RECORDS are meant to be broken. Russell Ebert lived through an era of South Australian football - perhaps its best during the 1960s, 70s and 80s - when records seemed to tumble weekly.
Ebert had the statisticians and historians repeatedly reaching for erasers to rewrite the record books. Those four Magarey Medals - 1971, 1974, 1976 and 1980 - remain in South Australian sporting annals in the same way cricket has Don Bradman's batting average of 99.94 as the Everest peak.
When Ebert played his last game for the Port Adelaide Football Club - the SANFL minor round closer against Norwood at Football Park - to leave the club's all-time count for games played at 392, the expectation was to mark the record books in ink.
No-one would surely touch such a grand achievement that certainly would have crossed the 400-game threshold had Ebert not spent the 1979 season proving his worth to VFL critics with his ultra-consistent season at North Melbourne under Ron Barassi.
If there was a player who could come close - such as Craig Bradley - he would be taken to the bigger fields in Melbourne, just as Bradley was by Carlton.
Who was to know Port Adelaide, as a football club, would follow to the expanded VFL as it became a national competition?
Today, the player who best lives to the ideals held by Ebert, both on and off the field, will this AFL season equal and rewrite the record books at Alberton and most probably take the games record at Port Adelaide beyond 400.
Travis Boak is at Everest's summit.
The rise to Ebert's record will - and has - surprised some, including Ebert's son Brett who played alongside Boak during his 166-game, nine-season AFL run at Port Adelaide.
"I saw a graphic on television at the end of the (2024) season," recalls Ebert, "when everyone was asking if Travis would play on. It said that he was on 371 games ... and he would need to play 21 games to get the record ..."
Not so.
Officially - as recognised by SANFL rules, AFL protocol with life membership honours and the club itself - Boak has represented the Port Adelaide Football Club in 391 competition matches. There are 371 AFL premiership games and 20 official competition matches from pre-season tournaments such as the Ansett, Wizard, NAB et al cups.
Ebert's record has 367 SANFL premiership matches and 25 games from competitions such as the Ardath, Sterling and Escort cups, those night games played in the pre-season and during the winter at a fog-covered Thebarton Oval.
The record is to be equalled in Boak's first AFL game this season and rewritten in his second. And this has been painstakingly checked again and again by Port Adelaide Football Club chief executive Matthew Richardson.
"We have had the AFL go through the numbers, our history committee, our life membership and awards committee, our club's senior guardians in Brian Cunningham and Jim Nitschke," says Richardson.
"It is important we recognise this club record in the same way it has been applied since the Port Adelaide Football Club began in 1870," added Richardson.
"The club - and SANFL - recognise Russell Ebert played 392 competition matches for the Port Adelaide Football Club ... and a few more in pre-season games that are not counted in the record because they were non-competition matches. The count is 367 league games, 25 cup matches and a total of 392.
"The AFL with its life membership records recognise Travis Boak has played 391 official matches for the Port Adelaide Football Club. The record has not changed with his two AAMI Community Series matches this pre-season because they are not competition matches.
"It is important the Port Adelaide Football Club applies the same counting method with Travis as it did with Russell and every player who has represented the Port Adelaide Football Club in an official game - as we have across the past 70 years while the record has passed from Dave Boyd to Geof Motley to John Cahill to Russell Ebert ... and soon to Travis Boak."
Ebert claimed the record from Cahill in his 265th match - in the SANFL during the late 1970s. Almost half a century later, Boak will take the record from Ebert - in the AFL.
"The record recognises games played in the most senior team at the Port Adelaide Football Club - regardless of the competition, be it SANFL, AFL or whichever cup series we competed in," Richardson said. "Everyone at the club, the Ebert family and the AFL agrees that is how the record should be counted."
Boak's record-breaking moment - and the national attention it will draw - again will underline that the Port Adelaide Football Club has a history that dates to its foundation date in 1870 rather than its AFL entry in 1997.
"That is the norm for us at the club and only questioned by some on the outside," said Richardson. "This club has a proud story from 1870, a history built on success in South Australian football that drove our rise to the AFL. This moment with Travis Boak equalling and rewriting Russell Ebert's club record should highlight the club's total history.
"This is a significant moment for our football club. It is an important milestone. It is symbolic of the Port Adelaide Football Club - and the strength of two remarkable players and two outstanding individuals who have put club before themselves in all of their moments as Port Adelaide players."
And how will Port Adelaide celebrate such a significant moment?
"If you think back to how we recognised Travis's 300th league game," says Richardson, "we will not be short of that when we celebrate the 392 record becoming 393."
Ebert has a statue at Adelaide Oval. And Boak?
"We do have Alberton Oval being transformed," says Richardson. "There is great scope to recognise the greats of the Port Adelaide Football Club - and Travis Boak certainly is among those legends."
