THE RIVALS

SHOWDOWN XLV. Did Adelaide forward Josh Jenkins' late shot at goal, at the northern end of Adelaide Oval, two years ago clip the left goal post or not?

That moment - with 158 seconds to play in the Saturday twilight fixture - is a contentious tale in the Showdown legend, another that makes the Port Adelaide-Crows derby one of the finest in Australian sport, not just Australian football.

And surprise, surprise - just to prove very little is new in a football club's journey when it reaches the 150-year milestone - that Showdown moment at Adelaide Oval in 2018 virtually repeats how Port Adelaide's first great rivalry began in 1882.

Although the Jenkins goal (or non-goal) can never compare with the fall-out that marks Port Adelaide's first win against the Norwood Football Club during the foundation years of SA football. Jenkins' kick loaded up talkback radio and television panel shows for a few days. But that first win against Norwood set off extraordinary meetings at football headquarters; bad blood in the following Port Adelaide-Norwood clash at Alberton Oval and Port Adelaide's refusal to play Norwood in the third derby of the season because the match was taken from Alberton Oval.

An intense rivalry had its temperature get closer to boiling point during - and long after -that memorable day at Adelaide Oval on May 27, 1882.

Port Adelaide had no wins against Norwood in the previous nine encounters in the new SA Football Association (formed in 1877).

John Watson, Norwood's leading goalkicker in 1882, thought he had scored Norwood's second goal - from an opportunist kick that would have tied the game and prevented a breakthrough Port Adelaide victory.

The Express and Telegraph newspaper picks up the story: "(Watson's kick) immediately gave vent to some of those extraordinary manifestations of delight which are characteristic of footballers, and a yell of 'goal' sent all the Norwoods into the centre of the field.

"Directly afterwards a number of urchins set up a cry of 'no goal' and this appeared to be the umpire's decision. Hereupon a wordy war ensued, the ground was rushed, and there appeared to be an end of the game, as one or two of the Norwoods declined to play.

"The ground of the umpire's decision was that the ball was touched by (Port Adelaide defender George) Gliddon before going through the posts. Certainly from the press box the ball did not appear to go through the posts at all, but it was impossible to judge of this."

Oh, for video review in those days ...

The scoreboard read, Port Adelaide 2.11 d Norwood 1.16 with goals the only scores that mattered for deciding a result in these pioneer days of Australian football.

The SA Football Association, after meeting for three hours on the Tuesday evening after the match, ordered the game be marked null and void - and ordered it be replayed at the end of the year. This did not happen.

After a club meeting on the Thursday, two days after the association meeting, Port Adelaide secretary, E C LeMessurier, wrote to the Adelaide newspapers making the point the SAFA had "no power" to wipe out the win against Norwood. He wrote: "As by its own rules the goal umpire is the sole judge of goals, and his decision, as he informed the association, was 'no goal', the victory must remain with the Ports ...

"... and I have therefore declined, on behalf of my club, to accede to the request to play the match over again."

The rivalry reached another level with the second Port Adelaide-Norwood clash on 1882, at Alberton Oval on July 15. The Norwood players arrived at Alberton, were not granted entry unless they produced tickets and were on their way back to the Alberton Railway Station - before a Port Adelaide stalwart called them back to play the game they won, 3-0.

The SAFA did not react well. The association demanded a "statement of takings in your oval to date" and "until your furnish this association" with such and "an apology for the treatment of the Norwood players" the association declines any more matches to be played" at Alberton Oval.

Immediately, the Port Adelaide-Victorians game was moved from Alberton Oval to Kensington Oval while E. C. LeMessurrier, a club secretary, reminded the SAFA that "all players of other clubs must produce their tickets before admission to the Alberton Oval."

Relationships between the SAFA and Port Adelaide deteriorated to the point that when the third Port Adelaide-Norwood game - scheduled for Saturday, August 19, 1882 - was moved from Alberton Oval to Kensington Oval, Port Adelaide refused to play. And the forfeits continued, putting an end to a promising premiership campaign.

