"PRELIMINARY finals are more nervous (moments)," says 2004 premiership hero Toby Thurstans. "They are always harder games to play.
"Physical, everything is on the line to make a grand final. And preliminary finals are the purest game you play in.
"Experience from 2004 (against St Kilda) and 2007 (against North Melbourne) tells me, the harder you have it in a preliminary final, the better you will be for the grand final."
Port Adelaide this week throws back to the 2004 premiership triumph against Brisbane. But no AFL flag is won on one day. In Port Adelaide's case there is a tough storyline from the start of the 2001 home-and-away season until ultimate success on grand final day at the MCG on September 28, 2004.
Season 2001 - 16 wins from 22 home-and-away game. Straight-sets exit from finals against eventual premier Brisbane in Brisbane and Hawthorn by three points at Football Park.
Season 2002 - 18 wins from March to August. Lost first final to Collingwood at West Lakes, rebounded at home in a semi-final against Essendon and ultimately eliminated by Brisbane in the preliminary final at the Gabba.
Season 2003 - rinse and repeat, this time with Sydney creating the shock result in the qualifying final at Football Park and Collingwood marking the end in the preliminary final at the MCG.
This storyline defined Port Adelaide. The "choker" theme stuck. And it was carried on the shoulders of every Port Adelaide player stepping onto the MCG on grand final day.
"You think of the effort, the hard work ... and failure of the years before. All of that (pain from 2001-2003) adds to the experience ... and you don't want to fail again," recalls Thurstans who thrived in the grand final with a match-defining three-goal return.
This week is about that 2004 AFL premiership triumph, relived 20 years on from the breakthrough achievement for the Port Adelaide Football Club. But the moment is incomplete without recalling the moment Port Adelaide overcame the "choke" that seemed to be unfolding yet again in the preliminary final against St Kilda at Football Park.
That "redefining" moment in Port Adelaide's chase for glory began and ended with unforgettable heroics from two players.
At the start, Roger James was the lone hand defying St Kilda - the only Port Adelaide player touching the Sherrin during the first 10 minutes while St Kilda loaded up full forward Fraser Gehrig for his 100th goal of the season.
Port Adelaide was very lucky not to have lost James at the start with "friendly fire".
AFL field umpire Brett Allen opened this knock-out final with Port Adelaide ruckman Dean Brogan's tap falling back into the centre circle and feeding a growing and chaotic scrum. James was totally focussed on the ball and blocked a St Kilda rival, Stephen Powell, from an attempt to kick the ball without taking possession. From the members' wing team-mate Peter Burgoyne was moving faster than an Olympic sprinter.
"The first contest is hot," says Channel 10 commentator Tim Lane with a thought that stays for the next two hours. "Roger James is flat on his face in the middle ... he picks himself up slowly. It was his own team-mate Peter Burgoyne who got James to the head. How much stuffing has he knocked out?"
"It's not my greatest memory ...," answers James 20 years later of his most-famous game in 147 at Port Adelaide. "Peter collected me with his hip while he was trying to get out of my way."
James was able to get up, dust himself down and keep doing the Roger James things that made him an invaluable midfielder with too much modesty to stand on a pedestal.
"The ball kept following me," recalls James.
St Kilda opened with 2.2, both goals scored by Gehrig whose second goal sparked the fan invasion to celebrate his 100th goal - and give Port Adelaide the much-needed pause to a game that was at risk of being lost at the start.
"We certainly did not start well," recalls James. "Keep in mind most of my touches are down back - that means we were struggling.
"When the crowd comes on, after Fraser gets his two goals for the 100, we had the chance to start again ..."
Fast forward to the end of that Friday night to the younger Burgoyne, Shaun.
Port Adelaide was holding a six-point lead from that remarkable goal from former captain Gavin Wanganeen in the north-eastern pocket. In the directly opposite pocket, at the golf course end, former Port Adelaide player Brent Guerra was presented a similar opportunity to be a hero when team-mate Nick Riewoldt launched his Hail Mary kick from outside 50 on the outer wing to the southern goal square.
Running onto a bouncing ball in the vacant goal square, Guerra had the golden chance for a match-levelling goal taken from behind him - by Burgoyne's deft (and desperate) lunge at his lower left leg and foot. Then in chasing the spill towards the pocket and increasingly hemmed to the boundary line, Port Adelaide key defender Chad Cornes perfectly tackled Guerra to create the spill for a boundary throw in ... the game was saved.
"It would be a free kick today ...," says Burgoyne of his moment in defying Guerra. Of course, so silky were the skills of Burgoyne and so sharp his game awareness that - had this moment arisen in today's game - he would have found another way to deal with Guerra before that critical test had come in the goalsquare.
