"It ain't over until it is over," they say. Well, sometimes, it is over before it is over. If the four losses in the previous five games weren't evidence enough, the embarrassing defeat against Collingwood closed the case. No finals! Our 2018 has been a failure. Period.

---"Defense wins championships," Port rightly believes; and our club worked hard to become, if not the best, one of the strongest defenses of the league. However, there is a "tiny" detail that might have be forgotten along the way — the whole saying is not limited to Defense. It actually goes like this: "Offense wins games; Defense wins championships."Without offense, a team can't win games; and without winning games, it becomes impossible to win championships! After losing 5 of our last 6 games, with our offense being absent in 4 of those, this has become rather clear. There is no imposing defense able enough to carry a Bottom-6 offense.These last games have simply made us regress rapidly to our mean, after a 7-1 run in the previous 8 games. We are now where we belong. We have become a mediocre hard-working toothless side. Nothing less; nothing more. And mediocre teams are supposed to be in the 9th/10th place on an 18-team ladder.Worse, the capitulation in Q4 against Collingwood felt like players sending us all the message that we cannot be more than what we already are. Since we weren't supposed to simply be a "mediocre hard-working toothless side," something went really wrong this season.For some reason, our offense never clicked. For some reason, our midfield never became the clearance/tackling/possession machine it was meant to be. I am not sure whether Hinkley is the problem. I am not sure of anything, but that something is wrong, and we need to acknowledge it and fix it.I imagine that the necessary changes would be painful to make. Good people must go, because we are asking them to do things for which they are unsuitable. Who? I don't know. All that I know is that we have become something we don't want to be.Against Collingwood, we have thrown the towel. We have no answers to our issues. And we are not willing to bet on "non-answers" to see whether maybe we are wrong about them — Billy Frampton, please, step forward.There can be honour in defeat. Port Adelaide can be mediocre and have losing seasons, for sure. But Port cannot be: unaware and clueless on why it is a mediocre loser; satisfied and comfortable with it; nor afraid to cut deep into self to change it.Currently, though, we are NOT Port Adelaide; and that is the worst thing that can possibly happen to us. Missing finals after being 11-4 is ridiculous. The 2018 knockout is as painful as self-inflicted. Koch, Thomas: it is time to act. As I have said last week, Thomas' words couldn't be truer: "the 'status quo' is not acceptable."