GREG PHILLIPS grew up on a farm at Minnipa, post code 5654 on the Eyre Highway watching grain move along the railway line to the docks at Port Lincoln 250 kilometres away. No television. Just the wireless radio crackling away during the late 1960s.
Sturt was winning five consecutive SANFL league premierships, so his imagination turned to standing alongside Paul Bagshaw, Bob Shearman, Rick Schoff and Co.
Richmond was thriving with a dynasty in the VFL under the direction of legendary coach Tom Hafey, so Phillips had Royce Hart starring in his dreams. Plus Francis Bourke.
"They were the teams that were winning and always on the radio," recalls Phillips. "That's who I was barracking for. I didn't see any of these teams or any of their players until I saw a television set at Port Lincoln when I was 13 (in 1972)."
Destiny is a funny thing. From Sturt in mind to Port Adelaide at heart, even after losing the 1976 "injustice" grand final at Football Park to Bagshaw and Co.
From Richmond to Collingwood during the brutal off-field raiding between the two VFL clubs during the early 1980s that involved some of the most expensive transfers that ultimately wrecked both rivals.
It is 40 years since Phillips left Alberton for Collingwood.
And it is 30 years since Phillips led Port Adelaide - winning the toss at Football Park in the autumn of 1993 - while 22,253 fans made a statement by filling the terraces at West Lakes for a trial game against Collingwood.
In the build-up to the first-ever top-of-the-table clash between first-ranked Collingwood and second-placed Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night, that "trial game" 30 years ago develops greater significance.
Port Adelaide, after the tumultuous winter of 1990, was signalling the start of its second campaign for an AFL licence. The first was partially sunk by SANFL president Max Basheer cleverly lobbying Collingwood president Allan McAlister with the fear concept of two AFL teams dressed in black-and-white ... and consider how that theme has found sequel after sequel after sequel.
Port Adelaide wore its bars - and black shorts. Collingwood wore its stripes - and white shorts. The world did not end - and, on reflection, the game stands up 30 years later for being outstanding in its play. Open, uncontested, entertaining football with both teams on track to score 100 points had there been the traditional 25-minute terms rather than 20. The fear of a jumper clash did not manifest as a horror show.
Collingwood won by three points, surviving - as Richmond did at Alberton Oval in 1980 - a late charge from a Port Adelaide team that appeared more than capable of standing up against AFL standards.
Phillips, as the commentary team of David Wildy and Ian Aitken noted, appeared fitter than usual after a summer of celebrating a premiership - his last of eight at Port Adelaide. He was captain for that 1992 flag.
The 1993 game at Football Park was of mutual benefit to Port Adelaide and Collingwood where premiership coach Leigh Matthews had hit on Essendon rival Kevin Sheedy's eagerness to visit Adelaide - to get experience on the challenging "away" ground of Football Park.
Port Adelaide needed momentum for a new AFL bid. Again, it was up to senior coach John Cahill and his players to drive an agenda.
"Our focus," recalls Phillips, "was to get to the big time.
"That era was tough on a lot of people. But it also was exciting. We were 'get in the AFL ... or (bust, by diminished status in the SANFL)'. We always believed we would get there.
"As a player, as captain, I was sheltered from all that was happening off the field. But on the field you knew how people felt about Port Adelaide (and its ambitions for national status).
"Was it hard to cop all that flak? Was it different to any other time as a Port Adelaide player? We give it. We get it back. We are always copping flak at Port Adelaide. That is the territory for a good side, a good club. For most of my time, it was because of the success we were having on the field - people don't like being beaten by Port Adelaide. Now, it was for what we were doing off the field.
"You ride it. You take it in. It did not bother me. I grew up knowing how to take the good with the bad."
Phillips arrived at Alberton - paired with his cousin Neville - to break into league ranks at 17 during the 1976 SANFL season. Before he had reached a milestone, he was in a league grand final - the one against his once-beloved Sturt and with an 11-year premiership drought hanging over Alberton.
On his return to the social club - while the Thomas Seymour Hill premiership trophy was being bathed in champagne at Unley - Phillips learned about Port Adelaide's soul and broken heart.
