IT SHOULD come as no surprise that the 2004 AFL Grand Final – Port Adelaide’s first in the national competition – is the favourite among the vast majority of the club’s supporters.
That day saw Port Adelaide win its first grand final as 'the Power', in the AFL, at the MCG, in front of its biggest ever crowd.
It was the culmination of eight years' hard work and almost 15 years of striving to reach the pinnacle of football in Australia.
Over 65 per cent of respondents to the BIG PORT SURVEY earlier this year rated the 2004 achievement as Port Adelaide's greatest premiership victory, but it’s those that rank after the 2004 victory that might be of most interest.
Ranked second is Port Adelaide’s victory over Woodville-West Torrens in 1994.
That famous victory is widely credited as being the catalyst for the club’s admission into the national competition, as AFL chief Ross Oakley watched in the stands as Port overcame a 22-point deficit at quarter time to demolish the Eagles in the final term.
Scott Hodges’s five-goal rampage in the final quarter, with support from young newcomer Andrew McLeod, sealed one of the most memorable SANFL grand finals.
That premiership nudged the 1990 victory over Glenelg, again associated to the long-running bid to enter the expanded VFL.
Against the backdrop of a failed bid to enter the AFL and the acrimony of the rest of the SANFL competition, Port won a tight arm-wrestle against the sentimental favourite Tigers.
Port Adelaide’s 1977 ‘drought breaker’ – again over the Bays - was ranked fourth, narrowly ahead of the 1999 premiership over Norwood.
The 1989 victory over North, 1980 against Norwood, 1965 against Sturt, 1988 against Glenelg and the 1996 win over Central District rounded out the top 10.
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