TIME does make a difference. Port Adelaide handed the first Showdown honours in the AFLW to its neighbourhood rival with the Adelaide Oval scoreboard recording a one-sided derby with the well-established Adelaide.

The 60-point loss - on a night when the greatest rivalry in Australian football gained a new storyline in the perfect floodlit setting of the Oval - tells much of the growing pains of the AFLW ... and the agony the Australian game put on itself by denying young women for so long the pathway from junior to elite football.

Adelaide took advantage of all the experiences gained (and hard earned) as a foundation team from the first AFLW season in 2017.

Port Adelaide takes from this derby another reminder that spirit and ambition alone will not overcome the challenges of being one of the last four entries to the 18-team national women's league.

The hope of history repeating to make the Port Adelaide "herstory" tell of a first-up Showdown win - as there was in the AFL at Football Park in April 1997 - was shot very early when Adelaide dictated terms at clearances, commanded the Sherrin more often and used it with greater purpose.

But really that hope of history folding into "herstory" at Alberton was probably wishful thinking considering the differing realities of how the first Showdowns unfolded, 25 years apart.   

In 1997, Port Adelaide made up for the seven years of waiting to settle the score with the team that pocketed its place in the AFL with a team (on and off the field) that had developed in the SANFL - and had the hallmarks from more than a century of young men nurturing their skills and evolving the game.

In 2022, Lauren Arnell's "Inaugurals" had very little of this legacy. They are making up lost ground with novices - and the gap was notable against a unit that has celebrated three AFLW titles in six years and remains a league pacesetter.

No-one will label the Port Adelaide players as "overawed" by the occasion of the first AFLW derby at Adelaide Oval. But there were moments - particularly in the second term - when Port Adelaide was "overwhelmed" by Adelaide's superiority at clearances and in a sound kicking game to create set shots inside-50.

No-one will say the Port Adelaide players - in particular Jacqui Yorston - stopped trying to make the Showdown turn their way.

But everyone will have to acknowledge the difference six years - rather than four months - makes to building an AFLW team. 

For the first time in six AFLW games, Port Adelaide finished without a goalscorer with Kate Surman left with a shot after the final siren that, at 40 metres from the southern goal, was beyond her kicking range.

Adelaide's early dominance at centre clearances - that lived up to its AFLW No. 1 ranking - brought greater attention to the match-ups in the midfield, particularly at centre bounces. The pairing of manic Port Adelaide defender Ebony O'Dea against Adelaide possession master Ebony Marinoff became the "showdown within the Showdown".

Adelaide had the significant upper hand at stoppages where Marinoff and Anne Hatchard continued their tandem of dominance.

The numbers were brutal and, for a change, the statistics were not misleading nor irrelevant.

At quarter-time, Adelaide led the clearances 7-2 - and had a 14-point edge on the scoreboard.

At half-time, the theme was even stronger. Adelaide dominated the clearances 9-3 during the term - and had a 37-2 count on the scoreboard.

At the end of the third term, Adelaide led the clearance count 23-9 and the match by 50 points- and had put together 10 consecutive runs to the forward-50 arc while not letting Port Adelaide inside its own forward zone until the final minutes when Ange Foley scored Port Adelaide's third behind, after the siren.

At the finish, Adelaide had a 3:1 advantage on the clearances (33-11). This generated a 40-16 edge on inside-50s. And there is no hiding from the final count on contested possessions (111-80). 

These figures are not signals of a "trend" but mark the critical difference in the games played by two vastly different teams.

By controlling how the resets unfolded, Adelaide connected from stoppage to its outside runners and to the goalfront.

By being forced into the turnover game with its trademark strong tackling and pressure game, Port Adelaide was often dealing with limited space in which to put together a meaningful passage to the goalfront.

And the scoreboard tells the story - Port Adelaide 0.3 to 8.15.

Showdowns, as Port Adelaide 2004 AFL premiership hero Chad Cornes told Arnell's "Inaugurals" during the week, are about first instincts and no second guessing. Port Adelaide certainly was in "chaos ball" mode with quick entries to the forward 50 at the Oval's northern end in the first term. There can be a fine line between speed and haste, as Port Adelaide vice-captain Ange Foley noted by saying: "We are being hard at the contest, but we need to take a breath ... we need composure."

It was hasty football early when Jade de Melo found herself on the end of two goalscoring chances created by Phillips. The first was smothered; the second finished on those goal posts that have tormented Port Adelaide all year.

Both teams closed the first term with seven inside-50s - and Adelaide scored from six, gaining a 14-point lead at quarter-time. The AFLW premier had a different approach to its forward-50 entries, preferring to pin-point options that were claimed with six marks in the forward arc.

Again, Port Adelaide defender Alex Ballard was the ultimate "goalkeeper" with the 19-year-old's holding firm against repetitive inside-50 sorties from Adelaide's winning midfield. Ballard's intercept marks, particularly deep in defence, continued the theme she mastered at Bond University five days earlier against Gold Coast.

The battle between two great mates cast as rival captains - Phillips and Chelsea Randall - began with the Adelaide captain winning the toss to take possession of the River Torrens end for the first term.

It was Randall's night. She fittingly earned the first Showdown Medal. She scored Adelaide's first two goals. She set the agenda for her team to live up to its status as the AFLW champion.

Phillips now has the task of using her experiences across the AFLW, international sport as an Olympian and professional basketballer to fast track a team trying to make up six years on the AFLW pacesetters. Time does make a difference ... 

The emotional bridges keep presenting for Phillips, Foley and Mules as Port Adelaide's inaugural AFLW season enters its seventh week of a 10-game home-and-away series. On Saturday, the pioneer trio meet their first AFLW premiership coach - Bec Goddard - as a rival at Frankston with the clash against fellow Season 7 new entry, Hawthorn which has put together consecutive wins in the past fortnight.

PORT ADELAIDE v ADELAIDE

PORT ADELAIDE    0.2    0.2    0.3   0.3 (3)

ADELAIDE         2.4    5.7    7.11  8.15 (63)

BEST - Port Adelaide: Ballard, Phillips, Yorston, Foley, Dunn, O'Dea.

GOALS - Port Adelaide: None.

INJURY - Nil.

CROWD: TBC at Adelaide Oval

SHOWDOWN MEDALLIST: Chelsea Randall (Adelaide).

NEXT: Hawthorn at Frankston, Saturday 6.40pm.