JOSH Francou was getting the ball often, but few of his team-mates were making their presence felt. Port Adelaide was down by 22 points at half-time - a week after leading Brisbane by 50 points at the same time and same venue, Football Park.
A week earlier it was the Ansett Cup pre-season final that delivered Port Adelaide's first AFL title at the start of its fifth year on the national stage.
This was Round 1 with no prizemoney, no silver trophy and no premiership medals on immediate offer as the week before at West Lakes - just four premiership points that seem to mean more than others ... such is the anticipation and expectation generated by the AFL season opener.
"A few things stand out about that game," says Francou, who started the 2001 AFL premiership season on the Brownlow Medal voting slips - and ended the year as equal third with Brisbane captain Michael Voss on the leaderboard for the league's highest individual honour. He was runner-up to Brisbane midfielder Simon Black in 2002.
"First, every side has a different preparation to a season," adds Francou. "Some come off long finals campaigns. Some go to the pre-season to win, some to focus on what will get them wins when it counts. Everyone is on a different path to Round 1.
"Second, it is all about the mental space. Subconsciously, we were off. Consciously, we were saying different - that the Ansett Cup win would not become a hangover. But we did have our foot off the pedal a bit - marginally, but that is all you need for an AFL team to bite you.
"Third, that Brisbane team was very, very talented. The Ansett Cup final was not indicative of a team that was on the way to three consecutive AFL premierships. That was a gun side."
At half-time of the Ansett Cup grand final, Port Adelaide led 9.5 to 1.3. It had kept Brisbane scoreless after both teams had put up 1.3 in the first term.
At half-time of Round 1, 2001 the old scoreboards at Football Park read differently - Port Adelaide 3.7 to Brisbane 7.5.
"You can imagine how 'Choco' (Port Adelaide senior coach Mark Williams) was at half-time," recalls Francou, who finished his 156-game AFL playing career in 2006 to follow up as a senior coach in the SANFL and an assistant coach in the AFL. Today, the Magarey Medallist has returned to teaching at St Peter's College in Adelaide.
"There was a bit of a rocket. In a constructive way. We had to change our mentality."
For Williams, the Port Adelaide-Brisbane rivalry - that played out to the 2004 grand final at the MCG where Port Adelaide ended Brisbane's trifecta of AFL flags - carried a personal sting. He was a foundation Brisbane Bears player of 1987 - and the new Brisbane Lions were coached by the man who had sent him to Brisbane from Collingwood: Leigh Matthews.
Port Adelaide responded with a 10-goal third term.
"And all from Josh Francou taking the ball out of the middle of the ground," says then captain Matthew Primus.
Port Adelaide won the game by six points with Gavin Wanganeen scoring the goal that gave his revived team a seven-point lead with six minutes to play. A classic, some would note.
"We won Round 1 ... Brisbane won the flag," Francou notes.
"Round 1 games get a lot of hype. But they carry just four premiership points ... and so many conclusions are made at the end of one game. It is a long season. You don't pin everything on Round 1.
"We lost our first two games in 2002. We finished the season with 18 wins.
"We beat Adelaide in that first Showdown in 1997 ... and Malcolm Blight told his players they still had 17 games to play. They played another month after that and won the flag. That Blight moment rings in my ears when so much is made of winning games early in the season.
"Winning in Round 1 is good. But it is not the be all and end all of a season."
Primus highlights the danger in assessing - and misreading - pre-season form as a Round 1 pointer is underlined by the back-to-back Port Adelaide-Brisbane meetings of 2001.
"We were coming off a bad year and were filthy about it; Brisbane was building off a semi-final appearance," Primus recalls.
"We were flying through the pre-season, making every game count. Brisbane was preparing for Round 1.
"We had had an amazing pre-season with everyone fit under (new fitness coach) Andrew Russell. We hit the Ansett Cup up and about and with a point to prove. Brisbane clearly had a different agenda.
"But Round 1 told us who Brisbane really were ... as did the next four years."
Port Adelaide opens AFL Season 2023 at Adelaide Oval on Saturday facing Brisbane for the third time in a Round 1 clash. The first ended in six points favouring Port Adelaide at Football Park in 2001; the second was to Brisbane's advantage by 11 points at the Gabba last season.
It is just the third time since AFL football moved to Adelaide Oval in 2014 that Port Adelaide has opened the AFL premiership season at home in the city. In 2016 there was a 33-point win against St Kilda; in 2018, a 50-point triumph against Fremantle.
Port Adelaide's record in AFL season openers is:
WON 15 of 26.
WON seven of 11 at home (2-0 at Adelaide Oval; 5-4 at Football Park).
WON eight of 10 under coach Ken Hinkley.
TIGHTEST margin - four points with a win against St Kilda at Football Park in 2012.
PLAYED finals nine times after winning in Round 1; three times after losing the opener.
Of the 17 rivals in the AFL, Port Adelaide has never played Adelaide, Greater Western Sydney, Hawthorn, Richmond or the Western Bulldogs in a season opener.
Of the other 11, Port Adelaide has most often faced Fremantle and North Melbourne in Round 1 games (four times each).
