A majestic career ends. Farewell Robbie Gray. That is hard to say ... even harder to contemplate after year after year after year of entertainment from one of the game's greatest playmakers and gamewinners.

Another season closes. Good riddance to Season 2022 some might say. That is easier to utter, even though it carries the disappointment of Port Adelaide playing no part in next month's top-eight AFL finals series.

Emotionally, Showdown LII was a roller-coaster ride from the moment on Tuesday morning when Gray confirmed his retirement from AFL football.

There already was the empty feeling that the Showdown marks the end of Port Adelaide's football calendar in 2022. The chase for this season's AFL premiership falls to eight rivals after Saturday night.

And then so much more sinks in to make Showdown LII far more than a "dead rubber" between the 11th-ranked Port Adelaide (9-12) and the 14th-placed neighbour on the other side of old Port Road.

There is the reality that the 2022 Port Adelaide squad will need to change - and it will change through a highly anticipated trade period in October that could be as wild as the home-and-away season became. Gray is not the only player who will be unsighted at Alberton when the summer calls a new squad together for pre-season training.

Showdown LII also marks a significant moment in the one of the team leader's AFL journey. Deputy vice-captain Darcy Byrne-Jones reaches his 150-game AFL milestone.

And there is that matter of the Port Adelaide players releasing their inner feelings on the rivalry with the neighbour to the west - "arrogant and entitled," the leadership group has said in unison.

So many emotions. So many agenda items. So much at stake in a derby that stands as the most-intense in Australian football. Would anyone still say this a "dead rubber" Showdown?

"What is a sporting rivalry - it is just that a 'sporting' rivalry. The players' views on what we think of each other in this town is clear - and has been clear for a lot longer before me (arriving at Port Adelaide in October 2012) and will be after me as well.

"We enjoy the dislike of the Crows ...

"There is honesty in how our players talk. That is how they must feel (about the rivalry). And they have spoken that way. It is not manufactured. And we don't need to do that for Showdowns. Showdowns bring out these conversations - this is a Showdown."

- Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley

FINAL BOW

GAME No. 271. Showdown No. 22. One last run at Adelaide Oval. One last chance to marvel at a player who stands as a genius among so many mere mortals on the football field.

After 16 seasons, the player called from under the shadows of the Dandenong Ranges in Melbourne as the 55th player inducted to the AFL through the 2006 national draft takes his final bow.

Robbie Gray will leave the game as one of Port Adelaide's greatest players of any era. He exits the stage as one of the AFL's finest players of all eras.

Gray arrived at Alberton in the summer of 2006-7 as a teenager wondering if he would play one AFL game. He has survived a career-threatening knee injury in 2012. He leaves with many wishing he would play one more season.

There is a dream script for the man who has shone so often in Showdowns, winning five Showdown Medals - including both in Season 2018. The man with the record for most last scores in AFL football resulting in wins for his team would have the last shot on goal - and make his final act in the game be true to his image as "Mr Clutch".

"Just the win would be nice," says Gray.

"I can't wait to play in front of the fans one last time. They have given me and my family so much and been such great supporters of me personally. It is what the fans give to all of us as players that makes them amazing. I am looking forward to getting out there one last time and thanking them for their support."

- Robbie Gray

SELECTION

HOW do you change a winning team that has achieved its best score of the season and the equal-biggest win of the season?

Add Robbie Gray.

Convention continues to be challenged at selection, however.

The ruck duties remain with the successful makeshift pairing of key forwards Jeremy Finlayson and Charlie Dixon with half-forward Sam Powell-Pepper in support.

Finlayson has defied - and challenged - the concept of counting hit-outs to put a great emphasis on the follow-up work after the ruck contest.

Port Adelaide ruck coach Matthew Lobbe - like senior coach Ken Hinkley - has raised the eyebrows at Finlayson's work in ruck.

"With ball in hand, Jeremy's decision making is amazing," Lobbe said. "I've not seen any ruckman do as Jeremy has done as consistently. He is the genuine fourth midfielder for us.

