PORT ADELAIDE versus West Coast, 7.20pm on Good Friday. Another first at Adelaide Oval for the Port Adelaide Football Club ...

To add to the list that has: First AFL game at the Oval (v Melbourne in September 2011); first Showdown win (March 2014); first AFL final (v Richmond in September 2014) to follow onto first play-off match to decide a premiership (v Norwood in 1889); first grand final for an SAFL premiership (v South Adelaide in 1898).

This Good Friday game - rematching Port Adelaide with West Coast after their ground-breaking encounter on the Easter holiday at Perth Stadium last year - was to have created fascinating fall-outs, on and off the field. Is it right to play on Good Friday? Would West Coast continue its extraordinary record of five wins from five matches against Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval?

But the history to have been made in Round 4 - like the chance to atone against North Melbourne in Round 3 and the Showdown in black-and-white "bars" in Round 2 - is another lost chapter in the growing consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic that has sport on hold until (at least) May 31.

If there is no new "first" for Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval to preview or review this weekend, the silver lining is adapting the theme built on West Australian connections. There is the chance to look at a first impression made by the Port Adelaide Football Club on a notable Sandgroper in 1957 - and the West Australians who have made a lasting impression at Alberton. 

A jumper to remember

He was eight years old. He was at Subiaco Oval in Perth on Saturday, October 19 to watch the men who had broken the drought for the ambitious East Fremantle in the club's diamond jubilee (60th) season. There was one of Western Australia's greatest players, Steve Marsh, to admire for leading the "Sharks" back to premiership glory. There also was the prospect of finding a new hero, in particular from any of the four East Fremantle players who became All-Australians a year later: Ruckman Jack Clarke, centre half-forward Alan Preen, centre half-back Norm Rogers or the new kid on the block, centreman Ray Sorrell.

And there was Port Adelaide, winners of four consecutive SANFL premierships - and already with a Victorian scalp, sixth-ranked Footscray. As a match-up, this had heavyweight status - the sort of match that ultimately would command this young boy's presence for a different reason later in life.

"I don't remember the game ...," says Dennis Cometti, that eight-year-old who became the much-loved voice of Australian football in his radio and television commentaries before his retirement from Channel Seven's AFL coverage at the end of 2016.

"But I will always remember the Port Adelaide jumper."

Cometti was spellbound. Not by a grand assembly of future All-Australians and Hall of Famers from two proud portside football clubs ... but a guernsey.

"I was eight, saw East Fremantle run onto Subiaco Oval (the weekend after the "Sharks" beat East Perth for the WANFL premiership) in their blue-and-white hoops," added Cometti.

"And then Port Adelaide. I'd never seen a jumper like Port Adelaide's - and I never forgot it. It was the most-imposing football jumper I had seen. It is the best football jumper I have seen."

Those black-and-white bars made such a strong first impression on Cometti that he secured a Port Adelaide guernsey to wear in training during his 38 league games with WAFL club West Perth from 1967-1971 (before the move to Melbourne to spin discs for 3DB and to seek a VFL career with Footscray).

The Port Adelaide jumper also has a significant display point at Cometti's Perth home, in his gym. And this detail might just explain Cometti's enthusiastic remarks before the start of the 2014 AFL elimination final between Port Adelaide and Richmond at Adelaide Oval where - despite its higher ranking - Port Adelaide was forced out of its black V home guernsey by the AFL to avoid a clash with the travelling yellow-and-black Tigers.

"Got to say as a West Australian, I've always regarded that strip that Port Adelaide are wearing today as the best uniform in Australian football."

That end-of-season East Fremantle-Port Adelaide match in 1957 - the battle of the WANFL and SANFL premiers - did not start well for Fos Williams' crew. They fell 33 points behind early and lived up to the club's reputation by fighting back - in an environment where many SA football teams, in particular State teams, had sunk in the Perth sandpits - to win by six points.

