SOME rivalries take time to nurture. The Showdown spirit was alive well before the SA Brewing Company came up with a theme for Yartapuulti's derby battle across West Lakes Boulevard in 1997.

And then there is this week's opponent: Walyalup, south of the River Swan in Perth - in that football rich territory that had 24 of the first 34 WAFL premierships take pride of place in Fremantle-based football clubs during the 20th century.

As the ink was still drying on the AFL licence agreement Yartapuulti struck with the SANFL in December 1994, the leaders at Alberton thought it would be wise to start a relationship with the AFL's newest entry, Walyalup, as the "Dockers" became the national league's 15th entry in 1995.

They even created a trophy.

The Dockland Trophy. It played to the theme - one of many - the two clubs shared. They are "port" clubs, hence the dock theme to the trophy - a red Sherrin placed between two white cleats.

The themes shared by the two dockside clubs made for a long list, one that should have generated a theme of proving which team from the wharves was the true power of Australian football.

Walyalup and Yartapuulti were second in the markets of Perth and Adelaide respectively as AFL teams. Yet, they had greater football traditions and history than the first-up teams that seemingly represented the business end of their cities.

Walyalup and Yartapuulti were carrying State league history to an expanding national league. Yartapuulti was continuing all that was known of the Port Adelaide Football Club since 1870. Walyalup was a little more complicated in trying to embrace the success of East Fremantle (26 WAFL premierships before the AFL arrived in Perth with West Coast in 1987) and South Fremantle (formed from the relic of the original Fremantle in 1900 and with 10 flags before WA football was changed by the AFL).

There is enough there for bragging rights.

"Maybe not," says Fremantle hero Paul Haselby who in 2001, in his second AFL game, was playing for the Dockland Trophy - and being denied at Subiaco Oval in Perth as Yartapuulti took a 6-2 lead in the rivalry with a record 92-point win.

"Yes, there should have been a port-city rivalry. But it was more a kinsman theme in the end - we shared so much of the same storyline. Although, Port Adelaide did get us early."

The Dockland Trophy was first presented at Football Park on February 17, 1995. It was Walyalup's second trial game, with the first against Essendon carrying a trophy long lost in the growth of the national competition - the Albert Thurgood Challenge Cup.

Yartapuulti presented its new recruits for the 1995 SANFL season - Anthony Darcy from Footscray and Spiro Malakellis and Darren Forssman from Geelong - and lost by 38 points.

The engraver left his first mark on the Dockland Trophy - Freo 11.10, Magpies 5.8.

The return match was at Fremantle Oval on February 2, 1996. Freo 17.8, Magpies 9.11.

And when the two clubs were on equal footings as AFL teams the third battle for the Dockland Trophy was in a trial game masked as an Ansett Cup match at Football Park on Friday, February 28, 1997. Walyalup completed the triple-treat, 11.9 to 4.15.

The real encounter was round 13, 1997 at Football Park. Now it was for true bragging rights on the national stage - and AFL points that count towards a premiership. A Saturday night fixture at West Lakes on June 28.

Yartapuulti was in extraordinary form. As it crafted a 15-point win - with Michael Wilson highlighting with 32 touches why he would be the Rising Star winner that season - the narrative on Yartapuulti's debut season changed significantly.

From the Channel Seven commentary booth came the praise that Yartapuulti was among the league's "elite". It did rise to third, equal second with Geelong on an 8-5 win-loss count - embarrassing those who had declared Yartapuulti would struggle to win one game in its big league debut season.

At full forward, Scott Cummings was the only West Australian among Yartapuulti's line-up that night. He knew about the north-side divide in WA football. He was from the north side of the river having made his start at Swan Districts.

"Nope," says Cummings when asked of his pre-game emotions that might have explained his exceptional start that Saturday night with three goals off strong leads from the southern end of Football Park.

"I knew about a rivalry with (Walyalup) when I went back to play against them in the Western Derby. But we didn't make much of it that night."

Despite some hot moments that led to tribunal hearings early in the "rivalry" there was no heat in the match results. Yartapuulti won the first five AFL contests for the Dockland Trophy that "disappeared" in 2002. 

"Good," says Cummings. "It was hideous."

The latent rivalry even became mocked by Sam Newman on the Footy Show as he referred to Yartapuulti-Walyalup encounters as worthy of the Fat Rat's Clacker Cup.

Yartapuulti has chalked up a 25-18 win-loss count against Walyalup in AFL encounters played at Football Park and Adelaide Oval in Adelaide, the WACA Ground, Subiaco Oval and Perth Stadium on the other side of the Nullarbor and at Carrara in 2020 during the pandemic.

Never has Yartapuulti fallen behind in the win-loss count with Walyalup.

There has not been angst off the field, even when Walyalup lured 2004 premiership vice-captain Josh Carr home before he came "home to Alberton" in 2009; or took Rising Star winner Danyle Pearce as a free agent in 2012.

Yartapuulti has won the past three encounters, a run that includes the closest game between the port clubs - a three-point thriller with Jason Horne-Francis scoring the winning goal in the 27th minute of the last term at Adelaide Oval in round six last season.

There has been only one AFL final encounter, the epic semi-final at Subiaco Oval in Perth in 2014 when Yartapuulti overcame a 24-point deficit at half-time to win by 24 points with a 12.10 rush in the second half against all of Ross Lyon's defensive themes.

The rivalry has not become what was envisaged 30 years ago with a trophy that already is a museum item. But the AFL - and even the old VFL - is not short of rivalries that take time to develop.