IF there was to be a theme song for summer Showdowns between Port Adelaide and the in-town derby rival Adelaide it would work to Mick Jagger on The Rolling Stones' stage.

No, you can't always get what you want ... but if you try, sometime you'll find you get what you need.

Both South Australian AFL teams need a decent hit-out to close the pre-season campaign. But rarely do they want it to be a derby.

From the start of the on-field rivalry in 1997, neither the Port Adelaide nor Adelaide football clubs wanted nor endorsed summer pre-season encounters arguing it was best to keep the derby for the traditional home-and-away premiership season. Build up the expectation in-season; do not dilute the most-anticipated match on the South Australian football calendar; keep it to two Showdowns from late March to August and hope there is the occasional scrap in September during the knock-out battle to a bigger AFL trophy.

The AFL agreed for just the first two years of home-and-away Showdowns after which Port Adelaide and Adelaide were at 2-2 after four derbies at Football Park in 1997 and 1998.

Since that 1999 Ansett Australia Cup clash - that drew 40,577 to Football Park on a Friday night in mid-February - there have been:

FOURTEEN pre-season derbies, "Summer Showdowns" with differing formats including 20-minute halves and nine-point "super goals" for successful kicks at goal from outside the 50-metre forward arc. And these matches have been badged differently from "Cup" to "Challenge" to "Community Series" battles and with varying sponsors.

TWO AFL-endorsed summer practice games - outside the race for pre-season premierships - in the South Australian regional areas (Encounter Bay in 2000 and Kadina in 2004).

A FEW "scratch Showdowns" with fringe players or experienced players building their fitness bases in games with limited numbers.

SANFL Showdowns since Adelaide was admitted to the State league in 2014.

AND there was the prospect of the fierce South Australian rivals clashing in the short-lived AFLX series at the rectangular Hindmarsh Stadium in 2018. They were in competing three-team pools, but an inexperienced Port Adelaide squad did not advance from the preliminary matches against Geelong and Fremantle.

Since 2010, it is more likely Port Adelaide and Adelaide will meet during the pre-season than not. The only summers clear of a derby during this time have been 2016, 2017 and 2020.

And the AFL can now argue nothing has been lost to the real Showdowns at Adelaide Oval during the premiership season.

The damage at the gate was with the summer derbies. From a near full house at a West Lakes in 1999, there were just 17,012 when the South Australian rivals played in the first round of the NAB cup at Football Park.

Today, necessity - as Mick Jagger notes you get what you need rather than want - dictates summer Showdowns be programmed to minimise travel complications (and costs) while Australian football works through COVID protocols and border issues with Western Australia. The latter denied Port Adelaide and Adelaide trial games last week with their West Australian-based rivals West Coast and Fremantle.

History neatly records Port Adelaide won the first pre-season derby, just as it did with the real Showdown in 1997. Port Adelaide beat Adelaide by 36 points - 13.15 (93) to 8.9 (57) - on its way to the 1999 pre-season grand final lost to Hawthorn at the now-lost Waverley Park in Melbourne.

The closest the teams came to a pre-season Showdown battle for a genuine trophy was in 2002 when both South Australian clubs were semi-finalists in the Wizard Cup series. Port Adelaide beat Sydney in the semi-final at Football Park while Adelaide lost to Richmond at the Docklands in Melbourne. Port Adelaide then successfully defended the night title by beating Richmond at the so-called "Colonial Stadium" in Melbourne.

A year later, there was the tightest summer derby - Adelaide winning by one point on the back of a super goal at Football Park - 1.10.9 (78) to 11.11 (77). Adelaide kept the pre-season title in South Australian hands by beating Collingwood in the final.

There has been one other one-point summer Showdown, also won by Adelaide - 0.2.6 (18) to 0.2.5 (17) - in the short-form games at West Lakes in 2012.

Port Adelaide's narrowest summer Showdown win was by three points - 2.9.17 (89) to 2.10.8 (86) - at Football Park in what was the 2007 NAB Cup. There were 16,355 in the crowd for that Friday night match in late February.

The "official" summer Showdowns have been played at city venues Football Park, Alberton Oval, Noarlunga - and on Saturday returns to Richmond Oval for the second time after being the scene of Eddie Betts' start for Adelaide in 2014.

Country venues have been at the Fleurieu and Yorke peninsulas and Memorial Oval at Port Pirie.

And how does the summer Showdown ledger read? Like the premiership derby counter, it was 2-2 after four pre-season games and today is: Port Adelaide 6, Adelaide 8.

The summer derby at Richmond Oval - an AAMI Community Series game - begins at 3.40pm and will be broadcast on Kayo.