"We definitely have a different model with Jeremy. Take last week, we lose the hit-outs by 40 and Jeremy is one of the best on ground."

The defence is built around two recognised tall back men - captain Tom Jonas and All-Australian Aliir Aliir. This leaves Ryan Burton and Dan Houston to work tall match-ups while also creating rebound from Port Adelaide's defence.

"Trent McKenzie has not been in his greatest form; Tom Clurey is unavailable (by knee surgery)," Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley explains. "We have had to play with two tall (defenders rather than three) for a long period of my journey here. It is not unusual for us - and we think it is the best opportunity for us to win the game."

"There is no such thing as a dead rubber when it comes to a Showdown. There is a huge amount of pride on the line.

"You never want to lose a Showdown. It is as simple as that."

- Port Adelaide captain Tom Jonas

STYLE COUNCIL

ADELAIDE acting captain Brodie Smith has worked the numbers.

"We looked at them ... (Port Adelaide) is a pretty good uncontested side," said Smith this week. "They get a lot of ball movement that we need to shut down.

"Obviously, our contest and pressure has been our one-wood, the key to our game and it gets us over the line. We definitely need to bring that early - and shut out their crowd early."

On contested possessions - the basis of Adelaide's so-called "DNA" - Smith's team has a 143.2 average this season. Port Adelaide is at 137.3.

On uncontested possession, Port Adelaide has a 237.5 average. Smith's group is at 206.9.

On a night when - as Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley says - "actions matter most", Port Adelaide has to deal with matching and defying a rival that has built its new gameplan on an uncompromising attitude towards the contest.

"(Adelaide coach and former Port Adelaide senior assistant coach) Matthew Nicks would know we are a contested football team. That is a reality," Hinkley responded. "Brodie is allowed his opinion."

For the record, the barometer did hold true in Showdown LI. The raw contested count went against Port Adelaide, 134-140. So did the uncontested numbers, 197-194.

So, will it be decisive again?

"(Smith) has his opinion, but we are a really solid, contested team - and uncontested, we have some weapons on the outside," Port Adelaide deputy vice-captain Byrne-Jones says. "He is probably referring to Connor Rozee and Zak Butters who are really good outside the contest. But we also think they are really tough on the inside as well.

"We are definitely able to stand up to the heat. We will find out on Saturday night, but we go in pretty confident with the way we can play contested footy on the inside and be tough on the outside as well.

"Adelaide does have some strong midfielders who run really well and out-number really well. They attack you with the ball and can come at you very quickly. So, we are going to need counter that by out-numbering them as much as possible and then use the footy well, limiting our turnovers going forward."

Port Adelaide ruck coach Matthew Lobbe details Adelaide's playbook as carrying pages on "outnumbering the opposition at contests".

"They get numbers there - and we have to get just as many if not more to the contest," Lobbe said. "We have to win the ball - and spread. It is a big task."

CURTAIN FALLS

FOR the fourth time since the Showdowns began in 1997, the home-and-away season ends with a derby. The last time was 2004 (a memorable year in Port Adelaide history). Port Adelaide has won all three Showdowns that have pulled down the curtain on the home-and-away season.

At best, Port Adelaide will finish the season at 10-12. It certainly will finish as the best-ranked South Australian AFL club for the fifth year in a row.

But the curtain falls on a year that began with a lead weight from a 0-5 start and without the finals action that underlines Port Adelaide's ambition.

The Showdown ledger would be at 27-25 in Port Adelaide's favour if Robbie Gray leaves Adelaide Oval on Saturday night with the public address system blaring "We Have The Power To Win".

"I don't like finishing the season now. If we can win a Showdown, it gives us something to go forward with to 2023. Not much. But something."

- Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley

HOW THIS ROLLS

REMOVE the 2020 Showdown (with Port Adelaide wearing the club's 1901 black-and-white bars to mark the club's 150th anniversary) that was played to shortened quarters with the COVID protocols and the form line reads:

Port Adelaide has won three of the past five derbies

Port Adelaide is the only team to break the watershed 100-point barrier in those five Showdowns - 101 points in the second derby of 2019

Port Adelaide has put up 27 (in the most recent Showdown), 20, 27, 26 and 23 scores in these five derbies; Adelaide has chalked up 21, 13, 10, 19 and 23. There is a trend.

Clearly, accuracy is telling - as Port Adelaide laments from its 4.7 (while conceding 8.3) during the second half of the April Fool's Day derby this season.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

"Our responsibility is to turn up and perform. Actions during the game matter the most. That is what we have to live by.

"We know the great history of the Showdown ... and nothing is taken for granted in Showdowns."

- Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"There obviously is some disappointment with how the season has panned out. I am sure at the start of the season no-one within the four walls here at Port Adelaide would have thought we would be missing finals (after top-four finishes in the previous two years). We were really confident going into the season. But things have not panned out the way we thought they would. That is the reality of it.

"We have to take learnings from it, review it really hard and then come back next season with a renewed vigour and a real want to play strong footy again."

- Port Adelaide deputy vice-captain Darcy Bryne-Jones

THE BIRD SEED

(the small details that count)

Showdown LII

Port Adelaide v Adelaide, Adelaide Oval

When: Saturday, April 20, 2022

Time: 7pm

Last time: Port Adelaide 13.14 (92) l Adelaide 15.6 (96) at Adelaide Oval, round 3, April 1 this year.

Overall: Port Adelaide 26, Adelaide 25.

Past five games: From the most recent, L W W W W L

Scoring averages: Port Adelaide 87, Adelaide 90

Tightest margin: Three points, twice (Adelaide wins in Showdowns 39 and 45).

Biggest margin: Port Adelaide by 75 points in Showdown 48; Adelaide by 84 points in Showdown 43.

By the venue: Adelaide Oval, Port Adelaide 7, Adelaide 9; Football Park, Port Adelaide 19, Adelaide 16.

Robbie Gray v Adelaide

Showdowns: 21 (won 12, lost 9)

First: Round 6, 2009 (won, kicked three goals)

Disposal count: 448 (230 kicks, 218 handballs)

Best: 37 (20 kicks, 17 handpasses) Showdown 40, round 2, 2016 at Adelaide Oval

Score: 38.19

Best score: 6.0 (five goals in third term). Showdown 46, round 8, 2018 at Adelaide Oval

Showdown Medals: 5 (2010, 2015, 2018 x 2, 2019)

THEY talked the talk.

They walked the tough road to a Showdown victory.

They won with power, just as Port Adelaide captain Tom Jonas vowed. "We were always going to win for Robbie Gray," he said.

They sang with pride the Port Adelaide team song with pride in how they gave Robbie Gray the winning feeling in his farewell after 16 majestic seasons in AFL company.

The man with five Showdown Medals leaves the game having brought out of his Port Adelaide team-mates their most consistent, most determined and most meaningful win to close a frustrating and disappointing season.

Port Adelaide's assertive 56-point in Showdown LII on Saturday night closes the year with a 10-12 win-loss count - much less than expected at Alberton. It puts the Showdown ledger at 27-25 to mark local superiority while finishing as South Australia's highest-ranked AFL team for the fifth consecutive year.  

They stood tough at the start. They were commanding at the end. They even seemed to enjoy it as the opposition faltered under a way of Gray power.

It was the farewell Gray was most entitled to. It was the "Graytest" - passed with flying colours by a team that showed its respect for one of the game's greatest players by it actions.

Not even Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks can say with an incredulous tone that Port Adelaide did not honour Gray where - and when - it matters most. 

As there should be, Gray's 271st and final AFL game has its own collection of "Robbie Gray" moments.

Gray finished with 2.2 off 13 disposals. Most notable is he contributed to three team goals and was involved in nine scores.

And there were so many Robbie Gray moments in this farewell.

