EVERYONE dreams of being at the MCG in September. Everyone - fans, players, coaches, umpires.
Many lament not being called to the MCG often enough from March to August. As one AFL club commented earlier in the season, Taylor Swift has played more often at the G this year than some teams.
Port Adelaide - by fortunate accident rather than any masterly design from AFL House - was called to the cradle of Australian football on Friday night for a moment that cannot, should not, must not be understated.
The fast-developing Port Adelaide AFLW team - in its third season and 22nd national league game - went to the MCG for the first time ... and won! Convincingly too: Port Adelaide 7.4 (46) defeated the Western Bulldogs 0.6 (6).
This is history in the making.
"It is about as good as it gets ... this is incredible," said Port Adelaide senior coach Lauren Arnell of the "excitement" of playing - and winning - at the MCG. The beaming smile that broke out in that pause said more than the words.
"And any opportunity we get to play at the MCG, we will take."
Everyone would.
Lauren Arnell took a squad made up of women who would have generally seen the G on television. A few would have been there as fans in the past. Now they were the show, on a night when the 100,000-seat theatre of dreams had its atmosphere constantly change while fans with tickets to the AFL elimination final between the Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn filed through the turnstiles.
Even empty, the MCG can be an eerie place for minds that wander to consider all the sporting history from 1956 Olympics, Test cricket, 2006 Commonwealth Games, international football and more that has unfolded on one of the grandest stages of world sport.
But not once were the Port Adelaide players notably distracted as they made history on a night when they had expected to be in the western suburbs of Melbourne, at the redeveloped Whitten Oval. They stayed busy at task of achieving Port Adelaide's second AFLW win in Melbourne, this time at the biggest and grandest venue in town.
Arnell spoke of her players' "maturity" that was tested by the challenge of dealing with a significant change in venue and a demanding need for focus in an arena where it had few, if any, offering support from the terraces.
As the G filled with more and more fans without teal in their seats, Arnell's players put more and more power into the margin growing on the scoreboards keeping count on history.
Early in each of Port Adelaide's three AFLW seasons there is a moment that marks the history books with a significant achievement on the road. Friday night continued the theme.
Season 1 - September 11, 2022 is bookmarked with the draw against Carlton at Princes Park.
Season 2 - September 17, 2023 is the first win on the road, an eight-point triumph against St Kilda at Moorabbin.
Season 3 - September 6, 2024 is history made at the G. Port Adelaide has now conquered suburbia and the big stage in town in Melbourne.
Port Adelaide had a 0-1-4 win-draw-loss count on the road during the club's inaugural AFLW campaign in 2022. It was 1-3 last season. And today the count stands at 1-0 to enhance the hope of continuing the rise in the AFLW rankings (after rising 17th to 15th last year).
Emotions - and anxiety - from the men's campaign being put on a more-demanding path to the MCG for the AFL grand final at the end of the month will (but should not) overshadow what Arnell and her players did for the Port Adelaide Football Club's reputation on Friday night.
The overlap of AFL and AFLW seasons - the former reaching a crescendo; the latter at its start - does create this dilemma. On a weekend when one part of the club has its pride bruised and challenged, another is due praise for marking its first trip to the MCG with victory. It is history in the making ... as Port Adelaide expects.