But Port Adelaide did lose a player on this crossing of the Nullabor - in a rare concession from club secretary Bob McLean, who had a strong aversion to signing clearance forms.

Named last, with guernsey No. 28, on the Port Adelaide team sheet was new sensation, goalkicking future Test cricketer Neil Hawke. He had played just five SANFL league games for Port Adelaide in 1957 - and put up 27 goals, including a record 15 against South Adelaide at Adelaide Oval in his third league match. During his fifth - and last SANFL league appearance with Port Adelaide - Hawke struggled against West Adelaide defender Neil Kerley and was dropped after Williams restored Rex Johns as the team's spearhead.

This end-of-season trip, in essence, cleared away the issue. At the team hotel, the Savoy, East Perth coach Jack Sheedy took the opportunity to present Hawke an offer he did not resist. In his two seasons and 42 games with East Perth, Hawke kicked 157 goals from centre half-forward and collected successive premiership medals with the Royals against East Fremantle (1958) and Subiaco (1959, while topping the WANFL goalkicking list with 114). He also changed the view on the use of the drop punt kick for long-range shot on goals, particularly after one of his first reviews in the WANFL Football Budget declared: "East Perth must improve (Hawke's) kicking. Drop punts are useless on fine days."

Hawke concentrated on cricket in 1960, returned to Adelaide in 1961 and to SANFL football - with West Torrens - in 1962 to play 33 games (97 goals) to his retirement in 1966 while featuring in 27 cricket Test matches for Australia from 1963-1968.

One "Magpie" - originally from Cheltenham - flew west and never returned to the nest at Alberton preferring to become an "Eagle". The roll call of Sandgropers to make their mark at the Port Adelaide Football Club makes for this week's Easter six-pack.

BEST FROM THE WEST

1) JOSH CARR

If you could have one claim to fame, how is this: 10 Showdowns, 10 victories (plus the bonus win at the Ramsgate Hotel). Drafted to Port Adelaide (from East Fremantle) at No. 7 in the 1998 national draft, Carr had two chapters at Alberton - 105 AFL games from his debut in 2000 to the 2004 AFL grand final and another 19 games from 2009-2010 after making a homecoming move to Fremantle (83 games, 2005-2008) to join his brother Matthew as a Docker.

Carr made a reputation as a determined tagger or checker against some of the game's great players, but his ability to contribute to Port Adelaide's scoreboard was most notable in a head-on-head duel with Brownlow Medallist and Brisbane captain Michael Voss at the Gabba in Round 17, 2003.  Carr kicked 4.1 (while Voss was held to 16 touches and two goals) to make a significant statement in Port Adelaide's remarkable one-point win (with Roger James scoring two behinds in the final three minutes, first to tie the match and then to win it).

Carr appropriately retired in a derby - Showdown XXIX with a 19-point win on a Sunday afternoon in late July at Football Park in 2010.

 2) STEPHEN CURTIS

He belongs in a Hall of Fame - either the SA or WA Football Halls of Fame, if not both. But the humble plumber is one of those classic examples of how grand footballers with two significant chunks of their league careers in two states can be repeatedly overlooked.

Curtis played 215 WAFL league games for East Perth from 1973-1982 with a resume that includes a WAFL premiership (1978), two East Perth best-and-fairest titles (1977 and 1982) and selection as a back pocket in the club's Team of the Century. He also represented WA 12 times, including the inaugural Origin match in 1977 against Victoria. This resume alone should have the WA Football Hall of Fame selectors' notice.

Packing his trademark helmet at the end of the 1982 WAFL season to join Central District, Curtis ultimately moved to Port Adelaide to immediately make the SA State team in 1983 and earn All-Australian selection that season - from his one and only appearance in the SA guernsey. He played 125 league games with Port Adelaide from 1983-1988.

 3) DOM CASSISI

Sometimes a player's contribution to his football club cannot be measured in games played, best-and-fairest titles won or premierships - no matter how deserving of such honour. Dom Cassisi proved just how important the Port Adelaide Football Club can be to even young men who do not grow up in the Port Adelaide community.

