ONE memory - and lesson - will linger from Port Adelaide's historic start in the AFLW: No game is won until it is indeed won.

Port Adelaide led West Coast by 11 points with a quarter to play. It had the wind at its back on a rain-soaked Lathlain Park in Perth. And the scorecard on the Champion Data statistic sheets were reading just as Port Adelaide would have wanted, particularly with a double-digit lead in contested possessions. The pressure the Port Adelaide players had put into the game, with the team's tackling numbers approaching 100, was impressive.

Every signal was pointing to a dream start for Port Adelaide.

And 10 minutes later it was not a battered West Coast that had wilted. Rather, Port Adelaide was overwhelmed by a four-goal burst built on West Coast working "Hail Mary" plays to the goalfront - and having its prayers answered with some extraordinary (and lucky) opportunities to score.

Port Adelaide let a grand opportunity slip with two 10-minute patches - at the start of the first term and the last quarter. The first set up a 12-point lead for West Coast; the second delivered a 12-point win.

Port Adelaide played better for longer. It had the ball more often, as noted with the 196-184 advantage on all disposals.

West Coast did its best work across shorter timespans, particularly by converting one in every two entries to its forward-50 arc - and is rewarded with its fifth win at the start of its fourth AFLW season.

Port Adelaide has the bitter taste of a defeat that betrays the effort offered by the players - and punishes them for slipping when the game needed to be won.

The critics will maintain this Port Adelaide team is full of promise - and potential. Experience is now the critical need. Lessons from this last quarter become invaluable. 

Lauren Arnell certainly has built Port Adelaide's first senior women's team to live the "Port Adelaide way". 

Port Adelaide had built the 11-point lead at three quarter-time on contested football - and aiming to the tall threats of Gemma Houghton and Julia Teakle in attack, particularly the bullish Houghton.

"We played Port Adelaide footy," said senior mentor Lauren Arnell, the first AFLW player to coach an AFLW team. "We brought it to the contest." 

This game was built on momentum - or scoring bursts.

West Coast established the first lead with the opening two goals of the match.

Port Adelaide responded with the next four.

West Coast finished with the last four, all in a 10-minute burst built on - despite working against the wind - playing long and fast to the goalsquare at Lathlain Park.

Port Adelaide did have shining lights under the rain clouds in Perth.

Abbey Dowrick, the West Australian midfielder who came to Adelaide to play SANFLW football, lived up to all her promise with a 21-disposal start to her AFLW career.

A week after the No. 9 Port Adelaide jumper was seen for the last time in the AFL on the shoulders of 271-game Robbie Gray, midfielder Maria Moloney picked up the vibe of the famed guernsey in her club debut. Her third goal in AFLW company (after two in her 11 games at Brisbane) was marked with unexpected opportunity. Moloney, while unmarked just outside Port Adelaide's forward-50 arc, remarkably had a clearing kick from the West Coast defence land in her lap. She immediately played on, working a tandem by handpasses with captain Erin Phillips to score Port Adelaide's fourth goal that opened a 12-point lead during the third term. 

Phillips started - as named - in the centre and immediately drew the close-marking attention of West Coast rival, Irish recruit Aisling McCarthy. The AFLW pioneer finished with 10 disposals while her Port Adelaide team-mates sent the strong signal they will not be known for cameos on the fringe of Phillips' image and limelight.

Phillips moved into attack seemingly suffering from a leg injury. She was back in the midfield rotations after West Coast had reclaimed the lead in the last term.

"History in the making" is filled with many notes from this historic match.

Port Adelaide won the first clearance, won the battle for the first possession ... but lost the first term by two goals, one gifted to West Coast star signing Kellie Gibson from a turnover at kick-in. West Coast certainly was stronger at the start - and incredibly efficient with four scores (2.2) from its first four inside-50 entries. But Port Adelaide had momentum building towards the end of the first term while Lathlain Park was under increasing threat of the rain that hit Perth on Saturday morning swirling back over the West Australian capital. 

West Australian Julia Teakle enters the history book for the first Port Adelaide score in the AFLW - albeit a miss from a set shot 25 metres in the first term.

Fremantle recruit Gemma Houghton is to be remembered for the first Port Adelaide in the national women's league - from a set shot at the top of the goalsquare early in the second quarter.

"Amazing ...," the dual All-Australian said at half-time for her reaction on making history for Port Adelaide.

"It has been such a short journey," added Houghton who joined Port Adelaide on May 9, "and such a privilege to play for this club."

Justine Mules, in her 50th AFLW game, gave Port Adelaide its first-ever lead (by six points) in an AFLW game with her snap from 20 metres at the start of the third term marking the team's third goal.

Moloney's running goal had that lead extend to 12 points just before three quarter-time. It also marked the end of Port Adelaide's momentum run ... and the start of the lesson Arnell's group will carry for the next nine games of this first AFLW home-and-away season: It ain't over 'til it's over. 

AFLW - SEASON OPENER

WEST COAST v PORT ADELAIDE

PORT ADELAIDE      0.2     2.3    4.3     4.4 (28)

WEST COAST         2.2     2.3    2.4     6.4 (40)

BEST - Port Adelaide: Dowrick, Moloney, Yorston, Houghton, Foley, Surman.

GOALS - Port Adelaide: Houghton, Moloney, Mules, Tahau. 

CROWD: 1846 at Lathlian Park, Perth.

NEXT: Home opener v Western Bulldogs at Alberton Oval, Saturday, September 3, 1.10pm.