Port Adelaide celebrate winning the 1990 premiership, with Paul Rizonico (centre) not bothered by the blood still running down his face fresh from combat on the field.

ENTER "The Precinct" - the newly restyled social home of the Port Adelaide Football Club - at Alberton Oval and the premise of the club's motto in existing to win premierships overwhelms the displays in the museum.

There is the Thomas Seymour Hill premiership trophy in replica for all the SANFL crowns - 15 of the club's 36 - won since the gold cup was first presented at Adelaide Oval in 1963. There is the one-off cup that commemorates the 50th anniversary of Australian federation - and the start of the Fos Williams' Golden Era - in 1951; the Gosse trophy from the remarkable 1936 SANFL grand final triumph against Sturt in the year South Australia celebrated the centenary of its proclamation as a free colony. And the 2004 AFL premiership cup that underlines all that Port Adelaide aspired when it decided in 1990 to play on the national stage.

Is there one trophy - one premiership - that has more significance than another?

The 1977 drought breaker - in the SANFL's centenary season - when Russell Ebert famously noted the worth of a then-record 12-year wait for premiership glory as he picked up "Tom" to bring the heavy trophy back to Alberton?

The 1965 title - the record 10th for captain Geof Motley - that put Port Adelaide ahead of Norwood (23-22) as the most-successful club in SANFL football?

The 1959 crown that completed an Australian record Six in a Row?

Port Adelaide celebrates six premierships in a row - a national record.

Or simply 2004, 90 years after Port Adelaide had been invincible in the SANFL and capped that 1914 triumph with its fourth Champions of Australia title? 

There is one season - 1989 - that is rarely mentioned for its significance, except for the extraordinary scoreline in the SANFL grand final: The lone goal conceded to North Adelaide (and scored by Craig Burton, father of current Port Adelaide defender Ryan). It is the season that has Port Adelaide open with a premiership and close with another for the grand collection in the sprawling trophy cabinet at Alberton.

"It is the year," says premiership rover Wayne Mahney, "with the grand final I would show to every player on arriving at Alberton. And not because of the score ... (Port Adelaide 15.18 d North Adelaide 1.8; remarkably similar to the 1914 triumph by the Invincibles with 13.15 while holding North Adelaide to that 1.8).

But back to the beginning ...

Jack - John Cahill - was back at Alberton, immediately delivering the 1988 SANFL premiership to Port Adelaide while football was amid a decade of dramatic change from State competitions to an expanding VFL presenting itself as the long-wanted "national league".

The 1989 football calendar opened with the pre-season dressed up as a premiership competition - the Foundation Cup. Port Adelaide had lost the Cup final in 1988 to Woodville ... and lived to the mantra the only premierships that really counted were won in September by winning the league title.

But 1989 quickly became the pre-season for exceptions.

The SANFL Foundation Cup, secured by Port Adelaide in 1989.

"Maybe," says Mahney, "it had something to do with the prizemoney ($40,000 with captain Greg Phillips quickly shoving the winner's cheque in his shorts during the trophy presentation). Always handy that sort of money for an end-of-season players' trip.

"Or perhaps it was just about another chance to beat Glenelg in a grand final," adds Mahney who did just that three times.

For two decades - the 1970s and 1980s - Port Adelaide-Glenelg matches were the precursor to what is known today as the Showdown rivalry. It was different to the original rivalry with Norwood that was built on football battles dating to the late 1800s.

"This (rivalry) grew on Glenelg whinging half the time and Port Adelaide all the time going in hard at them," said Mahney. "As kids, we grew up seeing how the rivalry was built from those David Granger moments with Glenelg. As players, it was drilled into us - you just go in hard against Glenelg and, as we did, you will win nine out of 10 times. While we celebrated at Alberton, they'd be whinging at the Bay."

Wayne Mahney directs his teammates from the sidelines with passion.

Port Adelaide had Glenelg's scalp for the third time in 11 years (1977, 1981 and 1988) at the start of the 1989 pre-season. The Foundation Cup draw from March had Mahney and his team-mates face and beat four SANFL rivals at Football Park - South Adelaide by 31 points, Norwood by 20, West Adelaide by 25 and North Adelaide by 19.

