Port Adelaide defender Ebony O’Dea has spoken of the Adelaide Oval atmosphere at Friday night’s Showdown, where more than 20,000 fans attended to show their support.

“The crowd was unreal, certainly the loudest stadium I've ever been in,” O’Dea said.

“You couldn’t hear a thing on the field, it was pretty unreal. The build-up was huge and obviously we had two debutantes in the match as well. I thought it was huge having played over 20 games but for those girls being their first game, it must have just been incredible. The whole week was a massive build-in and having those girls that have come from the Crows to Port Adelaide, it was a massive game for them as well.”

The scoreboard didn’t necessarily reflect the never-give-up effort shown by the Power, with classy outfit Adelaide showing exactly why they’ve won three AFLW Premierships.

“We do take a lot of learnings from the game,” O’Dea said.

“Obviously they’re an excellent side, they’ve been a great side for years and they’ve got that connection and that experience after seven seasons.

“So, we don’t focus on the result but we do take a lot of learnings from the game and look at the connection those girls have after so much time together. To see what we've got over six games, we did have good patches and did do some good things, so we do take some positives out of that.”

It was a case of Ebony vs Ebony in the first half of the game, with O’Dea given the role to halt star Crow Ebony Marinoff, who has been averaging almost 25 touches per game this season.

“I started on Marinoff and probably didn’t do the job I was hoping to do on her,” O’Dea said.

“She’s just a very clever, very fit player so it's just (about) being faster, switching on earlier, so I learn a lot from playing on her (and it’s) a different role to what I’ve played a lot this season. Obviously, I’ve played mostly in the backline so far, so I’ve had a lot of learning from that game watching the vision and seeing just how quick and switched on she is.”

The build-up to the Showdown was like nothing O’Dea had experienced before, with the cross-town rivalry being instilled into the Port women from day one.

“We saw footage during the week of the men’s best Showdown games and the highlights,” she said.

“Having those players that have come across (from the Crows) as well makes the rivalry even more real than just the historical one. It is in the women’s side as well, not just the carry-over from the men’s so there was a big build up.”

Port Adelaide will take on fellow expansion side Hawthorn this Saturday night and will be hoping to break the Hawks’ two-game winning streak.

“Absolutely we see this as a very winnable game,” O’Dea said.

“We think it's going to be a really good game. Hawthorn are going to be hungry and we're going to be hungry and we both want to get a win on the board. We’ve got a lot of belief that we'll be able to do a good job this weekend.”