The Port Adelaide-Norwood rivalry became far more intense both on and off the field in the next 15 years - to the point of players being locked in the city watch house for taking their battles from the field to the streets.

From Port Adelaide's 150 years in football, there are many moments that seem to have second and third lives ... as the events of the past three decades prove. 

 

The grand moments behind the five big rivalries in Port Adelaide's 150-year story - Adelaide in the AFL; Norwood, West Adelaide, Glenelg and Sturt in the SANFL - are told in the Archives Collection.

Click here to secure your special part of Port Adelaide Football Club history.

TOP-FIVE MOMENTS AGAINST THE BIG RIVALS

1) ADELAIDE

Showdown I: Port Adelaide 11.17 (83) d Adelaide 11.6 (72) at Football Park.

April 20, 1997 - and Pro Hart painted the first Showdown. His measured brushstrokes took less time than the seven years Australian football waited for this great rematch between Port Adelaide and the rest of South Australian football to settle the events of 1990.

Having been denied the first berth to the AFL - to the hastily formed Adelaide Football Club in 1990 - Port Adelaide waited until 1997 for its entry to the national league. And the first derby delivered in so many ways.

There was the brawl at the southern end between Crows defender Rod Jameson and Port Adelaide full forward Scott Cummings, in which Jameson felt the wrath of the AFL tribunal and his team-mates for not landing a punch despite all his boxing lessons.

There was the defiance of the Port Adelaide team that overcame an injury toll during the match to not be crushed in a Showdown that began with heat at the opening bounce.

And there was the commanding work of Port Adelaide defender Darren Mead, who - with the COVID-19 delays to football this season - must wonder if he will ever get that retrospective Showdown Medal for being best afield in the first derby. Showdown Medals were not awarded before the seventh derby in Round 7, 2000.

In the conversation: Showdown XXXV

History will forever remember that Port Adelaide won 19 of 35 Showdowns at Football Park. And the last, Showdown XXXV in 2013, was remarkable for the goalkicking of 19-year-old Chad Wingard and the bouncing goal from Angus Monfries last quarter after Adelaide seemed to be commanding a winning lead.

As Channel Seven commentator Dennis Cometti said during the replays of the kick that bounced from the left behind post to the right goal post at the northern end of Football Park, "If Pythagoras is watching, explain that."

As a comeback - that finished with the tighest margin in a Showdown to that time, four points - this was true to the Port Adelaide ethos of coach Ken Hinkley: "Never, Ever Give Up".

2) NORWOOD

Anthony Williams game, 1988: Port Adelaide 9.11 (65) d Norwood 7.15 (57) at Norwood Oval.

John Cahill's emotional recollections of this game - in the week of Anthony Williams' death - is one of the moving moments of Port Adelaide's 150th anniversary documentary, Onward to Victory.

Port Adelaide was 23 points behind (6.9 to 3.4) at half-time of a match that was supposed to honour Williams, who had died in the lead-up to the "old firm game" after a wall collapsed on him while working on home renovations.

The second-half fightback - for the eight-point win at The Parade - remains one of the more significant on-field performances in the Port Adelaide Football Club's 150 seasons. It also allowed the Port Adelaide players, as recalled by Tim Ginever, to face the grieving Williams family without any sense of remorse. He and his team-mates had certainly given their best on the field.

Ginever describes the scenes at the Williams' Novar Gardens home after the game as "incredibly emotional".

“Von was incredibly strong; she was just amazing," Ginever says of Anthony's mother. "She grabs my hand and just said: ‘God only takes the best, Tim, that’s why he has taken my son'.

“Then I got to Stephen ... I get to Stephen and I gave him a big hug and I didn’t think he was ever going to give up the hug."

