The Showdown marks the conclusion of the men's 2022 season, however Port Adelaide's women's side will take the field in their first offical AFLW match to mark a new beginning at Alberton. Image: AFL Photos,

TWO seasons (AFL and SANFL) end for Port Adelaide, sooner than expected and certainly earlier than wanted.

A new season begins at the weekend on a bright new national stage for Port Adelaide, the AFLW.

A senior men's squad never that will be seen together again, nor will Robbie Gray be at work as a Port Adelaide player. Nor will Steven Motlop. And possibly free agent Karl Amon, who played with great maturity in recent weeks while speculation increased on his future.

A senior women's squad will be watched for the first time, albeit from a distance while Erin Phillips leads Port Adelaide for the first time in Perth.

History is again in the making at Alberton. The team scarf does not get packed away (on the earliest date since 2000 when the AFL season was brought forward for the Sydney Olympics). For at least the next 10 weeks, Port Adelaide fans are to relive all that was 1997 when the club rose from suburban to national ranks with a highly competitive first season in the "big league" after many had predicted John Cahill's crew would not win an AFL game. They missed finals by percentage (to Brisbane) with a 10-1-11 win-draw-record.

Never to be forgotten from that inaugural AFL season is the triumph in the first Showdown at Football Park. Does history repeat with the first AFLW derby at Adelaide Oval on Friday, September 30?

Erin Phillips faces her old side in a historic Showdown at Adelaide Oval on September 30 - the first in AFLW history. Image: AFL Photos.

Port Adelaide's exit from the senior men's competitions of the national AFL and State-based SANFL on Saturday evening at Adelaide Oval did make for sweet icing on a flat cake. There is no hiding from the disappointing results of Season 2022. But there also should be some pride for how the football program did not collapse when Port Adelaide always seemed behind the eight ball in the race to September.

Matthew Lokan's SANFL team closed a frustrating season with a mini-Showdown victory, to rank eighth of 10 with a 5-13 win-loss record. There are still many questions on where Port Adelaide is best served - in the SANFL or elsewhere? - for the development of its would-be AFL players.

Ken Hinkley's AFL side gave Gray the perfect send-off to which he was entitled as the future Hall of Famer closed his 271-game, 16-season career with a 56-point win in Showdown LII. As a farewell game, the derby - with a full house at Adelaide Oval - delivered spirit-lifting memories that will hold for decades. It was the "Graytest". 

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Robbie says final farewell to Power fans | PTV

Robbie Gray is chaired off by his Port Adelaide teammates after finishing his outstanding career in the AFL

Port Adelaide ranked 11th of 18 with a 10-12 win-loss record - and as South Australia's highest-placed AFL team for the fifth consecutive year.

But the ambition spelled out in the "Chasing Greatness" manifesto remains unfulfilled - and demanding major the extra time on offer this pre-season be taken up, as deputy vice-captain Darcy Byrne-Jones says: "We have to take learnings from (this year's results), review it really hard and then come back next season with a renewed vigour and a real want to play strong footy again."

This week is about exit meetings in the men's program - and entry to club history for the first Port Adelaide AFLW line-up named by inaugural coach Lauren Arnell at the end of the week. 

The next month is preparing for an AFL trade period in which Port Adelaide - with no desire to "bottom out" - is expected to "re-set" with critical gains. The needs are obvious. They exist in every line - defence, attack and midfield.

When the new Port Adelaide squad gathers at Alberton for pre-season training in November-December, there will be a new name on the No. 9 locker cleared by Robbie Gray.

Who will inherit the guernsey that is emotionally important to Port Adelaide in the memory of the late Anthony Williams and spiritually lifted by the honour put into the No. 9 by Gray?

Robbie Gray says no teammate has yet approached him to adopt the number nine, however says he expects to have those conversations in the coming days. Image: AFL Photos.

"I haven't spoken to anyone yet," answered Gray to the question as to whether he had a team-mate in mind for the No. 9 jumper.

"It is something I will think about in the next few days. I'm not sure how that all works ... we will wait and see."

Much was said - elsewhere - about the way the Showdown build-up unfolded with Port Adelaide hiding nothing of its feelings towards the passion at Alberton that has driven Australia's greatest AFL rivalry since 1990.

Vice-captain Ollie Wines answered one critic saying: "From my club's perspective, the rivalry is real - and we love beating the Crows. We want players to open up and give their perspective. For me, it was made too big of a deal. It's over now and we got the result." 

It should be remembered, the Port Adelaide leadership group - Tom Jonas, Wines and Bryne-Jones - were asked either in their contracted media obligations or in a press conference the stock-standard question of how they feel about the rivalry with the neighbour to the west of Old Port Road.

Their answers were true from a player group encouraged to speak honestly. And where is there fake diplomacy in all of sport's other great rivalries such as the Yankees and Red Sox in professional baseball or Celtic and Rangers in world football?

The Port Adelaide leaders avoided the scripted "vanilla" responses to say exactly how they feel. No different to what young midfielder Zak Butters said last year when his feelings about the neighbours were considered amusing. Or to the cheeky (and biting) run-through banner that did backfire on Port Adelaide in August 2017 - the one with the checklist for the neighbour's fans.

Chardonnay (tick).

Knitting needles (tick).

Rule book (tick).

Apricot slice (tick).

Bang on fence (tick).

Port Adelaide's Showdown banner in 2017, adding fuel to the deep rivalry with the Crows. Image: AFL Photos.

Anyway, the rivalry has deepened again.

To clip Jonas, Wines and Byrne-Jones by drawing a comparison with how West Coast behaved in the lead-up to Josh Kennedy's farewell match in Perth is wrong by one basic tenet. No-one asked any of the West Coast leaders how they personally felt about the team crossing the Nullabor to play the Eagles that weekend ...

The beauty of the weekend was the Port Adelaide players lived to their emotional words by the emotive actions on the field. Jonas certainly never avoided putting his head over a loose ball. Wines presented with a strong will - and most probably with the strongest determination since earning the mantle of Brownlow Medallist 11 months ago. Bryne-Jones, in his 150th game, was uncompromising as noted with his second-half run down of Adelaide small Ned McHenry before an open goal at the southern end.

The Showdown Trophy stays at Alberton for the 27th time.

A season that began with a lead weight from a 0-5 start ends with more frustration than pleasure for the Port Adelaide men's program.

Now a new season starts amid great anticipation with Port Adelaide part of the final expansion to an 18-team AFLW competition.