During the past two decades the rule book - and interpretations handed to the umpires - has had more changes than swung across the scoreboards at Football Park that perfect September night at West Lakes in 2004.
Burgoyne's lunge at the back of Guerra's legs, with uncanny perception of how Guerra would move, today would be penalised as "prohibited contact - below the knees." Law 18.3.
How the game would have unfolded in extra time after being locked at 94-94 with a "certain" Guerra goal from any free kick is impossible to tell.
But unquestionable is how Port Adelaide was saved by James at the start.
Burgoyne has a clearer memory of James' start than James.
While Burgoyne was charged with a serious lockdown of St Kilda small forward Stephen Milne - holding him to just one behind from one kick - he watched James carry Port Adelaide on his shoulder.
"Roger was the reason we were in the game .. well, we weren't even in the game," Burgoyne said while rolling the vision of the game and scouring the match statistics. "Listen to the commentary ... 'Port Adelaide has just 10 possessions and Roger James has nine of them'. That is ridiculous. There is no doubt that if we did not have Roger standing up for us while St Kilda started so well, we would have been even further down (than 14 points to the forced time-out to get Gehrig off the crowd-invaded field).
"It was a blessing in disguise that Fraser kicked his 100th. We were able to regroup when play stopped."
The team meeting in the centre square - with the scoreboard reading, St Kilda 2.2 (14) to Port Adelaide 0.0 (0) - had one key theme.
"We knew," says James, "we were better than that; we knew we were better than we were playing. We were not playing to our ability."
"We had a fair while to think about it," adds Burgoyne. "To be honest, there was an element of stage fright in that start. As we all remember, there was a lot of pressure on the team through 2001 to 2003 by not reaching the grand final after successful home-and-away seasons. There was a lot of pressure.
"Taking nothing away from St Kilda, particularly when you look at the quality of that line-up that night, we were up against an extremely good team. They put us on the back foot at the start ... and thank heavens 'Jamesy' was there. He kept us in there. He gave us the chance to get back into the fight.
"We regathered, we came out of that break - and responded with four goals, two of them (from captain Warren Tredrea and Kane Cornes) immediately. We were in the contest now."
James thankfully found mates at the restart.
"From that first bounce when the game resumed, we went forward," James recalls. "To get a couple of goals immediately to get the margin down to two points made us feel we were up to the challenge.
"That game goes back and forth. It is a fight from that point. From quarter-time, everyone in our team stepped up to play their part.
"And we needed to. You need luck in finals. That was our grand final that night - and we found something when we were tested the most. We cracked it for mental belief (after three years of failing this test in finals). When you have that belief, you do not want to lose. We were not going to lose after that."
Burgoyne played in nine AFL preliminary finals during his 407-game career at Port Adelaide and Hawthorn. This 2004 edition remains the most intense of the collection.
"It is one of the best games I have ever played in," says Burgoyne. "I was lucky to play in nine preliminary finals. This one in 2004 is the best. All preliminary finals are special.
"This one had so much on the line for Port Adelaide. We knew how emotional this game was, what was on the line for us - it was our last chance to have success (that was achieved a week later in defying Brisbane in the grand final at the MCG).
"I guarantee that everyone in the stands - and every Port Adelaide player that night - will remember James for his first quarter. He was our best player in that preliminary final. He was our best player by far that night."
The 2004 grand final marked the end of an intense four-year rivalry with Brisbane. Port Adelaide won more games (69 of 88 home-and-away matches while Brisbane had a 64-win count); Brisbane won more flags (three to one).
"We were minor premiers for three years in a row; they were premiers for three years in a row," James said. "We probably should have won more than one. But that was a pretty impressive Brisbane side that was in our way.
"Okay, it is disappointing that we did not win more than one flag - but we did win one. We had been building to that goal from the start - and we completed the job," adds James, now living this theme in civil works with earthmoving after being the noted apple farmer at his family orchard in the Adelaide Hills during his playing career.
"Grand finals are the pinnacle of your playing career," notes James. "I am proud of my time at Port Adelaide. We were a successful team. The biggest knock on us was not winning those finals through 2001, 2002 and 2003. We won more games than anyone else during that period. We did win the 2004 premiership. And the memories of the success in 2004 stays with us forever ..."
"My memories are really with the boys who made us such a successful team - a good team to be around. I enjoy every time we get together. We have a lot of memories to share and enjoy."
They will do just that on Saturday afternoon at Adelaide Oval.