In the conversation: 1980 SANFL grand final

Port Adelaide was dominant in Season 1980 - the first team to crack the 3000-point barrier in home-and-away football; Russell Ebert claimed his record fourth Magarey Medal and full forward Tim Evans rewrote the SANFL goalkicking record books with his 146 goals.

The grand final - broadcast live to a national television audience - was far from simple as Norwood played with confidence built along the month-long knock-out road to the grand final after finishing the home-and-away series in fifth spot, seven wins behind Port Adelaide.

The turning point in this grand final was Port Adelaide teenager Bruce Abernethy catching Norwood rival Graeme Dunstan holding-the-ball, as he played on from a mark from a kick-in after Milan Faletic had scored a behind at the southern end at Football Park. Abernethy's goal was the gamebreaker that allowed Port Adelaide to break to an 18-point final margin.

3) WEST ADELAIDE

1958 SANFL grand final: Port Adelaide 14.10 (94) d West Adelaide 14.8 (92) at Adelaide Oval

After losing to Port Adelaide - and most notably to its one of its own, Fos Williams - in the 1954 and 1956 grand finals, West Adelaide felt it finally had the nemesis sorted. Third time lucky, they thought.

Such confidence was built on the back of Jack Oatey coaching West Adelaide to a perfect 3-0 count against Port Adelaide in the 1958 home-and-away series - by 20 points at Alberton in Round 2 (May 3); five points at Richmond Oval in Round 10 (June 28) and 13 points at Kensington Oval in Round 16 (August 16).

From second position (by percentage to North Adelaide), West Adelaide took the direct path to the grand final by winning the second semi-final against North Adelaide by 26 points.

From third spot, Port Adelaide proved its worthiness by dealing with all three rivals in the finals series - first Norwood (by 45 points in the first semi-final), followed by minor premier North Adelaide (27 points in the preliminary final).

The grand final is remembered for three major moments: Port Adelaide collecting a fifth consecutive SANFL flag; Fos Williams closing his playing career with the last kick of the grand final; and West Adelaide captain Neil Kerley and some of his team-mates chopping down a goalpost at Adelaide Oval to take out their frustrations in losing another close battle with Port Adelaide.

History records West Adelaide ruckman Jack Richardson trying to give his team the lead with a late set shot on goal at the northern end of Adelaide Oval - and his kick hitting the post. Port Adelaide legend Geof Motley says the record books should remember team-mate, ruckman-defender Ted Whelan, pushed the ball onto the post - a view that is consistent with goal umpire "Lockie" Trevorrow's memory of the dramatic finish to the grand final.

As the West Adelaide players had their wake at Ken McGregor's house, Kerley decided to take it out on the goalpost. Taking a (blunt) axe from McGregor's shed, Kerley led a four-man vigilante group to Adelaide Oval, chopped the goalpost and took it back to McGregor's place to use as fuel for a barbecue.

The remains of the post later became a centrepiece of the bar at West Adelaide Football Club.

In the conversation: 1954 SANFL grand final.

Port Adelaide's first of the six-in-a-row flags came from a brutal grand final best remembered for the half-time melee sparked by West Adelaide captain Brian Faehse's solid bump of Port Adelaide centreman Dave Boyd.

Port Adelaide's three-point win - after a dominating second half, including a six-goal third term - changed SA football with team races built at Adelaide Oval during the summer (after the West Adelaide players were unable to return to the changerooms at half-time) and the first painting of the grand finalists' colours on the West End chimney.

4) GLENELG

1990 SANFL grand final: Port Adelaide 16.12 (108) d Glenelg 13.15 (93) at Football Park.

So much to remember ... even after the game from losing Glenelg coach Graham Cornes' loaded speech in the Port Adelaide changerooms and Port Adelaide team runner David Arnfield's response.

Port Adelaide and Glenelg already had overcooked each other's livers with bitter contests on and off the field in the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in the 1982 preliminary final that marked the end of Port Adelaide key forward David Granger's league football career.

