience playing when you do have some injuries coming into the team.”

The Power begin their campaign with a Round 1 clash against Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday, March 15.