PORT ADELAIDE has now provided the competition with the perfect template. For the second time in nine months, Port has shown everyone how not to beat Geelong.

The Cats had pipped the Power by only nine points in round one. So yesterday was what you might term the spiritual replay. The margin was a mere 59 points — 10 goals shy of the 2007 grand final result — but it was the way Port went about it that made this the real reprise, without Matthew Scarlett's 30 possessions from full-back.

While Alastair Clarkson, Rodney Eade and Paul Roos didn't need the help, Port's performance yesterday has established a series of reverse team rules — the things not to do — when confronting the greatest team of all.

1. Misplaced aggression and phoney toughness.The Cats had foreshadowed that they would give Port another belting in the first quarter, but didn't establish their grand final-like dominance until the second, when Port gave away consecutive goals to 50-metre penalties and reckless high tackles.

Presumably, the Power had watched Collingwood demolish Geelong with intense tackling, and forgot that you also need to win the ball at some stage. Whether the ball was hard, loose or something in between, the Cats were first in, Port second.

Kane Cornes helped trigger a Geelong run-on, when he kneed Gary Ablett on the wing — one of the few times he managed to touch the Geelong champ, who had 32 touches, half of them contested. Ablett sent the footy forward, where it was converted by Andrew Mackie.

Then, not to be outdone by a senior player, Shaun Burgoyne nailed Joel Selwood with a high tackle at the next bounce. The ball sailed forward, was marked by Paul Chapman (note, Port players, Selwood and Chapman are legit tough guys, and don't hurt easily), who was jumped on by Port's real hard man, Michael Wilson, gifting Chappie a goal-line major.

The Cats had been aware there might be cheap shots, and were keen to put their heads over the ball. Skipper Tom Harley, a graduate of Port Adelaide, thought Port's aggression was "a bit misguided". Harley added: "We viewed it as their last chance today and expected the knuckle and things like that and so long as we didn't get sucked into that and played the ball. Contested possession was 140 to 100, so we obviously played it the right way."

2. Go wide. Let Geelong play through the corridor.Self-explanatory. Port hugged the boundary for much of the game, would turn it over — or kick to a outgunned forward — and let the Cats run it back down the guts.

3. Let your good players chase Ablett and Joel Corey around.In this case, it was the Cornes brothers, who were assigned to Ablett and Corey. Chad, who sometimes sees his opponent for the first time when shaking hands at game's end, couldn't find Corey at the start of the game because the midfielder was on the bench.

He didn't find him much thereafter; Corey had 34 disposals, while Kane "restricted" Ablett to 32.

Had Geelong known Chad was to play on Corey? "We didn't know that was coming," Harley said.

"They have played on each other a fair bit. I mean, they're physically pretty similar sort of players … Chad, I think, is battling a bit of bone-on-bone knee."

4. Leave Andrew Mackie virtually unattended.In the second quarter, Mackie spent several minutes on Brendon Lade, which is what we call a mismatch for pace. Mackie quickly kicked one goal and created another. "Choco" Williams then gave Danyle Pearce a try on Mackie — at least, we think it was Pearce, since Mackie was not subjected to any physical attention, not even the misguided Port variety.

In his review, Harley gave the Cats high marks.

"It was a really good performance. I thought that we played four quarters … we got back to playing the way we really want to play."