1890. For the second time in three years, South Australian and Victorian football officials put up a play-off between the SAFA and VFA premiers to crown the "Champions of Australia".

It was the last season of the umpires throwing up - before bouncing from 1891 - the ball to start the second half ... and of players "kicking off from centre" after a goal was scored.

And Adelaide was still two years from putting up its first statue (Venus, on North Terrace).

South Australia can claim to have the oldest organised Australian football competition in the land - by 17 days on the Victorians. (And the Port Adelaide Football Club was at the table as a foundation member of the SA Football Association on April 30, 1877).

But dates on a calendar are not much for the bragging rights in the seemingly endless battle for superiority between neighbouring states.

No surprise that within 11 years of premierships being won in Adelaide and Melbourne that there would be need for a play-off to decide the Champions of Australia - a game to settle the question of which state ruled supreme in this new Australian game of football.

In 1890, after winning the club's second flag to sit alongside the breakthrough 1884 premiership, it was Port Adelaide's turn to honour SA pride against the Victorians.

One "grand finale" to the football season at Adelaide Oval on October 4 with a Victorian umpire (J.J. "Jack" Trait of Victoria) in charge of the match.

Port Adelaide had - again - won the long-running battle against Norwood for the SAFA premiership. The 11,000-12,000 at Adelaide Oval on August 30 to watch Port Adelaide upset the heavily favoured Norwood (6/4 with the bookmakers) to effectively claim the flag a month before the end of the season marked the biggest crowd to watch a football game (to that time) in South Australia.

Trait, long considered for his fairness as the "best umpire in the land" and with a greater profile than the Premier of Victoria at the time, controlled this game as well (handing Norwood 25 free kicks and 19 to Port Adelaide, for those who like to keep count).

South Melbourne, after winning its third consecutive flag and fifth VFA premiership in 10 years, was with Geelong the first superpower of Victorian football. The “Southerners” were returning to Adelaide two years after the first Champions of Australia series in 1888 was lost in a clean sweep to Norwood across three games at Kensington Oval.

Port Adelaide was to have just one chance to deal with the powerhouse of Victorian football loaded with motivation to restore pride in Adelaide. And the “Magentas” were the underdog considering the dominance South Melbourne had commanded of the VFA in 1890.

No surprise then that one football writer, the unsigned correspondent for the Evening Journal, drew comparisons with "The Ashes" from the Australia-England cricket rivalry to underline the significance of Port Adelaide defying South Melbourne for the first of the club's four “Champions of Australia" titles.

"The 'Ashes' remain in South Australia," was the Evening Journal's cheeky headline to acknowledge the enormity of Port Adelaide's victory in game that played out with a dramatic quarter-by-quarter scoreline (with only goals counting to settle the match).

After a week of warm weather - that had made Adelaide Oval's grass deck hard and slippery - the championship game began at 3pm with 6,000-7,000 fans ignoring the "excessively unpleasant weather" and the "oppressiveness of the atmosphere telling severely upon the players".

The crowd played its part as "every little piece of play on the part of the home team received loud cheers, whilst the successes of the visitors passed in almost silence, save for their own supporters who applauded them". Some things don't change at Adelaide Oval.

Trait did not have an easy day managing a game played in scrimmages.

"Every breach of the rules by the South Melbournes was greeted with loud hoots, while not a few of Mr Trait's decisions against the Ports called forth tokens of dissatisfaction," the Journal recorded.

Port Adelaide played its best 20 and worked a long-kicking game - a tactical play that ultimately decided this play-off.

South Melbourne turned up with a strong line-up, albeit missing its club champion Harry Purdy, versatile rover Peter Burns and goalsneak Jack Barrett but with, as the Evening Journal noted, "some capable substitutes".

At 6-6 at three-quarter time the crown as the champions of Australian football was decided on a mistake - and a goal-to-goal play.

