Roger Kerr in action for Port Adelaide during the 1988 season. Image: The Advertiser.

WHEN Greg Phillips and Roger Kerr ripped into their third or fourth celebratory beer in the changerooms at Football Park after the 1988 SANFL grand final triumph they were not to know the three-year-old girl at their feet would one day be an international sports sensation.

"I often tell 'Kutch', Erin has become more famous than you," says Kerr.

Phillips' comeback is pretty obvious these days. Both of Kerr's children - the AFL premiership-winning Daniel at West Coast and the international soccer star Sam with the Matildas - certainly have upstaged their father. And proudly so.

"I am blessed," says Kerr, who was not short of success in his football career at Port Adelaide and his original WAFL club, East Fremantle.

"Daniel playing at West Coast kept me going ... now Sam. I think they both have me covered now."

Roger Kerr pictured with daughter Sam and wife Roxanne at the 2019 PFA Player Awards. Image: PFA.

There are extraordinary family dynasties at Port Adelaide - Obst and Quinn across three generations; Williams, Ebert and Boyd along two ...

And there are those prodigies who took to the world stage with Port Adelaide heritage.

ERIN PHILLIPS in basketball with a world title in 2006 in Brazil, an Olympic silver medal at Beijing in 2008 and Commonwealth Games gold in Melbourne in 2006.

DARREN CAHILL in tennis with his memorable run at the 1988 US Open where he reached the semi-finals - and today as one of the sport's best coaches.

JENNY WILLIAMS as a world champion in lacrosse at the 1986 titles in the USA where she was part of the first Australian team to claim gold - and take the crown from the Americans on their home turf.

Erin Phillips and Juliet Haslam are two with family ties to Port Adelaide that are now making their own mark at Alberton. Image: AFL Photos.

JULIET HASLAM with two Olympic gold medals in hockey at Atlanta in 1996 and as part of Ric Charlesworth's golden Hockeyroos at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 - along with two World Cup crowns and so many other international hockey titles.

TAMMIE EBERT in cycling where her work off the bike and in research as a Ph.D. physiologist has won international awards.

KYLE CHALMERS as a world-record breaking swimmer with Olympic, world and Commonwealth titles.

TANIA OBST who this year delivered national netball honours to the Adelaide Thunderbirds to add to her own success as a player in the ultra-competitive State netball series of the 1990s.

It is more than a football academy at Alberton.

08:08

Coles Goals R22: Port enjoy goal-fest at home | PTV

See all 21 goals from Port Adelaide's clash with the Giants, thanks to Coles.

"It's a family," says Kerr. "And once you are part of Port Adelaide, you are Port Adelaide forever.

"I have been part of two famous clubs," adds the Calcutta-born Kerr who started his league football journey at East Fremantle after realising his Indian roots did not take to cricket.

"I had just one year at Port Adelaide - and eight at East Fremantle - and I am made to feel more at home at Port Adelaide. You are never forgotten. That is one year I hold dearly in my heart. That is what the club means to me."

Kerr caught the attention of then Port Adelaide coach Russell Ebert during a South Australia-Western Australia game in Perth in 1987 when he was to rank fourth in the Sandover Medal count and be on the edge of AFL duty at West Coast.

"Russell asked after that State game if I would be interested in moving to Port Adelaide; he needed a senior bloke to guide a few young players at Alberton," Kerr recalls. "I land at Adelaide airport to be greeted by every senior person of the Port Adelaide Football Club and thought, 'What the hell?' I knew they wanted me at Port Adelaide, but this seemed a bit much ... "

Prior to joining Port Adelaide, Kerr (far left, second row) played in two flags for East Fremantle.

It was more a screen - to keep the unsuspecting Kerr from speaking to the media - than a welcoming committee. Ebert had been replaced by John Cahill as senior coach - and Kerr was in limbo.

"I went back to Perth, John Cahill came to see me and I came back," Kerr said. "I'm always glad I did. It was one of the best years of my life. It remains a fantastic experience that does not end."

It was a short and sweet stint - just one season of 24 league games in which Kerr put 23 goals on the scoreboard while living up to the image of a "lively rover".

"I was lucky to get on the park when you think back to who was in that 1988 team," said Kerr. "And I don't think I realised at the time just where I was playing, how big Port Adelaide is. Ten years later, it hits me that I played at Port Adelaide - and what a fantastic experience it was.

"I loved the people. I had 12 months working with legends such as Bob Clayton. I admire all the club's history - and the way Port Adelaide honours its traditions and the people such as Fos Williams who made this club great.

"And I love how you are always part of Port Adelaide; they never forget you."

Kerr - pictured front row second from the left - was a member of Port Adelaide's premiership winning side of 1988.

Kerr stayed for just one season. 

"I was getting older - 31 - and the family had to come first," said Kerr. "I also had run out of leave with Telstra. Not even (Port Adelaide federal politician) Mick Young could cut through Telstra to extend my time in Adelaide."

Kerr returned to East Fremantle - where he had won a WAFL league premiership in 1985 - for the 1989 season and finished his 101-game WAFL playing career with two seasons at Perth before taking to coaching with a short run at Claremont in 2008 and 2009.

But Port Adelaide has left a never-fading impression on Kerr.

"This is a club filled with passion," says Kerr. "And once you have played one game for Port Adelaide, you are Port Adelaide forever. It is a great traditional club. And if you play in a premiership with Port Adelaide, well ..."

Sons-of-guns Brett Ebert and Daniel Kerr, pictured together in 1988, both went on to have successful AFL careers. Image: Supplied.

Kerr's long-standing link to Port Adelaide is with another "import" - former Carlton player Richard Foster who joined Kerr as an interstate recruit at Alberton in 1988 and stayed - to play in four league premiership teams to his retirement after the 1995 SANFL grand final triumph.

"Richard gets me to premiership reunions that celebrate flags I am not a part of," says Kerr. "I was in Adelaide once, at a Christmas party with (wife) Roxanne's family when Richard rang saying I had to come to a reunion to meet Nathan Buckley.

"Port Adelaide has won a lot of flags, but I did not play in one with Nathan Buckley. I told Richard the only way I was getting to that reunion was if he could organise a picture with Nathan and Roxanne; she says he is the most gorgeous player ever; her favourite.

"So we get there with Roxanne wanting a picture with Nathan; and Bucks wanting a picture with Sam. Not with me ... with Sam.

"Who would have thought that in 1988? I talked to Greg about that at our last reunion. Erin and Sam. You would not dream about it. After I get through that big bear hug you get from Greg when we meet, we ask of the family and think, 'How good is this?' Erin is still making her mark in sport - and at Port Adelaide; Sam is pretty busy with a World Cup now.

"We both follow each other's daughter. How proud can you be?"

Kerr made his move to Adelaide when the SANFL was reluctant to follow West Australian football's path to VFL expansion that set up West Coast in 1987.

"I am not surprised Port Adelaide made its way to the AFL - and did it so well when it had a better understanding with the second attempt after 1990," Kerr said. "I am proud of the club staying true to its traditions while starting something new in the AFL. Starting with John Cahill as the club's first AFL coach was very important - it told you what Port Adelaide was all about from the beginning in 1997. 

"I sometimes think Port Adelaide should have won a couple more AFL flags. Shows you how tough the AFL is. But no, it did not surprise me that the biggest and most successful club in the SANFL would be so good once it stepped up to the AFL."