Cassisi's stoic leadership of Port Adelaide through the "dark chapter" from 2008-2012 held together a playing group that week after week was dealing with issues that would have made less-committed players seek new homes.

Cassisi joined Port Adelaide at pick No. 50 in the 2000 AFL national draft from WAFL club East Fremantle. He played 18 AFL games (all in 2002 and 2003) as he served his apprenticeship while Port Adelaide coach Mark Williams was building an imposing premiership contender from 1999. Nick Stevens' ill-timed exit from Alberton at the end of 2003 opened a wing for Cassisi to call his own to the 2004 premiership triumph.

Appointed captain in 2009, Cassisi played 228 AFL games to his retirement in 2014 when Port Adelaide returned to Adelaide Oval - and he always will be remembered for the match-winning goal against Geelong at Kardinia Park in game No. 103 in Season 2007.

 4) CARL FRAGOMENI

Bob McLean once sat patiently in the East Perth Football Club lobby to give the message he was not leaving until he had the player he wanted - Carl Fragomeni. It was the end of the 1972 season in which Fragomeni had made an impression as the back pocket in East Perth's premiership side.

After 48 WAFL league games in four seasons, Fragomeni was at Alberton where he played 128 SANFL league games for Port Adelaide to his retirement in 1979. A fan favourite for his uncompromising approach to defence, Fragomeni missed out - by injury - in the club's two premiership sides (1977 and 1979) from his era.

The case for premiership medals for a squad rather than just the 20/22 on grand final day has more merit on taking into account the contribution Fragomeni made to Port Adelaide's campaign to end a premiership drought in 1977 and to then dominate from 1979.

And who will ever forget that moustache!

5) JARRAD SCHOFIELD

Another of the successful early AFL recruits from West Australia, Jarrad Schofield joined Port Adelaide during the 1998 trade period when new coach Mark Williams opted to move on another West Australian, 1997 (inaugural AFL club) leading goalkicker Scott Cummings.

Schofield had played 63 AFL games with West Coast (1993-1998) after being the 49th call in the 1992 AFL national draft. He became an important part of Williams' midfield mix, particularly with his speed and ability to work the ball from defence, and a Showdown Medallist (2002). His 131 AFL games for Port Adelaide that ended with the 2004 grand final triumph against Brisbane.

Schofield returned to WA to become one of the few players to carve out AFL careers at both West Coast and Fremantle (12 games in two seasons). He returned to Port Adelaide last year as an assistant coach after an impressive coaching debut with WAFL club Subiaco (three premierships).  

6) JACOB SURJAN

Anyone handed the No. 9 jumper (worn by the late Anthony Williams) has earned respect at Port Adelaide. Jacob Surjan started in No. 39 after being the No. 10 call in the 2004 pre-season AFL draft (from South Fremantle), was handed the No. 9 guernsey in 2007 - and was a passionate midfielder-defender as the players stood firm at Alberton during the "dark chapter" from 2008-2012. He also was vice-captain (along with Dean Brogan) to Dom Cassisi in 2010.

Surjan played 121 leagues games (23 in No. 39 and 98 in No. 9) to his retirement in 2012 and stayed at Alberton as a development coach before following Josh Carr to SANFL club North Adelaide where he is the senior coach this season.

Recall the tales of many more Port Adelaide legends in the club's Archives Collection. Marking the club’s 150th year, the collection chronicles the Port Adelaide Football Club's story from a pioneer sporting club in 1870 to one that never stopped reaching for greatness regardless of the challenges (as noted with the club's move to China).

The limited-edition Archives Collection gives members and supporters rare insight into the club's storied history, as the Port Adelaide Football Club history committee, along with key staff, have worked tirelessly to capture the club's rich history.

Click here to secure your piece of Port Adelaide history.