Put a permanent bookmark on 9 minutes 41 seconds of the second term. Vice-captain Ollie Wines, with a sharp kick, found Gray unmarked at the apex of the 50-metre arc in the south-west pocket. Gray's set shot, with the ball working its way from right to left, mirrors the kick that sunk Carlton from a similar position after the siren at the Gabba in 2020.

The response - with every Port Adelaide rushing to Gray to celebrate - certainly was a repeat of the aftermath from the "clutch" moment in Brisbane.

Gray's goal gave Port Adelaide a 13-point lead - the only time during the first half when there was a double-digit lead.

And 21:11 of the same term when Gray seemed to make the game stop - the Adelaide defenders certainly seemed flat-footed - while he intercepted a rushed play at the Port Adelaide goalfront at the River Torrens end. His kick went higher than the hopes it carried ...

Gray's ability to work taller defenders away from a marking contest gave him his chance to score his second goal with the old scoreboard as the backdrop. In the second minute of the third term, Gray removed Josh Worrell from under Dan Houston's kick from outside 50 to earn his set shot from alongside the behind post. This goal again set up a double-digit lead, this time advancing the five-point gap at half-time to 12.

Five minutes later, Gray found space to be on the end of Travis Boak's pass from outside 50. Even greats miss. As he did in the 17th minute with a shot from 30 metres, directly in front of the northern goal, after finding a leap off his battered knees to take a strong mark in front of a pack.

If he did not score them, Gray assisted - as he did with the handpass that allowed midfielder Karl Amon to unload a customary long kick at goal that gave Port Adelaide its eighth goal - and a 26-point lead - in the 14th minute of the third term.

And for much of the game, Gray danced - jumping in hot spots - to make every defender near him sweat, particularly during the third term. That image of the ball bouncing towards Gray and the master already in motion to attack the Sherrin and move away into unguarded space will be missed by every fan who has admired Gray's masterful touches and plays. Defenders will sleep easier knowing their torment is over.

At the end, such as the dropped mark and an off-target kick midway through the last term, proves nothing - not even Robbie Gray's greatness - can go on forever.

The man who never carried any arrogance always put team before self. Gray made this theme the final memory of his work on Adelaide Oval. Facing a set shot from just outside 50 in the south-east pocket during time-on of the last term, Gray preferred to pass the ball to Marshall (who dutifully put another goal assist to Gray's name).

The 50,090 at the Oval sang in praise of Gray. The Port Adelaide true believers also farewell Gray as he merits.

If anyone questions why Showdowns - even those between two rivals with rankings at 11 and 14 - would draw comparisons with AFL finals reserved for top-eight teams, the answer was there from the start at 7pm. Tension? It is as gut-wrenching as anything that has the label of a "final". Pressure? Real and perceived it is at an extreme, the consequence of every action seems more intense, more costly.  

Few Showdowns - certainly very few "dead rubber" derbies - have had such anticipation for the opening. There was no out-of-the-ordinary behaviour from either camp. But there was the nice touch of Gray starting in the midfield rotations, side-by-side with the All-Australian, Rory Laird, who spoke with such admiration and respect towards a feared rival on Monday.

Gray, quite appropriately, was in the chain of play in the first goal scored by Port Adelaide's 2022 leading goalkicker, Todd Marshall, in the second minute. The inside-50 sent to the northern end by Travis Boak was touched before it reached Gray's hands, denying him a mark for the first set shot of the match. Gray's awareness and hands were sharp to put Connor Rozee on a goal assist to Marshall.

The opening did not have "spice" but it had speed. It was there not just in ball movement, but also in the need to act and respond at every contest. The challenge to harass Adelaide when it sought to gain field territory was as demanding as the pressure Port Adelaide had to apply to Sydney at Adelaide Oval in round 14. Where there was space to measure a kick or handpass last week, there was an opponent ready to tackle, block or bump. Showdowns demand such. One of the finest moments of this harassment was in the quick reaction of first-year Port Adelaide defender Jase Burgoyne to cramp Ned McHenry on a shot at goal 20 metres from the southern goal in the 16th minute.

