ONE certainty holds in the build-up to Showdown LI, the first Friday derby at Adelaide Oval (eight years after then AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou promised the prime timeslot as a reward for ending 40 years of civil war between cricket and football at the city ground).

Neither Showdown rival will start the 51st derby with an inflated sense of confidence. Or superiority (even if Port Adelaide has won the past four Showdowns and leads the derby ledger 26-24).

Adelaide is 15th with a 0-2 count from losses at home to Fremantle and away to Collingwood at the MCG. Port Adelaide is 18th with a 0-2 record from a meritorious 11-point loss to Brisbane at the Gabba and a far-from-acceptable 64-point defeat to Hawthorn at Adelaide Oval.

Sometimes Showdowns do come at the right time.

This is the fifth time a derby has fallen in round 3. The latest is a far contrast to the most-recent round 3 Showdown. That was in 2017 when both teams were unbeaten, Port Adelaide ranked top and Adelaide was second. (Adelaide won the derby at Adelaide Oval by 17 points).

Showdown LI is more a throwback to the first round 3 derby, in 2001 (at Football Park). Port Adelaide was 1-1 and ranked 12th of 16 in a competition that was without Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney. Adelaide was winless and placed 14th. (Port Adelaide won that derby by 65 points and finished the season in the top-four rankings).

But of all the reflections that are to be made in this short week leading to the 7.50pm start of Showdown LI, none is more relevant than the lessons from the first derby - at Football Park on April 20, 1997 when South Australian football was changed forever.

Adelaide limped out of that derby with a 1-3 win-loss count. It was equal last (percentage determined the rankings) with St Kilda. Both teams opposed each other in the grand final 22 weeks later. Sandwiched between Adelaide and St Kilda in the bottom four was North Melbourne, a preliminary finalist in 1997, grand finalist in 1998 and premiers in 1999.

So much for form lines in April ...

Malcolm Blight's critical message at the end of Adelaide's darkest hour - defeat to Port Adelaide in the first Showdown - was to focus on the possibilities that could unfold in the following 18 weeks of home-and-away football. His team might not have been the best from March-late August, but it certainly was in September when the marathon race to the AFL premiership was again decided in the final stretch - not at the starting blocks.

Port Adelaide is 0-2 today.

It was 0-2 in 2002, losing the season-opener to North Melbourne by 17 points at Football Park and to Melbourne by 27 points at the MCG in the round 2. Port Adelaide finished the home-and-away season with an impressive 18-4 win-loss count and the club's first AFL minor premiership.

It was 0-2 in 2003, losing the season-opener to West Coast by 48 points at Subiaco Oval in Perth and to Brisbane by 10 points at Football Park in round 2. Port Adelaide finished the home-and-away season with another impressive 18-4 win-loss count and another minor premiership and that cursed McClelland Trophy.

A year later, the breakthrough AFL premiership was secured.

Port Adelaide still has 20 home-and-away games to play this season, starting the chase for its first premiership points of 2022 with a Showdown on Friday night. Then there is AFL premier Melbourne at Adelaide Oval and the revived Carlton (offering a reunion with former midfield coach Michael Voss) at the MCG. A team in a rebuild, a side at the peak of its powers and a club that, after a 2-0 start, might be able to deliver on expectation.

So there is a long game to play here before understanding just where everyone sits in a competition that is loaded with uncertainty from the COVID protocols (as noted with West Coast at the weekend when coach Adam Simpson put an asterisk on the premiership, and with justification).

Port Adelaide fans underlined their frustration on Saturday night. The obligation to honour club great Russell Ebert was not met on the field at Adelaide Oval. The supporters also deserved better as a payback for what they endured the last time they sat at the Oval, for the equally annoying loss to the Western Bulldogs in the home preliminary final.

AFL pundits - starting with those on the Monday review panels - will write off Port Adelaide, just as they did with St Kilda and Adelaide in 1997.

In the background, there is a quote from Port Adelaide forwards coach Nathan Bassett. Last week, he said: "What I love about this football club is we work the long game.

"We have as good an under-25 list as there is in the competition. We have invested heavily in the draft in the past four years - and we have some great young people who will play a lot of games. We have invested in young people we can have a strong football club for a long time.

"It is about building continued success."

At the start of 2002, with a 0-2 count, there would have been doubts. And at the start of 2003, particularly when Port Adelaide had developed a record of just one win from five finals across 2001 and 2002 (that "choker" thing), even more doubts.

There was a marathon loaded onto a marathon onto another marathon until success was achieved the hard way in 2004 ... and no more after that much-cherished flag. The "long game" demands keeping a long-term focus is distracted by short-term results.

Showdown LI is a nice test of the Port Adelaide Football Club - of itself more than anything or anyone else.