"NEVER ever give up."

When Ken Hinkley boldly scripted a billboard theme during the pre-season to the 2013 AFL season there was no certainty his Port Adelaide squad could live the mantra.

"We had won just eight games (of 44) in the previous two years," recalls key defender Alipate Carlile. Critics and rivals did suggest white flags were hoisted in some of those 36 losses that marked the so-called dark chapter at Alberton.

In the following two seasons, Port Adelaide rebuilt its reputation and relevance in the AFL with 29 wins from 49 matches, including consecutive finals series ... and an extraordinary semi-final in the so-called House of Pain in Perth against the Ross Lyon-led Fremantle. It was some turnaround.

"We went from a team that would die before the last quarter to a group that just would not give up," says Carlile of the attitude that changed Port Adelaide, not just as a team but as a club filled with new confidence and renewed purpose. "But we also put in the work ...."

If any AFL finals performance has greater relevance today - while Port Adelaide prepares for a home semi-final against the resurgent Hawthorn at Adelaide Oval on Friday night - it is that night a decade ago at Subiaco Oval in Perth.

Saturday, September 13, 2014 - as destiny would have it, exactly 10 years later, Port Adelaide needs to once again get out of a vice of its own making.

Port Adelaide has used its safety card - the benefit of the double chance - to stay at Adelaide Oval for a knock-out semi-final after its biggest defeat of the season, the 84-point loss to Geelong in the qualifying final at home placing Hinkley's ambitious squad at a demanding crossroad.

In 2014, it was another extreme.

"We went to Perth," tells Carlile, "riding the high of our elimination final ... we were full of confidence."

That elimination final - the first AFL final at the newly redeveloped Adelaide Oval and the first to feature Port Adelaide in the black-and-white bars - put Richmond into the also-rans of 2014 with a 57-point loss charged by Port Adelaide's eight-goal start after being gifted first use of the northerly wind advantage by Richmond captain Trent Cotchin. That final was done before quarter-time.

Six days later ... Port Adelaide went to the half-time break in deep trouble with a 24-point margin that did not give Fremantle full advantage from its 17 scores on the goal front (for 6.11) while Lyons' noted defensive ways held Port Adelaide to 23 points (3.5). For the second year in a row, Port Adelaide seemed spent ... again, physically and mentally.

"We were not going to be one-year wonders after playing finals in 2013; we were not giving up in 2014," Carlile said. "The expectations we carried as a Port Adelaide team were clear. So was our mindset. We knew we could step up against anyone at any stage in a game. We were not going to give up."

Port Adelaide was in Perth - dealing with Fremantle at Subiaco Oval - for the second time in three weeks after closing the home-and-away series with an eight-point loss ... after a last-quarter charge of 4.3 to 3.1 reaffirmed Hinkley's players were truly capable of finishing games with power.

No-one, as Carlton players did one time at Football Park, was to see a Port Adelaide crew dead on its feet and blowing hard to put oxygen in its spent lungs at the last change.

"We worked bloody hard to change that," says Carlile. "(Fitness coach) Darren Burgess came back to give us a tough pre-season leading up to 2013. But it was not just our bodies that gave us more - we also had a mindset that set us apart from the rest.

"No-one needs to have me explain what Darren Burgess does to change your running ability. He has proven himself everywhere. But we also had more than just the confidence we would outrun opposition players to the last minute of the last quarter ... 

"We had a mindset that we would never, ever give up. That is where Ken Hinkley's leadership was important to us."

Just 47 seconds after the restart of the semi-final against Fremantle a decade ago, Robbie Gray opened the scoring with the first of his four goals in that decisive third term on a Saturday night in Perth.

"Robbie Gray was great  ... he was great in 95 per cent of the (271) games in his career," says Carlile. "Put Robbie aside, he is one player who is like no other.

"That 2014 team was not reliant on stars. There was Robbie. There was the young Chad Wingard doing Wingard things. But for the main, we had guys who knew how to step up when we were under pressure ... we would not give up. 

"No-one could say, if these blokes don't fire, Port Adelaide can't win ... We were not going to rely on anyone. We were not going to fail by waiting on individuals to do things. We worked as a team. There were roles to be played - you could rely on Tom Logan to give everything; we had Angus Monfries and Jay Schulz being solid in their work in attack.

"And we had a good system in defence, a good solid group."

Carlile needed such a system with Jasper Pittard, Jack Hombsch and Matthew Broadbent while he had to deal with Fremantle key forward Matthew Pavlich - and holding him to no goal in that semi-final.

"Again, team system ...," says Carlile of why he won that critical match-up in Perth after Pavlich had kicked two goals in the round 23 clash at Subiaco Oval - Carlile's 150th-game milestone.

"Lining on up on Pavlich was like no other job against a key forward. He was more like a midfielder than a key forward. Athletically, he was naturally gifted. His leading patterns as a forward were awesome. He was strong. He was impossible to match-up on your own. That is why we worked a system to beat him."

The 2014 semi-final is one of the most dramatic examples of the "Never give up" mantra playing out to the fullest.

"We had been in those difficult positions so many times across the two years. We knew if we could get on a roll that our momentum would be hard to stop, even with Ross Lyon working his defensive methods. By three quarter-time (with a two-point lead in Port Adelaide's hands), we had our confidence up ... we were not going to let this one get away from us."

Port Adelaide advanced to the preliminary final against eventual premier Hawthorn at the MCG for a memorable play-off that again was true to the "never give in" mantra.

"There are significant moments in that preliminary final that we would all like again," says Carlile, who watched from defence while Port Adelaide wasted a strong start with a 3.9 opening.

Down by 23 points at the end of the third term, Port Adelaide never gave up - even when 29 points behind halfway through the last term. That mantra demanding no surrender took the preliminary final to the final seconds, with some interesting "non-calls" on possible free kicks, in particular one with Brad Ebert.

"That is the final we did let slip ... and I don't forget it," Carlile said. "There are pivotal moments I remember vividly."

A decade later, Port Adelaide and Hawthorn meet again in a knock-out final, the third between the clubs.

The first was the semi-final that ended Port Adelaide's campaign - by three points - in 2001 at Football Park. The second also had a three-point margin, this time at the MCG in that 2014 preliminary final. The third could be just as epic.

PORT ADELAIDE IN AFL SEMI-FINALS 

Port Adelaide has played seven AFL semi-finals since 1997 with a 3-4 win-loss count and differing storylines in four distinct periods of the club's national league story.

2001: LOST to Hawthorn at Football Park by three points to mark a disappointing straight-sets exit - and that start to the "choker" theme that marked the path to the 2004 premiership.

2002: BEAT Essendon at Football Park by 24 points to - as was hoped at the time - to dismiss the question marks on Port Adelaide in September after the surprising loss to Collingwood at home in the qualifying final. The campaign ended in Brisbane with a hefty loss (56 points) in the preliminary final.

2003: BEAT Essendon again - this time by 39 points - at Football Park after the choke to Sydney in the home qualifying final. Collingwood prevailed in the resulting preliminary final at the MCG. A year later, the choke was over.

2005: LOST in the only Showdown final to bring the premiership defence to an end.

2013: LOST to Geelong at the MCG by 16 points in a strong rebound season after the dark chapter of 2010-2012.

2014: BEAT Fremantle at Subiaco Oval in Perth by 22 points in the trademark "never give up" performance that led to a preliminary final against Hawthorn at the MCG.

2023: LOST to Greater Western Sydney by 23 points at Adelaide Oval.