SO the party is delayed ... but it is still fashionable to be late, correct?

Australian football's hold until at least May 31 does put a dent in the Port Adelaide Football Club's 150th anniversary celebrations. And there is a fair bit more on the agenda today than playing an AFL game - such as the one everyone was eagerly anticipating this weekend: Showdown XLVIII (48) with Port Adelaide in the black-and-white "bars" at Adelaide Oval.

But not all is lost (and let's hope this holds true at a time when everyone, not just the 18 AFL clubs, is fighting a battle for survival like none seen before in Australia).

If, as we all hope, Australian sport resumes in June there will be significant first-up moments from 150 years ago for the Port Adelaide Football Club to acknowledge.

May 24, the date used during the centenary celebrations in 1970 to recognise the club's first game, is now known to be wrong, all by a lack of detailed records from the 19th century and some typographical errors in some early newspaper accounts in the 1920s.

All of Port Adelaide's significant on-field moments in the inaugural year of 1870 are from late July, allowing the 150th anniversary celebrations to remain a beacon of optimism within Australian football's much-wanted revival later in the year.

FIRST GAME: July 30, 1870. This falls on a Thursday in 2020 - and can easily work into a new-look fixture built on playing another 16 home-and-away games this season.

FIRST HOME GAME: August 20, 1870. This also falls on a Thursday in 2020.

THIRD GAME (and last competitive match): September 10, 1870. This completes the trifecta of  potential blockbuster Thursday night anniversary events in 2020.

There is, if all prayers are answered in the next two months, grand occasions to celebrate with the black-and-white bars jumper first worn in 1902, the original blue-and-white hoops guernsey of 1870 and the 2004 AFL grand final strip worn as the club claimed its first national league title.

Port Adelaide Football Club  chief executive Keith Thomas - who has far more than a 150th anniversary party to save as the COVID-19 crisis grips Australia - notes the club already has successfully presented two key pieces of the 150th celebrations. The new logo - with the new theme of Proud Past, Bold Future - was launched in the heart of Port Adelaide in late October. And the 150th gala event at the Adelaide Convention Centre in late February will be remembered as one of the club's greatest off-field events.

Showdown XLVIII is lost, temporarily. The "birthday game" - against Carlton at Adelaide Oval on May 2 - can be recreated, if all goes well, in late July. Unfortunately, an epic Anzac Round clash with the Western Bulldogs at Adelaide Oval on Saturday, April 25 cannot.

And there is the Archives Collection - the biggest and most-detailed account of the Port Adelaide Football Club's 150-year story - to be launched at the appropriate time.

Unlike the club's 50th anniversary in 1920 and the centenary in 1970, the 150th anniversary clears away one of the club's grand lament - as noted by Port Adelaide great "Big Bob" McLean in 1970 - "that a lot of the club's early history and records are not complete".  

Now we know that in May - on Saturday, May 14, 1870 - the Port Adelaide Football Club had its first practice game (rather than its first competitive match) at Buck's Flat, the Glanville home of the club's first president John Hart jnr.

"Opening football practice" club secretary Richard William John Leicester called the game that started at 3pm. Sadly, no record of the match has been found.

On Friday, July 15, 1870 the Adelaide newspapers carried this important notice:

Taking on an opponent for the first time in this new game of Australian football is indeed important business.

On July 30, 1870, Scottish-born John Wald led the first Port Adelaide Football Club team into a match - against the new city-based team of Young Australian at the North Parklands. He scored the club's only goal in the 1-1 draw.

All of Port Adelaide's significant "first" games have been on enemy territory. First game - in the parklands that the Young Australian players called home. First SA Football Association match - at Kensington on May 12, 1877 (for a 3-0 win against Kensington). First AFL game - at the MCG against Collingwood on March 29, 1997 (for a 79-point loss).

Port Adelaide's first home game - at Buck's Flat at Glanville - ended in a 1-1 draw against Young Australian.

The competitive season closed on September 10, again in the North Parklands, for a 2-0 loss to Young Australian.

The inaugural year concluded with an internal - Blues v Whites - at Glanville on Ocotber 1, 1870 with the Port Artillery Band playing.

Season 2020 is - with all optimism - tracking to be a true repeat of Port Adelaide's first season in which all the significant events happened from July-October. Let's hope history is indeed allowed to repeat.

These milestones and achievements are lauded in the Port Adelaide Football Club Archives Collection.

You can be among the first to read all of the Port Adelaide Football Club's story since 1870 by pre-ordering 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.

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