And the first of the grand final rematches, albeit of a pre-season variety,  was in Robe ... and won by Glenelg by 21 points, setting up the tantalising Foundation Cup finale at Football Park on April 7 before the SANFL home-and-away series began eight days later for the premiership season.

"We lost in Robe, but that was one good bus trip on the way home," recalls Mahney. "We'd played a young team in Robe. Good crowd at that game, too. The team bonding on the bus after the game was pretty important for what was to happen later in the year ... that's why I say that 1989 grand final is one every Port Adelaide player should watch to understand what this club is all about."

Mahney was well schooled on the Port Adelaide ethos as a lad growing up on the LeFevre peninsula heartland at Taperoo.

"Even if I was a South Adelaide supporter for a while  ... I loved - and modelled - myself on the way Wayne Slattery played," said Mahney who has his name on a Port Adelaide locker by his service in 108 league games. "I was Port Adelaide through and through - had been as a kid from the 1970s watching Darrell Cahill, Russell Ebert, Brian Cunningham, my favourite Rob Whatman ...

"We'd won a lot of flags in the '60s and late '70s to early '80s. And Jack was having us win more again, starting with those three in a row from 1988 before the AFL started here in Adelaide in 1991.

"Jack gave us belief. He always emphasised the positives ... positives, positives, positives. I never heard Jack raise his voice. He gave all of us belief. 

Premiership coach John Cahill filled his players with belief.

"We were a group of young players who had grown up together, from juniors to seniors. Jack gave us the belief to succeed. Tim Ginever, David Hynes, Rohan Smith ... we all started together. We came up the ranks from juniors together.

"That 1989 Foundation Cup was for the fans. We just felt we had to win for them," adds Mahney of the entertaining night final that was decided by three points.

As the defending SANFL premiership and the pre-season titleholder with the Foundation Cup, Port Adelaide closed the home-and-away series second to North Adelaide with an 18-4 win-loss count, thrashed third-ranked Central District by 85 points in the qualifying final and booked a grand final berth with a 23-point win against North Adelaide in the second semi-final.

The grand final delivered the second of three consecutive flags for Mahney ... and a theme he wants to define Port Adelaide more than a generation later.

"That is the most team-oriented game you will ever see," Mahney says. "That is the ultimate team performance.

"It is the grand final I would show to every player on arriving at Alberton. It is what Port Adelaide is when it plays as a team."

Mahney tormented opposition coaches, such as Graham Cornes at Glenelg, during his eight seasons of league football from 1984-1991. Today, he delights as a bus driver after working for 15 years at Adelaide Airport. He remains in the Port Adelaide heartland as a resident at Albert Park.

Mahney was part of the successful defence of the 1989 SANFL premiership - and the run to another three consecutive premierships - amid the turmoil from the stormy winter of 1990 when Port Adelaide sought AFL entry ... and again beat Glenelg in a grand final.

Wayne Mahney played in the club’s three-peat from 1988 to 1990.

"That was good ... that was when we really stuck it up them," said Mahney. "We were never going to lose that one."

And then South Australian football changed.

But for Mahney that 1989 grand final triumph at Football Park will carry great significance whenever anyone seeks an answer to how premierships should be won. Some things never change.

CUP GLORY

Port Adelaide's 1989 Foundation Cup run

Round 1 - Port Adelaide 15.18 (108) d South Adelaide 12.5 (77) at Football Park.

Round 2 - Port Adelaide 9.11 (65) d Norwood 5.15 (45) at Football Park.

Round 3 - Port Adelaide 14.14 (98) d West Adelaide 11.7 (73) at Football Park.

Round 4 - Port Adelaide 12.7 (79) d North Adelaide 9.13 (67) at Football Park.

Round 5 - Port Adelaide 13.8 (86) l Glenelg 13.4 (82) at Robe.

Grand final - Port Adelaide 13.7 (85) d Glenelg 13.4 (82) at Football Park on April 7.