"I had got past Tom McInerney who was the guard at the door at the social club and I was - as a 17-year-old kid - thinking why is everyone so upset?" Phillips recalls. "For me, as a teenager, it was 'only a game'. No-one had died. But what I saw stuck in my head - forever.
"After every game - in blazer and tie - I would get back to the club to see a dozen ladies who I would hug on arrival and celebrate our wins. I was the country boy who would draw all the hugs. I would celebrate the wins with those devoted supporters. But this night, I walk in to find 10 of them sobbing. One was drowning in tears. Another had made a complete mess of her hanky. Everyone in that room is upset, so upset. And it stuck in my head. These people are passionate about their football club. They were hurting. They were hurting far more than me."
Seven years later - after having a motor racing champion in Peter Brock come to his front door in Adelaide to "remind" Phillips of his Form Four commitment to Collingwood - Phillips learned the other team in black-and-white was no less passionate.
"These clubs are about much more than kicking a footy," Phillips said. "And in seeing how people were affected by the result of me kicking a footy, I became a better person. I respected people more. I respected my club more.
"The one stand-out similarity between Port Adelaide and Collingwood is not the black-and-white they share. It is the people. Both supporter bases expect. They have real passionate fans. They are hard, bloody hard ... they expect."
Phillips moved to Collingwood - with Cahill - at the end of 1982. He intended to stay for three years, made it four and left after 84 league games at the end of the challenging 1986 season in which the Collingwood players were asked to take a 10 per cent pay cut on the promise the cash would be paid once on a sounder financial footing.
"Never saw that money," says Phillips.
But his true rich gain from his Collingwood experience was in knowing Bob Rose, the club's Team of the Century centreman who endured more pain than any man deserves in the chase for a VFL premiership as a player and coach.
"I was lucky to have three coaches - John Cahill, Leigh Matthews and Bobby Rose," Phillips said. "My third birthday at Collingwood (late March in 1986) I had everyone at my place - and Bob was the last to leave. The sun was coming up, we are at the breakfast table and I am still listening to Bobby tell me his stories from a life in football.
"I should be going to bed, but I am wide awake with enthusiasm from listening to Bob. Lovely man. Passionate about Collingwood. I am so glad I met him."
By 1993, when Collingwood is finally with an AFL premiership won in 1990 and Port Adelaide is wanting the same prize, Phillips is confronted with leading his South Australian black-and-white team with his Victorian black-and-white past.
"Don't worry, I am always Port Adelaide - and I will be this week," Phillips says.
"I still feel connected to Collingwood. How can you not be when you get hit with five emails from the past players' group every week or (current Collingwood coach) Craig McRae eagerly drags you into his team meeting at Adelaide Oval minutes before a game to introduce you to his team.
"I sat through that team meeting feeling I was ready to play for Collingwood again! I left with every player shaking my hand. In my time, I always felt we were closer and stronger connected at Port Adelaide than what I had known at Collingwood. But from what I see today you can't fault the way Craig McRae and Collingwood go about building a team and their club."
In 1993, Collingwood led from start to finish - by seven points at quarter-time (4.3 to 3.2); 11 points at half-time (8.4 to 6.5); nine at the last change (12.5 to 10.8) and three at the finish - 13.12 (90) to 13.9 (87) with Mark Tylor kicking 6.2 for Port Adelaide.
More than proving its competitive spirit against an AFL powerhouse on the field, Port Adelaide's fans - the 22,253 at Football Park that night - became the cornerstone to a new bid for national status.
Three decades later, the clubs meet again - this time for a game that will play a significant part in deciding an AFL premiership, at least by the seedings to September's top-eight finals.
Phillips will watch with teal and silver added to his black-and-white heritage at Port Adelaide ... and his pride in how Collingwood still appreciate his four years in black-and-white stripes.
"They were four very different years to the ones I knew as a Port Adelaide player," Phillips said. "The kid who first saw VFL matches on television at Port Lincoln with The Winners on the ABC was now playing in the best league with the best players in the game. It was tough. Every VFL team had great players. Collingwood had the biggest supporter base. Every week brought a big game. A bigger and bigger game.
"And now the next kid coming to play for Port Adelaide can experience the same in the AFL. I am proud of this club for making that happen - and the part we played in that as players."
