THEY meet every year, have done so - world pandemics allowing - for 10 years now on the Thursday before the AFL grand final in Melbourne.
" 'Ladey' (Brendon Lade) put that together 10 years ago," says Toby Thurstans of the annual reunion of the Port Adelaide 2004 premiership team. "We are still a tight group."
They needed to be from the start of pre-season training, after the Sydney Olympics from late October 2000 considering all they were to go through during the four-year Olympic cycle from 2001-2004. There was a grand test of patience and willpower to win that breakthrough AFL premiership that is celebrated this weekend during the home clash with Brisbane, the constant challenger across that four-season trial to the ultimate victory on September 28, 2004.
"We all have our memories. Each time we meet, someone will fill in a gap of something I have forgotten," adds Thurstans of a day that truly ran for more than 24 hours in Port Adelaide history.
From the night Port Adelaide beat Brisbane in the Ansett Cup pre-season final at Football Park on March 17, 2001 to AFL grand final day at the MCG in 2004 - both finals making history as the first to involve no Victorian team - there was more than 100 games, many more training sessions and seemingly endless angst in September ... until senior coach Mark Williams pulled away that choking tie to release four years of frustration.
Who can forget!
On Saturday at Adelaide Oval, at least 13 of the premiership 22 will gather again. The rest remain heavily tied to the game, including current Port Adelaide assistant coaches Josh Carr and Chad Cornes who are too busy in the present, unlocking the path to another premiership, to relive the past.
But Toby Thurstans along with Dean Brogan, Brendon Lade, Matthew Bishop, Darryl Wakelin, the Burgoyne brothers Peter and Shaun, Gavin Wanganeen, Norm Smith Medallist Byron Pickett, Dom Cassisi, preliminary final hero Roger James, premiership captain Warren Tredrea and Michael Wilson will take their seats for a celebratory lunch at Adelaide Oval on Saturday remembering how 2004 was about more than just the grand final.
For the majority of Port Adelaide fans the last time they saw their eventual premiership heroes was at Football Park on that dramatic Friday night that ended with a hard-earned six-point win against St Kilda in probably the best preliminary final of the AFL era.
"I was nowhere near it that night," recalls Thurstans, who had just two kicks, one mark and put one behind on the scoreboard at West Lakes.
A week is a long time in football - and seemingly longer in grand final week.
"I was very nervous," adds Thurstans of his uneasy mood in a week renown for heartbreak at selection tables. "That is where 'Choco' (Wiliiams) was good in giving us clarity with selection and the game plan on Tuesday. It was comforting to know early that I was playing."
For all the certainty Williams and his astute coaching panel were trying to establish, there were two significant gambles Port Adelaide ran to the grand final - defender Michael Wilson with two bad shoulders and ruckman-forward Brendon Lade with a serious back injury.
" 'Wilbur' (Wilson) spent six weeks running into people with two bad shoulders that needed to be reconstructed after the grand final; he could not tackle," recalls Thurstans. "And 'Ladey' had a bad back. But we did not know he had stress fractures in that bad back ... even so, he was adamant that he would play."
Lade was on the plane on Thursday evening, on the eve of the traditional grand final parade through the city streets of Melbourne - an event the AFL insisted every grand finalist attend after West Coast premiership coach Michael Malthouse sought to boycott arguing it was a hindrance to non-Victorian teams.
This AFL grand final was the first with two non-Victorian sides - true equality at the MCG, although Brisbane was marking its fourth consecutive grand final at the G.
"It is my best memory (of the build-up)," says Thurstans. "This was the grand final parade at the height of parades. They were 15-20 people deep on each side of the streets. I shared a car with Dom Cassisi and loved it.
"It also is the moment you realise how the grand final narrows the focus to two teams. It is quite surreal that you are the centre of attention.
"I remember seeing the premiership cup at the end of the parade. I have a vague memory of us going to the MCG after the parade. And then we are at the team hotel with a good routine established from a fair bit of travelling that we had done.
"Team meeting. Simple philosophy was put to us as to what we would be doing in the forward half of the ground. And then you have a lot of time to think about it when you go back to your room ... I was nervous while I was trying to get as much rest as I could. I was calm that night. I was good at sleeping before most games.
"Grand final day is always harder to describe when people ask me what is it like to play in a grand final. Until you experience it, you will never understand it.
"You feel you are at the centre of the universe. The focus is on you. The pinnacle of your sport is before you. 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. It all increases the intensity ... everything in the lead-up to the grand final affects you on grand final day.
"It is a day of euphoria. You feel super human. You do have a sense of power to run through brick walls. It does not take much to get hyped up. But you don't want to go overboard.
"Some do. Some don't.
"Chad Cornes lived off that energy. So did Dean Brogan who was staring people in the eye and yelling at everyone.
"And then there is Shaun Burgoyne as chilled out as can be. Darryl Wakelin and Matthew Bishop were calm too.
"By the time I get onto the MCG I had to yell to expel a heap of energy. I needed to calm down. That moment you enter the race at the MCG is when you first realise what intensity is trapped inside the ground. You don't hear anything downstairs in the changerooms.
"And this is it ... Showtime. What an amazing feeling. It is goosebumps, hairs on the back of your neck standing up. It's on."
Thurstans played "one of my best games" in his 110-match career at Port Adelaide. His three goals marked a career high (among four games with a three-goal return).
"I can't give you the answer as to why," says Thurstans of his form change after a quiet preliminary final. "The match-up (with Darryl White) suited me. He was a great defender. But he had not played for four weeks and I had three inches on him.
"Our game plan also helped me. We set up the four tall forwards in the plenty of space you get at the MCG. We could isolate to get one-on-one match-ups. I became a target ... and I am very proud that I stood up that day in what I consider what was a consistent year for me; I played every game in 2004.
"From Tuesday, we had a very simple theme. We were going to over-run Brisbane. We knew they were banged up, but they also were going to give everything they had. We just had to stay with them until we could run over the top of them.
"Second quarter was tough. They were scoring (four goals) with Jason Akermanis giving us trouble and that super midfield with Simon Black, Nigel Lappin and Michael Voss ... and Mal Michael and Justin Leppitsch at their best in defence.
"At half-time (facing a one-point deficit) we were calm. We had hung on against Brisbane giving us everything they had. We knew we could run over them in the end ... we just had it re-iterated to us that we needed to take on the game more, we needed to play-on more, we needed to run. We could not kick it long to a contest because that would have played into Brisbane's hands."
Port Adelaide led by 17 points after scoring six goals in the third term and won by 40 points, all true to the plan of over-running the men who had won three consecutive premierships.
History had been made. Port Adelaide had its first national champions since World War I, its first trophy from a competition involving teams from all mainland States and an end to the pain of unfulfilled promise from 2001-2003.
"It would be nice to have the chance to celebrate with another (AFL premiership) team," says Thurstans.
That is a work in progress.
