MAX James looked at the electronic scoreboard in the south-east pocket at Football Park as he took position for the last term of the 1977 SANFL centenary grand final.

The final score from the VFL grand final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground was flashed on the bottom of the black screen:

Collingwood 10.16 (76)

North Melbourne 9.22 (76)

"Draw. Those poor bastards, I thought," recalls James. "Those poor bastards were going to do that again; they were going to go through all that all over again."

The top of the then-modern, computer-driven screen - in full use for the first time in an SANFL grand final at West Lakes - was suggesting the same tie could have unfolded in Adelaide to give an encore for the league's already memorable centenary celebrations.

Or worse, for Port Adelaide, the premiership drought could have extended to a then record 13 years. Port Adelaide led bitter rival Glenelg by nine points, after being 10 points up at half-time and five down at the first change.

This was Port Adelaide's seventh grand final in the 12 years since the epic contest with Sturt at Adelaide Oval ended with Geof Motley collecting his league record ninth flag on the back of a three-point win - and Port Adelaide claiming its 23rd premiership to become South Australia's most-successful league club. There had been losses to Sturt in 1966, 1967 and 1968, North Adelaide in 1971 and 1972 and again Sturt in 1976 ... in that nightmare grand final at Football Park that began with the back page of The News on every Sturt players' minds. Alan Shiell, to the chagrin of Sturt master Jack Oatey, had declared it would be an "injustice" for Port Adelaide to be denied the title in its first league grand final at the league's new headquarters.

They were certainly left without glory in what Oatey described as Sturt's "golden hour".

"And we were not going to let that happen again," says James of the resolve that powered the Port Adelaide players to one of the club's most-cherished premierships, the first of 10 under John Cahill's watch.

James was not distracted by the VFL grand final score as he approached the centre circle for the start of the last term. The result in Melbourne jolted him in the most assertive way.

"We just couldn't let that happen to us," James said. "Since half-time we had been down to 16 fit men. Tim Evans did not know where he was after that moment with Fred Phillis - and would be off the field by the concussion rules in today's game. Darrell Cahill and Kym Kinnear were hurt. Ivan Eckermann was limping about the forward pocket with a hamstring heavily bandaged.

"Ivan limped off, came back and kicked three goals while hobbling about. He always was up for any contest. That is Ivan, not blessed with natural talent but never short on tenacity or the willingness to do all the hard things. He highlighted how we were determined to overcome every obstacle to win that premiership. 

"We were just needing to dig deep."

Twelve months earlier, with Football Park straining to hold the 80,000 who were jammed as sardines after entry gates were locked and perimeter fences torn down, Port Adelaide had dug itself into a hole. The premiership dream was over by half-time. The "injustice", as Shiell had feared, ultimately finished with a 41-point defeat and dismay at Alberton.

Most clubs - as noted with losing AFL grand finalists recently - would have been torn apart by such failure.

"It absolutely tore us apart that day and night - it was painful and we know if we had played Sturt for the next three weeks, we would have won all three games," said James who had enjoyed a 28-point win against Sturt at Football Park a month before the grand final. "But premierships are won on one day - and everything went right for Sturt that day.

"We were embarrassed. We were so embarrassed by our performance that day. And we needed to respond."

Rather than fracture in a blame game after the 1976 grand final, the Port Adelaide players immediately united with a common goal and built greater bonds within the group.

"We were hurting together - and healing together," James said. "And that continued off the training track and off the field. If a team-mate needed help, everyone went to give a hand. We were a collective. The bonds between us were getting stronger and stronger.

"From the moment we started pre-season training for 1977, we worked hard - harder than ever. We were determined to overcome what had happened in '76. We embraced the challenge to work harder. Personally, making sure we did not lose again in a grand final was such a driving factor."

James had staked his professional football aspirations on such. He had South Melbourne coach Ian Stewart badgering him to quit the SANFL to move to the VFL where his father Bert had played three senior games for Richmond in 1947.

"I had already told Ian Stewart I would leave once we won a premiership," James said. "He asked me, 'What if you don't (win in 1977)?' I told him we would win it. We would win.

"My resolve was to make sure we did win, even if it was to just have Ian Stewart leave me alone."

John Cahill never again lost an SANFL grand final after 1976, joining Oatey with the league record of 10 flags before guiding Port Adelaide to the AFL in 1997.

"Jack learned so much that day in 1976," James recalled. "He saw the value in splitting up our following division after we played into Sturt's hands - or, more to the point, Rick Davies' sticky hands in 1976. We should have split the group with (ruckman) Chris Natt and Brian Cunningham going in one direction and Russell Ebert to another. We should have worked to different channels rather than always run into Davies. Wherever Davies was, we should have been going the other way to goal.

"Jack trusted us to come good that day. He was so sure of us he did not make positional or tactical changes. He didn't let that happen ever again."

Redemption began with Port Adelaide taking the minor premiership with a 17-1-4 win-draw-loss record. Second-placed Glenelg was dismissed by 25 points in the second semi-final and regrouped for the grand final a fortnight later.

