It is like going home.

And how the place has changed.

Then, in 1979, it was a desk by the front window of the modest house that marked the Port Adelaide Football Club offices on Queen Street flanking Alberton Oval. Now, there is the Allan Scott Power Headquarters on the other side of the club's spiritual home.

Then it was a typewriter ... and a pencil to update the record books and weekly statistic sheets. Now, we are in a digital age of laptops, spreadsheets and computerised data banks.

Then it was the hard copy Magpie News, usually monthly in-season. Now, there is a website, social media in a 24/7 world and a progressive-traditional club that prides itself on its strong (and noted) connection with its fans.

Then it was coach John Cahill offering the sage advice, "Call it as you see it." That is not to change insists club president David Koch.

So it is back to where the heart is; and always was. It is home.

For all the change, one constant remains: "We are Port Adelaide."

It has been the Port Adelaide Football Club since early May 1870. For 150 football seasons in leagues that keep changing their names, size and looks.

A club is made by its people. So who are we? What makes each of us understand "the Port Adelaide way" while others - the them in the "them and us" that also has defined Port Adelaide for so long - react with such a telling blank look?

In 150 years there are so many ways Port Adelaide has changed - and changed each of us who make up the "we" in Port Adelaide. Different colours. Different jumpers. Different leagues. Different homes. But always Port Adelaide.

There is the Port Adelaide story, since 1870. And there is our Port Adelaide story, since a date that marks our blessing that can bring out envy in so many others. No two storylines are the same, yet there is a common feeling along whichever road leads to the spiritual home at Alberton; whatever march is taken to the grand meeting ground at Adelaide Oval.

It becomes, as the "them" would say, the "badge of honour" that defines Port Adelaide's people. It is of savouring success - and always wanting more. Craving to be the best - and forever wanting to be better. Never lacking imagination to be different, regardless of tradition, history or the constraints of others.

This is one of those stories - with its lessons of being "Port Adelaide" - since 1963.

Of standing on your father's shoulders at the northern end of Adelaide Oval for the best view of Port Adelaide's grandest games at the end of the golden era ... and being too young to remember the moment the siren that marked the club surpassing Norwood as the most successful in SA league football. But you want to remember when Geof Motley collected his ninth premiership in 1965 with a smile while grown men around you cried.

Of sinking in the mud in the north-eastern pocket at Alberton Oval in the late 1960s when the line-up of black cabs on Brougham Place carried for half a mile at half-time a battalion of men to the line-up of filled beer glasses at the front bar of the Alberton Hotel. And the ever thoughtful Peter Brien would have that glass of lemonade and raspberry cordial for the kid who just wanted to know the story captured with the strokes of an artist's brush on the wall at the eastern end of the bar by a mural dedicated to Port Adelaide's six-in-a-row triumph from 1954-1959.

Of breaking the Savings Bank of South Australia money box to count the money needed for the train ride to the Black Diamond Corner and to buy that wool black-and-white jumper, with those distinctive white bars ... and having enough to also get a number for the white panel on the back of the guernsey. How do you choose one hero from so many champions?

Of rushing over that steel fence at Football Park as a 12-year premiership drought ended with the 1977 SANFL centenary premiership ... and knowing just why some long waiting games are "worth it". Those words from Russell Ebert kept echoing, particularly after the seven-year wait to be in the AFL from 1990-1997 and again in those seven years to be national champions in 2004. They seemed more memorable and meaningful than hearing Neil Armstrong speak of small steps for man on the moon.

Of sitting behind the southern goal at Alberton Oval a year later as Sturt great Paul Bagshaw kicked 10 goals - six across 10 minutes in the second term while often standing unmarked in the southern goalsquare ... and not leaving until the nightmare was done. To truly appreciate the joy of victory, you also have to know why you detest defeat. And you always live with that promise of your team never giving up ....

Of telling your parents in the mid-70s - after they thought it was better to buy a place in the eastern suburbs rather than renovate a federation house at Alberton - that you hope they enjoyed it in "Norwood territory". And then, 12 years later, you move to the other side of the world. It is true, you can take the boy out of Port Adelaide, but Port Adelaide never leaves you. If only there was live streaming to be able to watch the 1988 SANFL grand final win against Glenelg while rolling from one side of Seoul to the other during the Olympic Games.

Of waiting in the late 1970s on the footpath on Brougham Place - no longer lined with taxis, but still the sales point for the man with the pies and pasties in a tray covered with hessian - as Tim Evans lined up the Kookaburra for another goal at the northern end of Alberton Oval. Not all those footballs were kicked back over the fence ...

Of stepping inside the ropes in the early 1980s to understand - as Fos Williams had ensured with his creed of 1962 - just how Port Adelaide would never compromise in its chase for victory on and off the field. "Any club worth its salt will clean out its no-hopers ..." and there was "Big Bob" McLean with his dry, cutting way to deal with reality rather than live with false hope.

Of watching from afar as Port Adelaide sought to take the game of Australian football forward in 1990 by ending the impasse on the growth of a national league. And seeing from close hand how Port Adelaide fulfilled its destiny to be an AFL club with the same rigour that defined the repetitive premiership victories. Such dominance ensured the national competition was complete with SA's most-successful sporting club. Never take anything for granted. Work harder than others. Garner the strength of all your club.

Of admiring - amid the cyncism from the "them" crowd - as Port Adelaide president David Koch threw on the agenda at the season launch at Adelaide Oval in 2014 the prospect of a pre-season game in Macau, China. Then, as only Port Adelaide could do - turning this concept into an AFL game for premiership points in Shanghai in 2017, after getting the prime minister to put this on the AFL agenda. It is the "Port Adelaide way" - see no limit to any objective. And so the first game for premiership points outside Australia and New Zealand came to be.

Of believing for the past thirty years - no matter what test was put before Port Adelaide on and off the field - no-one will tear apart a football club and its people. We are Port Adelaide. We are defiant. We are ambitious. We are never standing still. We are proud. We admire the boldness Port Adelaide has carried from century to century to be the best among the best.

We have come to this 150th anniversary in different ways, but with one unifying goal - to be Port Adelaide forever. It is the Port Adelaide way. 

And it is nice to be home.