OPENING games carry more expectation than most other home-and-away matches, even if there is no bonus to the four AFL premiership points on offer.

There is all that anticipation - and expectation - built up by a summer of significant gains at the trade table in October, eagerness to see the new draftees called in November and reports of pre-season training delivering a squad that runs faster, hits harder and scores more.

But premiership campaigns are made up of more than one game in March ...

Port Adelaide has won 17 of its 28 home-and-away openers since rising from suburbia to the AFL in 1997, including eight of the past nine (missing out solely in 2022).

From those 17 winning starts, 10 have led to finals appearances in September. And for a reminder that opening round does not always point to a finals run, the record books also recall that in that darkest hour from 2010-2012, Port Adelaide won two of three opening games. There was no September in the dark chapter ....

Since the rise to the national stage in 1997, there have been two season openers that have meant much more than four premiership points.

There was 1997. After seven years of making the case for AFL admission, Port Adelaide was at the MCG playing the league's biggest club, Colingwood. The 79-point defeat was, as they said, the "welcome to the big league" moment that reaffirmed all Port Adelaide faced in advancing from SANFL greatness to finding its feet on the national stage.

And then there is 2013.

Again, Port Adelaide is at the MCG, this time against the game's oldest club, Melbourne. And the build-up to this season-opener - of new hope and new beginnings - is built on three years of frustration, despair and fear. 

Port Adelaide had won a meagre eight of 44 AFL games across 2011-2012 and the dark chapter was awash with red ink from financial crises and blood from the political games between the club's licence owner, the SANFL, and the licence issuer, the AFL. There were many victims, as noted on the morning of the 2012 AFL grand final when league chief executive Andrew Demetriou culled the Port Adelaide board.

A club's name, destiny and status was at risk.

Enter David Koch as the new president. Then Ken Hinkley as senior coach. And a previously underwhelming football program gained new credibility - and strength - with the return of fitness master Darren Burgess and the signing of Alan Richardson as coaching director.

Chief executive Keith Thomas, a survivor from the purge and the football politics, recalls the depth of the change in personnel and attitude at Alberton had created new hope ... and redefined old doubts.

"We entered 2013 with a complex mix of emotions," says Thomas. "We’d endured a calculated, but brutal end to 2012 where much change to the leadership of the club had taken place and we were mourning the loss of 'JMac' (John McCarthy).

"And yet there was a strong sense of change and renewed hope with the arrival of Ken, 'Kochie', Darren Burgess, Alan Richardson and another gun youngster in Ollie Wines to join Chad Wingard who arrived a year earlier. Our goal was to build a better football program and arrive at Adelaide Oval (from Football Park) in 2014 competitive again. Ken and the team delivered in spades ... well beyond our own expectations I would say."

Even with an insider view of the deep change at Port Adelaide, Thomas arrived at the MCG that Sunday morning that closed out March 2013 with uncertainty.

Port Adelaide had been loud during the summer. Hinkley had bravely put his name to the billboard promotions vowing his Port Adelaide team "would never, ever give up" - quite a promise considering the reputation of previous line-ups was to collapse late in games. Carlton players had dubbed Port Adelaide players as "blow fish" for the way they were gasping for oxygen during last quarters ... a theme that was certain to change under a summer of the Burgess ways to training.

Or would it? Even Hinkley admitted later he was not sure his team could live up to the big claims that had been made at Alberton during the pre-season - a theme not lost on premiership coach Michael Malthouse who marvelled at how Hinkley had built new confidence and belief at Port Adelaide.

"It did not matter if it was true or not," said Malthouse. "The Port Adelaide players believed it - and that is all that mattered."

Thomas recalls his uncertainty before the first bounce against Melbourne, a team that had ranked lower than Port Adelaide (16th to 14th) in 2012.

"I was," says Thomas,  "completely unsure. Hopeful, but far from convinced that we were ready to compete.

"What shocked me was the speed we were playing at," added Thomas, a theme that still resonates with experienced coaches such as Malthouse and Ross Lyon. "It seemed to take the competition by surprise. It reflected the attitude of the club at the time - let’s just have a go. It very much reflected Ken’s coaching philosophy."

Port Adelaide won that season opener by 79 points to kick-start a five-game winning streak that was then challenged by a five-match losing run. The home-and-away campaign ended with a 12-10 win-loss count that was followed with two epic finals at the MCG with a win against Collingwood and semi-final loss to Geelong.

That opening game of 2013 redefined the Port Adelaide Football Club on and off the field.

"It created an energy that enabled us to sell the dream of Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval," says Thomas. "We weren’t going to dribble in to the new era, we were going to set the standard. Our on-field wins, and more importantly the exciting style of game we were playing, gave us the confidence to really go for it.

"It sounds easy now…but at the time, there was very little belief in our ability to survive let alone thrive!"