But 1990 was the "mother of all wars" between Port Adelaide and Glenelg. It reached the Supreme Court with the Glenelg Football Club's injunction to stop the head-of-agreement between the AFL and the Port Adelaide Football Club for Port Adelaide to be SA's first entry in the expanding VFL-AFL national competition.

The grand final - in Glenelg's eyes - seemed to turn away from Port Adelaide in the second term when full forward Scott Hodges left the Football Park field with a knee injury. His return for the second half - after Port Adelaide led by 24 points at half-time, despite other significant injuries - shocked Glenelg.

Hodges, the 1990 Magarey Medallist, finished the grand final as a hero with six goals - and in the record books. His fifth goal surpassed Rick Davies' SANFL goalkicking record of 151 goals. Hodges' 153 goals in a season remains the SANFL record.

Defender George Fiacchi was best-afield in the 15-point win with the Jack Oatey Medal.

In the conversation: 1977 SANFL centenary grand final

Port Adelaide had been without an SANFL premiership for a record 12 years. The club had endured defeat to Sturt in the 1966, 1967, 1968 and 1976 grand finals and to North Adelaide in the 1971 and 1972 grand finals.

It was one of the toughest and most-demanding grand finals of the 1970s, particularly for defender Ivan Eckermann. The ever-reliable Eckermann suffered a hamstring injury in the opening minutes of the match and - after having his injured leg heavily bandaged - returned as a forward and kicked three goals.

There were a few intense hot spots that flared after heavy physical clashes, in particular Fred Phillis' unprovoked hit on Port Adelaide full forward Tim Evans who finished with seven goals.

Port Adelaide captain Russell Ebert's acceptance speech of the Thomas Seymour Hill premiership trophy after the eight-point win is part of the club's legend: "It's taken a long time ... but by geez, it's worth it."

5) STURT

1936 SANFL grand final: Port Adelaide 13.19 (97) d Sturt 14.10 (94) at Adelaide Oval.

Port Adelaide made a habit of winning celebratory premierships - 1977, with the SANFL's centenary; 1951, with the nation's 50-year jubilee of federation; and 1936, with South Australia's centenary of the proclamation.

Port Adelaide played in seven of the 10 grand finals in the 1930s; six in a row starting with the infamous loss to Glenelg in 1934.

Sturt, after ranking second to Port Adelaide in the home-and-away series, created an upset in the second semi-final by beating coach Shine Hosking's minor premiers by 34 points. Port Adelaide had beaten Sturt by 21 points at Unley Oval and 52 points at Alberton Oval in the first seven weeks of the 17-round home-and-away series (strange programming even in the 1930s it would seem).

The rematch was sealed by Port Adelaide blitzing North Adelaide with a dominating second half setting up a 37-point win in the preliminary final. This triumph should have recharged Hosking's men with confidence. Motivation certainly was not in short supply.

However, the grand final hardly started as a great correction for Port Adelaide. Sturt led by 25 points at quarter-time and 28 at half-time.

Port Adelaide outplayed Sturt for a 7.11 to 3.4 scoreline in the second half - and a memorable finish as Sturt's great spearhead of the era, P. T. "Bo" Morton, completely missed at set shot from 30 metres in the last minute of the match. Port Adelaide back pocket Bobby Meers' work on the mark - that included some verbal advice - was enough to deny one of the game's great goalkickers the chance to kick the winning goal in a grand final. Legend has it that Meers yelled, "Bo, there is something hanging out of your shorts!"

Port Adelaide kept possession of the ball in the final 30 seconds to win by three points.

In the conversation: 1965 SANFL grand final

It was another three-point win against Sturt in a grand final - the one that gave Port Adelaide its 23rd SANFL premiership to surpass Norwood as the league's most-successful club. Captain Geof Motley collected his record ninth premiership. The crowd figure at Adelaide Oval - 62,543 - remains a record for the venue for a sporting event.