South Melbourne had the first chance to take the lead in the last quarter after working chains of play along the Adelaide Oval wing. That opportunity set up an "easy chance" not converted by Jack Graham. On the rebound, Port Adelaide quickly worked the ball to spearhead and the club's leading goalkicker, John McKenzie.

"A tremendous cheer announced that the home team had secured the lead ... with three minutes to play."

Port Adelaide was Champions of Australia for the first time - and again in 1910, 1913 and with the "Invincibles" in 1914 in the last of these SA v Victoria play-offs before the series was assigned to history by the outbreak of World War I.

Port Adelaide completed this first chapter of "national football" with the best record in the land - four titles from four finals by beating four of Victoria's pioneer clubs, South Melbourne (1890), Collingwood (1910), Fitzroy (1913) and Carlton (1914).

The 1890 triumph marks a tribute to the off-field work of club secretary and future president Robert Cruickshank. A prominent figure in the Port Adelaide district - and a force in football, yachting and rowing - Cruickshank carefully assembled the Port Adelaide team with astute recruiting from Victoria and impressive local talent and then demanded the players prepare strongly to play strongly. This becomes a defining moment leading to Port Adelaide's dominance of SA football from the turn of the 20th century.

As "Retrospect" wrote in the Port Adelaide News and Lefevre Peninsula Advertiser at the end of the 1890 season: "The Port Adelaide Football Club have a lot to thank Mr Cruickshank for ... (he) was always on alert looking after the players."

A century after Port Adelaide claimed the 1890 "Champions of Australia" crown it wanted the opportunity for national glory every year with a place in the expanding VFL. The battle for the first VFL-AFL licence based in South Australia became one of the most-dramatic chapters in Australian football history - and true to SA football sagas, a long-running story that ends in December 1994 with Port Adelaide confirmed as the AFL's second entry from Adelaide.

The reflections on Port Adelaide's 1990 and second-licence battles are recorded in the Port Adelaide Archives Collection by the club's inaugural AFL president Greg Boulton and chief executive Brian Cunningham.  

Boulton was a board member during the first bid in 1990. He was club president as Port Adelaide accepted the SANFL’s invitation to be SA’s second entry to the AFL in 1994. And he was leading Port Adelaide in 2004 when the vision was fulfilled with the AFL flag.

“The AFL wanted Port Adelaide – not because of 1990, but for everything Port Adelaide stood for before and after 1990,” says Boulton in reflecting on the most dramatic battle the Port Adelaide Football Club has ever taken on – and won.

“By 1994, we had established the best business case to be in the AFL. Before that, we had the best historical story of any football club not already involved in the national competition. We also had the people – on and off the field, and in particular as fans – to ensure the future was successful too.

“We had a club. A true club. It was a critical part missing in previous VFL-AFL expansion models." 

You can be among the first to read of Port Adelaide Football Club's story from national champions in 1890 to the national league in 1997 by pre-ordering the Archives Collection - complete with a replica medal awarded to Sampson "Shine" Hosking on winning the 1910 Champions of Australia title.

This commemorative book that chronicles how a juggernaut from Alberton was created and how it became loved and loathed in equal measure.

The limited-edition piece gives members and supporters rare insight into the club's storied history, as the Port Adelaide Football Club History Committee, along with key staff, worked tirelessly to put together a piece that encapsulates every element of the club's rich history.

The collection gives never before seen access to the moments in time that made Port Adelaide Australia's most decorated football club and includes rare photographs, profiles of star players from the club’s 150-year history, and unseen lift out memorabilia including replica player medals, premiership cards, Fos Williams’ coaching notes and so much more.

All of Port Adelaide's True Believers can also be a part of this incredible piece of the club's history, with a special section within the book dedicated to the passionate supporters that have shared the club's journey from the wharves of Port Adelaide to the national stage.

For a limited time upload a photo to be featured in this special section, making the collection the perfect gift to commemorate the club's special place in your life.

Click here to secure your unique piece of Port Adelaide history.