SEVEN years ago it was the simplest decision for Erin Phillips to be Port Adelaide's first signing for a women's team that ultimately was not admitted to the pioneer AFLW series in 2017.

Today, as inevitable as it was for Phillips to return to her family club, the multi-sport superstar's call to be Port Adelaide's first AFLW signing was loaded with even more emotion than in 2015.

"This is a dream come true to be able to say, 'I played for the Port Adelaide Football Club'. It is something that I have wanted to do for my whole life. Ever since I could walk and talk I wanted to be like my Dad by playing for Port Adelaide," said Phillips, daughter of eight-time premiership defender Greg.

"Even though I did not get the opportunity straight away - and have had a wonderful opportunity at Adelaide - to be here at a place I call home with such amazing history ... just walking across the oval gives me goosebumps wearing these colours.

"It was incredibly difficult; a decision I went back and forth so many times," Phillips revealed of her move from West Lakes to Alberton across the great South Australian football divide. "Even though I was a young Port Adelaide girl who went across to play for a team that I never imagined I would ever play for - the rival team - it was not easy to say goodbye and take on another challenge.

"I feel that in being part of this incredible new team, I am looking forward to the challenges it brings. It is something completely different.

"I am so proud to be part of the Port Adelaide Football Club. I hope I can give this club everything that I can and hopefully achieve some great success."

Three decades into one of Australian sport's greatest rivalries, there is the biggest crossing of the Port Adelaide-Adelaide divide with Phillips leaving Adelaide as its premiership hero and as the AFLW's most-decorated player.

Phillips, 36, decided on Sunday morning to confirm the long-expected return to Port Adelaide.

"I have been waking up a lot of mornings going, 'Oh, should I? Shouldn't I? What is the right decision?'," Phillips said. "There have been the midnight calls to Dad on his night shifts. On Sunday morning it just felt right.

"It is, literally, a dream come true to finally get this opportunity. It is something I have wanted my whole life.

"What an honour it is to be back at Alberton," Phillips said on Tuesday morning, seven years after the concept of a national women's football league was declared by the AFL and she immediately signed for Port Adelaide.

"There are so many memories here as a little kid jumping the fence at every opportunity that I could to get on the oval to kick the footy or stick my head in Jack Cahill's huddle to hear his fired-up speech which got me fired up."

Phillips will adopt her father's No. 22 guernsey, but the Olympian will be driven to make her own history at a football club where Greg played 343 league games and was the pivotal defender in eight SANFL premierships across the 1970s to 1990s.

"I'll wear 22 ... clearly because of Charlie Dixon," Phillips joked. "That number is really special to me. It will be a real honour to wear it after dad wore it proudly for this club. Dad says he is better looking in 22 ... he is so proud and it will be good to see Dad back in the stands with the Port Adelaide colours again.

"There is a different legacy I want to leave in that jumper.

"My Dad's legacy here is incredible, but I want to make my own legacy at this club," Phillips added. "It is exciting to be part of the first Port Adelaide AFLW side. I want to contribute as much as I can on and off the field to help this team achieve success.

"I will do whatever it takes ... I will put all my energy into what will be a young side with fantastic South Australian talent."

Greg Phillips - as he has throughout his daughter's illustrious sporting career and life - supported Phillips throughout her decision-making process rather than conditioned her choice of AFLW clubs.

"My Dad has been wonderful throughout this process," Phillips said. "My whole family has. Dad told me there is no wrong decision. I had to make the decision that was best for me and for what I want to do in the future. I had a lot of midnight phone calls with him ... He is just rapt that I have made the decision and can finally put my head down and get to work." 

Phillips will join a Port Adelaide line-up that is planning to start pre-season training across the June long weekend and wants to open the new 18-club AFLW series with a Showdown against current premiers Adelaide at Adelaide Oval in a Friday night blockbuster on August 26.

The finer details of Port Adelaide's inaugural squad and start-up dates remains to be resolved in collective bargaining talks with the AFL and AFL Players' Association.

Port Adelaide AFLW chief Juliet Haslam presented Phillips as the club's first signing in the new AFLW changerooms that are being finished in the Fos Williams Family Stand. And she expects Phillips' return to Alberton to entice other experienced AFLW players and draft prospects to Port Adelaide.

"It helps ... it certainly makes a difference to have someone of Erin's calibre come to the club," Haslam said. "We have been having a lot of great conversations with a lot of players here in Adelaide and across the competition.

"Erin is an extraordinary athlete; a pioneer for women's sport; an inspiring trailbazer for a new generation of female athletes and sports fans. Most importantly, she is a great leader and a wonderful person.

"We welcome Erin back home to create her own story here at Port Adelaide as we establish an AFLW program striving for sustained success.

"When we were given the AFLW licence, every Port Adelaide person was thinking, 'When can we get Erin Phillips?' So we can now celebrate."

Phillips is yet to be part of Port Adelaide's approaches to established AFLW players with newly appointed coach Lauren Arnell.

"But now that I have signed," said Phillips, "I will be having some chats. The exciting part (of building the inaugural Port Adelaide AFLW squad) is that there is exciting talent in this State as we saw with the under-18 squad beating Victoria. Women's football in this State is so incredibly lucky with the talent that is coming through. That is one thing that has excited me in coming to Port Adelaide - developing those young players.

"Lauren and I are pretty similar. We get excited to see younger players perform and compete. Everyone at this football club is invested in doing whatever it takes to get their players to be part of a team that takes the field that will compete hard and play the Port Adelaide way.

"I do know the support behind this club, the investment from its people and the facilities gives Port Adelaide everything it needs to compete as well as possible."

Port Adelaide's first contract with Phillips is a long-term deal that extends beyond playing AFLW. But Phillips expects to extend her playing career with a new challenge at Alberton.

"I have not thought too much about the coaching part. No. 1 is I want to keep playing," Phillips said. "I still love being able to play. As long as I can physically play - and perform to the level that I contribute and still love it - I will play as long as I can.

"The thought of wearing these (Port Adelaide) colours is really exciting," Phillips added. "We want to be competitive (from the start). There is going to be a lot of young players. My age will change the average age of the group ... but that is okay. I am going to do whatever I can to help these players become elite athletes and get the best out of themselves."

Haslam emphasised "we want to have Erin at the club beyond her playing career".

"As long as she can play, we would love to have her playing," Haslam said. "But certainly we would love to have her involved in the club beyond her playing career as well."