Port Adelaide entered the grand final staring at a 12-year premiership drought. Excluding the new entries of Central District and Woodville, only South Adelaide (13 years), West Adelaide (16) and West Torrens (24) had been without champagne for longer.

A year built on grand appreciation of South Australian football history - with Port Adelaide being at the table when the SANFL was formed in 1877 - ended with a superb grand final ... and one of the most-quoted acceptance speeches in football history.

Just as everyone knows Neil Armstrong's first words on touching the moon, every Port Adelaide fan of this SANFL era recalls Russell Ebert taking the flag after the eight-point win in the grand final.

"It has taken a bloody long time, but by geez it's worth it."

Armstrong insists he never planned his "small step for man" line. Ebert might have been just as spontaneous.

"Russell summed up what was on everyone's minds," James said. "We had been a good side for so many years, but ...

"That was Russell. He said it just as everyone felt at the time. And anyone who heard those words was going to remember them forever."

The image of Ebert taking the centenary flag - a grand black-and-white image displayed at The Precinct by the staircase - is notable for James being to Ebert's right as the loyal right-hand man that he was ... and the throng of fans who had invaded the field.

"We never got our lap of honour in victory," says James of how the crowd was blocking the players. Perhaps it was best this way.

"I sat next to Russell at the grand final dinner and thought, this should feel better - and I was in bed by 10; I was mentally and physically exhausted," said James of the drain on body and mind even without a victory lap of Football Park.

"We had waited so long for this moment ... and we were too tired to enjoy it. But we made up for it during the week, starting with the chimney unveiling at the brewery. The celebrations were better and better day after day."

James, a versatile player who had made his name at Port Adelaide first as a strong defender, did indeed satisfy South Melbourne. After seven seasons at Port Adelaide - as the only hand-picked recruit signed by Fos Williams - James went to the VFL to play 54 senior games with constant injury setbacks before quitting the club during its tumultuous 1982 season when South Melbourne found Sydney as its new home. 

"Halfway through that 1982 season - while the club is playing in Sydney - I fell out with the match committee and coach Ricky Quade," James said. "I was kicking six or seven goals in the reserves and not getting a senior game.

"I might have kicked eight one week and Ricky would not pick me. I asked for a clearance back to Port Adelaide and he said, 'Fine'."

James returned to Alberton midway through 1982 as a fly-in player from Melbourne, coached in the Victorian country leagues at Wentworth in 1983 and completed his resume in 1985 with the final tally of 148 league matches in the Port Adelaide colours.

"Neil Button crashed into me after a mark (in a match against Norwood) and my shoulder was broken," James said. "I was done."

And there were so many forks in the road with this football journey.

Born in the Hayward-Portland district of regional Victoria, James moved to Mount Gambier when his father started work in South Australia. By the late 1960s - after he had progressed from under-16s to seniors at East Gambier - James was at Adelaide Oval following his father back to his roots while VFL premier Richmond was beating Sturt for the Champions of Australia title at Adelaide Oval.

"I was Richmond through and through. I had Richmond officials telling me sign nothing in Adelaide," James said. "I am looking around the rooms that day in 1969 seeing Richmond greats such as Dick Clay and Francis Bourke and thinking how is a skinny six-foot kid going to get a league game in this side.

"The next Sunday morning I was at Fos Williams' home signing with Port Adelaide. I was very privileged. Before Fos died I sat down with him to learn I was the only player in all his time in football who he actively pursued and felt he needed to recruit. He had seen enough with a couple of training runs that I'd had and for some reason became involved in recruiting me."

James had hoped he would follow his father to Punt Road at Richmond, earning the support of Kevin Sheedy for a transfer while on an end-of-season cruise with the Richmond premiership defender during the early 1970s.

"(Richmond coach) Tom Hafey would not have it," James said. "Tom felt the only good thing that came out of South Australia was the Dukes Highway..."

James served Port Adelaide as a board member from 1999 to 2007 after being encouraged by Geof Motley to make his mark off the field.

"I thoroughly enjoyed it - and left when I felt I had served my time and it was best to freshen the board," said James, who in 2010 ran for parliament as an independent in the safe Labor State seat of Port Adelaide finishing third on the State election ballots.

In that picture of Ebert lifting the SANFL flag at the end of the 1977 grand final are so many faces that are filled with joy - and inspiration.

"There is a kid in that picture who later came up to me as a Port Adelaide player himself," says James. "David Baker ....

"A year earlier we were back at Alberton with those fans all shattered. We had let them down. There were no pats on the back that night. We accepted that. And we made sure that a year later we would change the scene. We had that resolve to win the premiership."

James should have more than a premiership medal from the 1977 grand final. He is probably denied a record that is attributed to Norwood hero Noel Pettingill for the longest kick at Football Park - an 85.39-metre screw punt against North Adelaide in June 1974 in the earliest games played at West Lakes.

"First quarter," says James of his moment in 1977 that should be in the now-closed record book of Football Park. "I was ruck-roving to Jack Spry. He tapped the ball in my direction and I let fly a torpedo. It went right of goal at the golf course end - out of bounds. If it went straight, more people might remember it. Hit it sweet, like you would a golf ball."