Without doubt my greatest memory of Football Park is the 2004 Preliminary Final win over St Kilda.
After letting key home finals slip to Collingwood in 2002 and Sydney in 2003, 2004 was different.
After disposing of Geelong by 55 points two weeks earlier, the stakes were high: win, and our entry to the 2004 Grand Final was assured; lose and exit the finals for the third-straight year without fulfilling our destiny.
The latter wasn't even considered.
Much of the pressure felt in the playing group had been released against Geelong a fortnight earlier, but we still had the external pressures of eager fans and the outside football public to get the job done.
The nerves were evident, the rooms quieter than usual.
Usually this is a good thing - it normally means the players are switched on, controlling their emotions, ready to unleash at the first bounce.
How wrong we were.
The Saints had come to town fresh from a 51-point demolition of Sydney, whereas we had the week off, resting our sore spots.
The Saints were chasing their first premiership since 1966, we were chasing our debut AFL premiership.
The stakes were high, the expectations higher.
I remember the Saints came over pretty confident, but we’d had their measure for a period of time both on the field and in the coaches’ box. In hindsight this could have been a reason to worry. It should have been.
There was a lot of hype coming into the game, the Saints’ Coleman Medallist Fraser Gehrig came to town with 96 goals to his name, chasing the elusive century. As a team we were thinking if we could keep him below 100 goals we’d win the game.
We were wrong!
Within 15 minutes the Saints were all over us and Gehrig had already kicked his hundredth!
Supporters invade AAMI Stadium after Fraser Gehrig kicks his 100th goal for the 2004 season
The best thing about that point in the game was that even though the crowd was warned pre-game not to invade the pitch, they did.
Every man and his dog had jumped the fence onto the field to congratulate Gehrig on his milestone. It brought the game to a standstill.
It was then that we brought all of the boys into a huddle together and reset our goals and basically said “We’re not going to lose this.”
We manned up and played tighter, throwing the game into a scrap, we started to win some footy.
Russell Ebert remembers the 1977 SANFL Grand Final win
I remember from that moment on we took it up to St Kilda and on reflection we ended up outscoring the Saints from Gehrig’s 100-goal delay.
Two of my teammates stood out to me that night - Roger James and Gavin Wanganeen.
James was best on ground. When we couldn't get near it, Roger kept winning the ball almost at will. He was brilliant and is the reason why we are premiership players. He was probably the only player to dominate his opponent that night.
What many don't know is Gavin had been quiet that night and Choco pulled him aside at three-quarter-time and asked him for a special effort.
Gav simply did what he always did – delivered when he needed to.
He moved forward and kicked two last-quarter goals, the first after taking a sliding mark, 50 metres straight in front.
He went back and nailed it.
It was a beautiful drop punt that never looked like missing!
The second and most memorable moment came deep into time-on in the fourth quarter, when Gavin grabbed the game by the scruff of its neck.
The ball had spilled free from a boundary throw-in, deep in the north-eastern pocket, about 45 metres out, when Gav swooped.
He threw it on the boot and threaded the best clutch goal I have ever seen!
Even to this day I don't know how it got in. I had the perfect view, I was on the goal line.
It was like it was meant to be.
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There was still over six minutes left on the clock and that’s when the Saints came again.
But our defence held brilliantly; their courage amazing. There was none better than Michael Wilson’s back-to-back marks running with the flight on the ball with opponents lining him up.
Brent Guerra, who 12 months earlier had been traded out of Port Adelaide, swooped on a loose ball as it spilled over the back of the pack.
As he went to soccer the ball through the unmanned goal, his opponent Shaun Burgoyne desperately dove at his feet, smothered the kick and forced it out of bounds.
It was meant to be.
Roger James was the best player for Port Adelaide against the Saints that night
Michael Wilson had won a free kick for a push in the back in the dying moments of the game, deep in the Saints’ forward lines.
He kicked it long down the line from the defensive pocket and as it travelled in mid-air, the siren went.
It’s the moment so many players live for - leading by 6 points, the siren goes and you’re on top.
You’re going to the Grand Final!
I remember the vision clearly - Kane Cornes had fallen to his knees in front of me and the place was absolutely rocking.
An overwhelming feeling of relief, from that moment it was as though nothing was going to stop us.
I was absolutely stuffed, physically and mentally.
It was without doubt the most important and memorable game in the club’s history.
I know eight days later the club would go on to win our first AFL premiership but the most important game was certainly the prelim final. If we lost that game, we never would have had the chance to win the week after.
The effort of Roger James and the moments of brilliance by Gav and Shaun will always stick in my mind.
It was a beautiful thing considering we’d fallen short on a number of occasions.
This is without doubt my greatest memory of Football Park.
Warren Tredrea is a former captain of the Port Adelaide Football Club and can be heard on Triple M Adelaide's Hot Breakfast and AFL match coverage. He also writes a regular column in The Advertiser on Thursdays.