Port Adelaide deputy vice-captain Darcy Byrne-Jones, in his 150th AFL game, had his moment when he ran down Adelaide small forward Lachlan Murphy while he was running towards Taylor Walker's kick to an open goal during the final minutes of the third term.

The first 32 minutes and 22 seconds closed with Port Adelaide midfielder Zak Butters hitting the post at the northern end - this time it was the goal post closer to the old scoreboard - to give Port Adelaide a one-point lead at quarter-time.

The pressure indicators were high from the start - and swung wildly in the first term. Contested football was in Adelaide's favour early, 25-17 in the first 15 minutes. Port Adelaide had this critical number at 22-18 during the latter 15-minute patch of the first quarter, forcing Adelaide into a heavy tackling game. Port Adelaide had cut into more of Adelaide's plays, leading 23-17 on intercepts. And Port Adelaide had certainly proven it could hold the ball for longer with a 73-39 advantage in uncontested football.

Those first 32 minutes did prove the Showdown is "like a final" but unlike any other AFL home-and-away game.

There were just four goals in the first term; five during the second quarter, including Port Adelaide key forward Todd Marshall reaching his career 100th - and a fundamental shift to Port Adelaide during the third term. With greater command of the ball, Port Adelaide took a 28-point lead to the last term off a dominant (but perhaps wasteful) third term by scoring 4.6 while conceding just one goal.

The Showdown had swung to Port Adelaide. It was not swinging back.

The final numbers emphasised how commanding this Gray-inspired victory was - 401 disposals to 287. The contested ball count was square at 146-146. On the uncontested chart, Port Adelaide blitzed Adelaide 236-129.

Port Adelaide had two stress points that did not crack - ruck and in key defensive match-ups against Adelaide's three talls of Taylor Walker, Riley Thilthorpe and the strong-marking Darcy Fogarty.

Makeshift ruckman Jeremy Finlayson, for all his frustration with the umpiring, had to focus his game again on defying the advantages of a dominant ruckman. Adelaide ruckman Rielly O'Brien did dominate on hit-outs. Port Adelaide's midfield was ultimately superior, winning all clearances 45-40 despite O'Brien giving Adelaide the bulk of the hit-outs that finished at 23-59 against Port Adelaide (a disparity that has become quite normal in Port Adelaide games since the loss of specialist ruckman Scott Lycett with a shoulder injury).   

Tom Jonas had to deal with Fogarty, who finished with three goals under intense attention from the Port Adelaide captain.

Aliir Aliir worked against Walker and, as match-ups switched depending on rotations, Thilthorpe. His intercept marking - and seven marks in total - again frustrated Adelaide. He did not concede a shot at goal to Walker. The former Adelaide captain's only, in the final minutes, came from a free kick conceded in a marking contest by Dan Houston.

Ryan Burton was forced to work "tall" against Thilthorpe who had no score.

Midfielder Connor Rozee won his first Showdown Medal to complete a year of grand progression to an elite player who can hope he too will one day stand alongside Gray in Port Adelaide's Hall of Fame. His final words in his acceptance speech - "Love ya Robbie" - echoed loudest across Adelaide Oval.

Bye Robbie. And thanks for the entertainment. The memories will last forever.

SHOWDOWN LII

PORT ADELAIDE v ADELAIDE

PORT ADELAIDE         2.4     5.7      9.13   16.15 (111)

ADELAIDE              2.3     4.6      5.9     7.13 (55)

BEST - Port Adelaide: Rozee, Wines, Amon, Marshall, Butters, Farrell, Aliir. 

GOALS - Port Adelaide: Marshall 4, Duursma, Gray, McEntee 2, Amon, Butters, Georgiades, Powell-Pepper, Rozee, Wines. 

INJURY - Mitch Georgiades (ankle, in the final term).

MEDICAL SUBSTITUTE: Riley Bonner (activated in final term for Georgiades).

CROWD: 50,090 at Adelaide Oval.

SHOWDOWN MEDALLIST: Connor Rozee (Port Adelaide).